Noob wants to fabricate. Which end do you hold?

Extension cord...big wires, go to drier outlet...Extension cords good. Mongo like extension cords!

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Unfortunately its an apartment building with garages. I'd have to have a 400 ft cord to the community driers. Wouldn't go over too well.

A Hobart handler 140 110v welder was the best investment in my garage. You can do a lot with it.

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johnhuebbe
A Hobart handler 140 110v welder was the best investment in my garage. You can do a lot with it.

7-8 years of fault free service with the one I had. I did make up my own extension cord with serious fat wire and always checked the wire in the wall or box.. The thing was way better for general car work including stitch weld with 030 wire compared with the 024 that came in it.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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Robert Culbertson
I think the "No" was to going out and dropping $2k+ on a welder, and teaching yourself how to weld. I would personally spend it on a car instead.
If you make friends with someone who can TIG weld, maybe they would be willing to let you be an apprentice for a few months. That would be a great way to gain experience. Also, don't expect to make any money being an apprentice. Seriously, doon't even ask for pay. Sweep the shop, to odd jobs in your spare time, and let them teach you how to weld.
Here's a thread kind of on the TIG vs MIG topic. I'm not sure if the car was ever finished.
BMW 2002

sweet! I feel famous!
newb - take it from me...(Im a girl and apparently we are the only ones who can really weld)
I did go to school to learn to weld and actually liked the trade school so much I got a degree in collision repair. one can learn alot -good and bad. big benefit from going to school (it goes by quick) is that you use the schools various and often rare equipment(cool old stuff, sometimew new and pricey) for basically free with lots of variety. if you take an interest the teachers like it and give you more freedom and time to practice doing whatever is you like. to learn to weld well one should always start with gas/bottle welding and a dippling rod technique (anyone can "think" they can MIG weld) especially if you want to learn quality TIG welding. and you can use scrap metals (for FREE) from school bcuz its included in the class fee usually on your own projects if your crafty. and if people know your there to build a race car well - thats golden! I vote go to school first > I also got to be an apprentice (even a sears point racetrack) because could say "yeah, I finished school and took all those welding classes) and guess what you may still suck after finishing school but at least you have some "stick with it" and people (professionals including crazy-ass welders) geniuinly value that and want to help you improve

oh yea, and my roll cage is done its tight and it s TIG welded so :-p to all you neigh sayers

is it log booked?

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

almost just need to set up the appointment things are looking good though (there were the expected ups and downs and learning curves and "pride of ownership" moments but it was awsome - only developled a minor case of thoracic outlet syndrome that welders get - but whats 2 nites in the ICU when you have medical insurance haha

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Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is a syndrome involving compression at the superior thoracic outlet[1] wherein excess pressure placed on a neurovascular bundle passing between the anterior scalene and middle scalene muscles.[2] It can affect one or more of the nerves in the brachial plexus (nerves that innervate the upper limb), the subclavian artery, and - rarely - the vein, which does not normally pass through the scalene hiatus (blood vessels as they pass between the chest and upper extremity.

TOS may occur due to a positional cause - for example, by abnormal compression from the clavicle (collarbone) and shoulder girdle on arm movement. There are also several static forms, caused by abnormalities, enlargement, or spasm of the various muscles surrounding the arteries, veins, and/or brachial plexus, a fixation of a first rib, or a cervical rib. A Pancoast tumor (a rare form of lung cancer in the apex of the lung) can lead to thoracic outlet syndrome in the progressive stages of the disease. The most common causes of thoracic outlet syndrome include physical trauma from a car accident, repetitive injuries from a job such as frequent non-ergonomic use of a tig welding on jbs where 99% of the world does it every bit as good and 10 times quicker with Mig sports-related activities, anatomical defects such as having an extra rib, and pregnancy.[3]

Sucks.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

boom ! vein ! a real sunnuva! complete with "critical stenosis of subclavian vein"

my cage-master (30 years of welding/fab race cars) has the "nerve" form and he just keeps on keepin on - I recall at one point he asked me as my hand was shaking and struggling to maintain my line when welding in the harness bars "whaddya got parkinsons or something?" funny guy.

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bp944
Unfortunately its an apartment building with garages. I'd have to have a 400 ft cord to the community driers. Wouldn't go over too well.

You can use a lighter welder to tack the cage in pace and have someone esle weld it up. A 115V welder is going to be marginal or inadequate for some cage joints where there is a lot of tubes coming together and a lot of mass. The generator idea is interesting though. I dunno how a typical 5kw or 7 KW aircooled engined generator would react to the welder loads; the power waveform on a cheap welder is horrid. I believe a nice TiG like the smaller Millers have easy waveforms, since they use AC-DC power conversion.

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Littlelina
to learn to weld well one should always start with gas/bottle welding and a dippling rod technique (anyone can "think" they can MIG weld) especially if you want to learn quality TIG welding.

Oxy/Ace welding?

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
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Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

http://victortechnologies.com/thermalarc/products/detailProduct.html?prodID=W1003182

best welder for the money hands down its a tig and mig the tig is a lift start
not hard to use just not the norm, not the same as scratch. check it out
its got post and pre flow burn back all digital controls so unlimited setting
uses tweeko parts so they are cheap and any store. and its got enough power to do most anything you will ever want.

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TSSFAB.US No HYPE just parts!!!! And check us out on Facebook!!!

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Gravity Fed

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Littlelina
to learn to weld well one should always start with gas/bottle welding and a dippling rod technique (anyone can "think" they can MIG weld) especially if you want to learn quality TIG welding.

Oxy/Ace welding?

Yes it is a great training ground for TiG; very similar techniques. You learn how to control the puddle very well. Picking up TiG was a snap for me after so many years of Oxy-Acetylene welding.

yep, oxy/acetylene welding aka gas welding - the "bottle" refers to the gas tanks ;-) not welding with baby formula - havent figured that one out yet