Your most recent welding pics

[gofer]

my local guy has a 80 minimum i friggin HATE it... and its for stuff that literally does take him 10 minutes, brand new BEP housing flapper for instance. 80 dollar minimum. so im like screw it haha, but he is giving me lessons also and letting me use his equipment until i get the miller under wraps. Still sucks though.

I'm fortunate to have a local (he's actually 45 minutes away) that's reasonable and charges for the job, not really a minimum. It's Yoshifab, the guy who made A. Brilliant's roll cage in his Spyder when he was shooting for the land speed record. He made me a one piece UICP using my existing VRSF piping and some scrap he had, it cost me $25 including the cost of the scrap he had.

I'm going to miss having him within driving distance when I move the end of this month to AZ but, guess who's closer? boostedinaz, one of our sites Wisemen, who works at Precision Chassis Works. I see a 8pt cage in my future and I'll have a garage that can support a area to weld, hopefully I can learn a thing or two while it's getting done so I can become self sufficient and charge others a minimum amount.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

I see a 8pt cage in my future and I'll have a garage that can support a area to weld, hopefully I can learn a thing or two while it's getting done so I can become self sufficient and charge others a minimum amount.

That sounds like a good idea to me, what part of az? My parents have a winter place
In scottsdale maybe ill drive
My dizzum down there one time

 

[gofer]

Gilbert which is 30-45 minutes South of Scottsdale.

 

[turboglenn]

my local guy has a 80 minimum i friggin HATE it... and its for stuff that literally does take him 10 minutes, brand new BEP housing flapper for instance. 80 dollar minimum. so im like screw it haha, but he is giving me lessons also and letting me use his equipment until i get the miller under wraps. Still sucks though.

damn, 80 minimum is high, but back when i had shop space rental to think about i can say if i had the business coming through that would have build if the shop was still there, i probably would be in that area, store front is 90% of making a retail based business grow!

Also, onmy minumums, the more you come back and the more i know you're just gonna show me what you need, and let me do it MY WAY, then the less that minimum applies.. I've got guys that come so often (or did beforetheir girls got knocked up and such) that it just got to where i knocked out what they needed and they handed me money that we both considered fair, i neverreally had to name a price with good customers, they knew what it was worth to them based on my rates over time (that is the best business for an easy day of no stress, not the best for proffit though)

I have been doing an ok amount of welding lately at my new job and haven't been able to grab any pics.
This is some crappy stainless that had to have no warpage so I clamped the crap out of it. This is using a Lincoln 275, I use the dynasty 350's we have over that stupid Lincoln any day but didn't have that option today.

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love my dynasty!!!!!! Your welds look good, but the undercut in the start and stop on that piece shows yuou came in too hot, stainless hates heat too, YOu ca do a lot less clamping with strategically placed tacks and using only the amount of heat required, if that was at 125 amps (guessing based on looks of material thickness) you could have probably started at abhout 90 and ended at 60 (pedal feeding), but at least you didn't cook the chromium and nickel out of the SS (alot morethan i can say for some people )`

 

[Calan]

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That's freakin' awesome!

I WANT ONE!

 

[92tsiawdguy]

Built all this for a friends rotated gt35r setup. (up pipe, downpipe, all intercooler piping)

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[Imback]

Not to bad. We need a close up of the welds.

 

[nitrouskris]

more pics on the way

Cage porn - its work safe

 

[Archer Fabrications]

thought id contribute, this is using a lincon 200ish little guy not sure of the exact model, with green tungsten.

what you guys think, this was my first day doing aluminium since 2004 in highschool. they started off crap getting used to the foot pedal again, but this was all with in 2 hours. im only showing you guys the goodish ones though

my welds look better then some on my VRSF FMIC...

 

[deflator]

A little OT, but what kind of cash outlay gets you started in welding? $500?

Also for power, do you need a 240v outlet? I don't think my house's electrical is up to it, it's an old 50-amp service.

 

[gofer]

Usually it's a 220v outlet and if you've got a washer/dryer or A/C unit you've got 220v to your house. This is the cheapest way to get your foot in the door and begin welding, I wouldn't recommend it but my buddy has one and it does the job.

Harbor Freight Welders

 

[Gamble97]

I just posted up a tig/stick welder for $500
Depends on what you want to do.
Figure stick welder can be anywhere from $80-$300+. Add in some rods ($10-$50 depending on what kind, how many) and add in a helmet ($50 on cheap, $200 on the nice side) and then add in gloves ($10-$20)

Flux welder doesn't use gas so you can get a harbor freight one for $99-$199 ish
Mig with gas. $400+ regulator, argon/co2 tank (depends on your local stores, figure $200ish)
Tig welder. $500 for a cheap new everlast. $800 for eastwood. My miller is a budget one, entry model and was $1800. Plus consumables, and other odds n ends, probably $2k at least. Scrap metal gets expensive depending on where you buy from.

It all depends on what you want to do. These are new prices also. And the 3 tig machines listed will work on 110v and 220v. That is why I got mine, because I only use 110v.

