My Pictures

Since I couldn't find a good welder locally, or at least not one I could afford who had time for my little projects, I decided that I needed to learn how to weld. I bought a couple books on welding and spent quite a bit of time agonizing over what kind of welder to get. Eventually I settled on a TIG because I wanted something relatively clean that I could run in the basement without fear of burning down the house and I wanted to be able to do good aluminum welding eventually.

The welder came with the stand, the table and the small Argon bottle. I've since rented a large 240sqft bottle as I was having to refill the small bottle on a weekly basis!
The table is actually half the table.. When I went to pick up the welder and table, the seller and I were unable to get the table onto the truck 'cause it was too heavy! He used an oxy-acet torch to cut it in half which made it much more manageable.

This was some of my very first attempts at welding. As you can clearly see, it was pretty horrible!

Callie, my picture helper. She's pretending to be related to a chipmunk, I think.

This was one of my first successfull welds.
The weld didn't crack when bent and the metal broke first when I pulled it apart.

That's enough. Callie says, "My fans will have to wait!"
Here's the first 'real' thing I welded. The welding, after a week or two (2-3 small bottles of Argon!) of practice has definately improved greatly!

I had planned on making it into a stand for my grinder but haven't gotten around to it.

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Text, photography and layout by C.S. Mo

Comments and suggestions to: randoma@vui.com

	The welder came with the stand, the table and the small Argon bottle. I've since rented a large 240sqft bottle as I was having to refill the small bottle on a weekly basis!		The table is actually half the table.. When I went to pick up the welder and table, the seller and I were unable to get the table onto the truck 'cause it was too heavy! He used an oxy-acet torch to cut it in half which made it much more manageable.
	This was some of my very first attempts at welding. As you can clearly see, it was pretty horrible!
			Callie, my picture helper. She's pretending to be related to a chipmunk, I think.
	This was one of my first successfull welds.		The weld didn't crack when bent and the metal broke first when I pulled it apart.
	That's enough. Callie says, "My fans will have to wait!"		Here's the first 'real' thing I welded. The welding, after a week or two (2-3 small bottles of Argon!) of practice has definately improved greatly!
	I had planned on making it into a stand for my grinder but haven't gotten around to it.