Re: life-changing tools

Posted by rankrank1 on December 12, 2010 at 11:18:11 from (69.171.171.69):

In Reply to: life-changing tools posted by steve terplak on December 10, 2010 at 13:49:30:

Welder - The junk you can repair with them is amazing. Spent way too many years cobbing old junk together to make them work which would have been so much easier if we had had a welder. Plus, there are some things that just can not be fixed without a welder. (e.g. worn oblong hole in a dawbar or other heavy steel piece: this is easy to fix with a welder. Simply run some weld in there and then grind it close to round again with cheap die grinder stone or cutter and it will be good for another fifty years).

If on a tight budget: I would recommend a good quality Lincoln or Miller 115V Mig to anyone even if you do not have a shop/garage. It is light and portable and can be plugged in virtually anywhere (flux core wire will work best for welding outside). In conjunction with a $15.00 cheap 4.5" handheld grinder with 1/16" thick cut-off discs for cutting metal and 1/4" thick grinding discs for grinding - you can do crude fabrication and make almost any repairs that might pop up. Granted if the metal is thick you might have to make several passes with the welder, but compared to baling wire, zip ties, and trying to design something with bolts or clamps it will often work much better.

Now for those with a shop then bigger welders will offer more capaibility but you loose portability ease as most will require 220V. For my heavier stuff, I use an old cheap Lincoln tomstone AC-225 buzzbox stickwelder (still not very good with stick). An added benefit of this bigger welder is that with a twin carbon arc torch attached (which can be easily homemade) I have intense heat (1000 degrees hotter than oxy-acteylene) for heating things and brazing and never buy gas or lease bottles. (Note: A Twin Carbon Arc Torch should NOT be confused with arc gouging or Arc/airs that are heavy cutters - it is different and gouging usually requires huge welders anyway. Twin carbon arc does not cut metal, but produces a flame similar to a torch with a rosebud tip on it for heating and brazing Savy oldtimers have even used the Twin Carbon Arcs as improvised tig welders, but there is no way I could do it. Still it works okay for me as a cheap source of intense heat as I have infrequent needs for heat anyway.)

Only wish I could have had these 3 items 30 years ago - LOL.

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