So what kind of welding would you like to do? Stick is obviously the cheapest. I'd say mig is the easiest one to learn. Tig is the most expensive, probably the most fun and the hardest to learn.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

miller diversion 180 inverter FTW 115 and 240 compatible!

 

[CODE4]

2" sch40 304 steam line socket welds.

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[Calan]

A little OT, but what kind of cash outlay gets you started in welding? $500?

Also for power, do you need a 240v outlet? I don't think my house's electrical is up to it, it's an old 50-amp service.

I've been running my little Eastwood TIG on a simple 20 amp, 110v outlet for weeks now welding aluminum, and it works fantastic. I've been meaning to try it at 220v, but if it ain't broke...

These were welded on it:

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Total outlay was just shy of $1k. One of the best investments I've ever made, bar none.

 

[Gamble97]

Calan, are those your welds or someone else's using your machine?

 

[Calan]

Calan, are those your welds or someone else's using your machine?

A little of both.

The ones you see there aren't mine (unfortunately); my welds are all on the internal parts that are tucked neatly out of view. I have a buddy here that does all of the external welds, since I can't weld aesthetically at the level I demand for anything done for other people. One of these days though!

I can lay a bead like that...but it comes after 2 or 3 that look...well... not like that.

 

[gofer]

I can lay a bead like that...but it comes after 2 or 3 that look...well... not like that.

I know I can laugh at that now but this time next year when I start welding myself you'll have the last laugh. I like that quote though, I wish you could make that your signature.

 

[Black Widow97]

Damn, some of you are crazy good welders. I used to be alright at stick and MIG, But it had been 8 years since I welded last before I welded my radiator support on. It didn't turn out bad, but definitely not as good as some of these.

 

[Calan]

I know I can laugh at that now but this time next year when I start welding myself you'll have the last laugh. I like that quote though, I wish you could make that your signature.

I've been sticking steel together with a MIG for years (around the house lawn-mower repair type stuff), but I had never tried TIG welding until a few months ago. There is quite a learning curve that I didn't fully expect; starting off with aluminum didn't help, but I figure if I can master that, other materials should be a bit easier.

Although I consider myself "decent" at it now and I get lucky once in a while with a nice bead, these parts are too damn expensive to be taking a chance with until I'm WAY more consistent. Smart money says to do what I do best, and leave the serious welding to the guys that do that best.

 

[Imback]

Will upload the close up of the welds a little later but this is semi recent.

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[spyderdrifter]

Since I've broken 2 of these shifter assemblys in the past, I decided to have a friend weld one up stronger. Good thing I had it done, the assembly on my current spyder is already cracking in the same place.


Also taking my newly rebuilt aluminum lining for my passenger airbag location to him on Thursday to have the sides welded on. Will post pics of that when it's done.

 

[____Kurt____]

love my dynasty!!!!!! Your welds look good, but the undercut in the start and stop on that piece shows yuou came in too hot, stainless hates heat too, YOu ca do a lot less clamping with strategically placed tacks and using only the amount of heat required, if that was at 125 amps (guessing based on looks of material thickness) you could have probably started at abhout 90 and ended at 60 (pedal feeding), but at least you didn't cook the chromium and nickel out of the SS (alot morethan i can say for some people )`

Those dynastys ( 3 brand new fully loaded) that my job just got are the best things ever! The funny part is my job dropped over 30K on 3 of these things and everyone in the shop only knows how to tig mild steel frames on basic settings, they don't even know how to sharpen the damn tungsten properly and it shows how on a sheet included with the welder . The wireless foot pedal is sweet but I always forget to pick it up when I'm moving the welder around ha. Yea that weld had to be flush on top and ground down which would explain the undercut because I didn't want to grind it down out of laziness. Ill get some pics of more welds and some out of position welding I have been doing lately with a finger control. It was 1/4" by 2" I don't know how many amps I was using, I just set the amps at 200 and use what I need for a lot of things. I never know you could cook the alloys out of SS, any pics?

 

[WIDSM]

Temporary mounting tabs for the afco radiator.

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Building some new 3in ic piping

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[turboglenn]

Here's a few of the things I did last night. Some of it's pretty ghetto as i was just trying to lengthen my press for transmission work and the other is my first attempt at welding an eclipse center diff (half o it anyway, i did it jigged in a VC and am doing the other half jigged in a partially assembled trans (i have a good diff on it's way or i wouldn't have welded this one )

The press extension was done with ER308 SS rod asthe material is SS as well

The diff was done with ER70s-2 since the materials are unknown to me but i am sure they are not stainless

The last few show how i made the special tool for holding the trans to tighten the end nuts, I plasmacut the center out of a shot OEM friction disk and cleaned it up on the lathe before welding it to a 1/2" drive 1" socket

NOt much for examples but all i've really done lately and taken pics of

the tool wasdone with ER309L since the tool was stainless andthe disk material was unknown but cut like stainless or some other hard metal

EDIT: damn the picquality sucks ass!!!