Thread: Beginner questions , opinions on first welder.....

This one is not welding but involves something nasty in the nether regions.

When I was a uni student in the 1970's I had a part time job over the summer and one of my tasks was to clean glassware for one of the research groups.
This took place in a small grotty lab that consisted of two large fume hoods and a couple of sinks and benches.
It was a bit of a pigsty when I started there and I was supposed to clean it up but there was always so much to do I had not managed to even put a dent in the dirt.
The labware cleaning procedure was long and complicated and involved repeated overnight simmer of the glassware (mainly expensive quartz glass beakers and beaker covers) in large (5L beakers) using various acids. finishing up with several overnight simmers in distilled water.
The cleaning process took around 3-4 days.
Because I lived close by my job was to keep the cleaning process running even over weekends.

One Saturday evening about 6pm I was running late for the next stage in the cleaning cycle and ran to the lab wearing a T-shirt, stubbies and thongs, so totally against the rules.
I tipped out the old acid from the 5L beaker into the fume hood sink and went to look for some fresh acid (HCl) but all of the 2.5L glass bottles were empty so I went to the Chemical store and grabbed a 20L carboy of acid.

Back in the lab I decided I wasn't going to try and lift 20L of concentrated acid above a 5L glass beaker on a large hotplate in a fume hood so I put an empty carboy in one of the deep sink (it's lower down than bench height) and tipped some concentrated acid from the full carboy into the empty one. I had done this before and within seconds I knew I would smell some HCl fumes so in preparation I turned up the speed of the two large fume hood fans in the lab to sweep away the fumes. However, this time the fumes were stronger than usual but I didn't think that much of it and after I had transferred ~5L I put down the near full carboy and lifted up the carboy in the sink assuming it would have ~5L in it. Unfortunately it didn't have 5L in it so I ended up hoiking the carboy higher into the air only to cop a thin stream of concentrated HCl right onto my crotch and down my legs. The carboy had a spigot hole for a tap but that had been removed and that's why the acid fumes were stronger than usual, because the acid had been leaking of that hole out into the sink.

At that point I immediately reached for a hose on the end of a lab tap and liberally dowsed myself down and stripped off my gear. The lab floor had a drain in it so it did not flood the place

Good and bad there was no one around so eventually wearing nothing but a lab coat I headed for the showers, rinsed out my clothes and had a proper wash. Fortunately I had been working in the garden for most of the day and it had been a very hot & sweaty so the residual skin oils saved me from too serious a burn. In fact I didn't even lose any skin except a half a day later I noticed some skin peel off from between my toes. The crotch on my black stubbies and jocks turned a sort of a red brown colour and they both eventually disintegrated.

But it does not end here.

Wearing nothing but a lab coat I had to go back and clean up the mess.
Fortunately I found a pair of gumboots, and there were plenty of plastic and nitrile gloves available.
The fume hood fans had also been running on high continuously so had kept the acid fumes down.

On the floor where the concentrated acid had landed and been spread by the water, had sort of stripped the lino so it looked like new - of course this was a tell tale sign so I ended up scrubbing the whole floor to get it all clean. Then of course the floor looked like a new pin so I had to clean and tidy the whole lab. Eventually I got to the sink where the carboy had been I notice it still contained some liquid and what looked like some paper towelling blocking the drain, so I reached down through the liquid to remove the towelling and a small sliver of broken glass pierced my gloves and cut my index finger and thumb. Of course the liquid in the sink still contained a fair bit of acid so it stung much more than it would have otherwise.

On monday at morning tea announcements the Head techo running the labs in the building congratulated me for finally cleaning up the lab.
When he asked my about my fingers being bandaged I said I had cut them in the garden.
I never told anyone about this until many years later.

Love that story BobL!

A great option for lightweight pet cages/runs is using plastic qubelok connectors and thin-wall (1.2mm) 1" square aluminium. Most aluminium suppliers (or the big B) have this stuff.
Really light weight and rigid. You can still weld angles, ramps, etc. directly onto the aluminium (do that before adding the plastic connectors though).
Wire mesh can be clamped onto the frame by riveting 25x1.2 aluminium flat bar and angle as required.
Cheers
- Mick

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As Promised attached are a couple of pics of my first welds, and the welding table I have chosen as my first project.

Table looks smaller than it is due to the larger wheels. I intend on doing most of my work outdoors so I used 240mm high castors so it will be easier to roll around on dirt/grass.

Top is going to be 180mm 10mm thick flat bar overall size is going to be 1100mm x 700mm.

I am really enjoying the process, so much so infact i am looking at getting a MIG unit for thinner work. Probably a lincoln 180c unless someone else recommends something better under $2K.


Thanks for looking

Joez

Really impressive work for your first project.

What machine did you get in the end? The first machine you linked was a combo unit (MIG and stick) - I'm guessing you didn't get that one?

Originally Posted by RustyArc

Really impressive work for your first project.

What machine did you get in the end? The first machine you linked was a combo unit (MIG and stick) - I'm guessing you didn't get that one?

Thanks Welding on a nice flat surface makes me look better than I really am. I still have a long way to go thats for sure.

For the Welder, I figured I might be better off buying separate machines as needed, rather than get a mutlifunction with features I'll never use. It also gives me some redundancy if a machine fails. I used the extra funds to buy a BS-5S bandsaw instead.

In the end I got a basic arc welder from token tools: https://weldingstore.tokentools.com....iniarc-205-stl and half a dozen different types and diameters of rods to get a feel how they differ, those Kobe RB26's are my favorite rod so far..

Now I have some idea on basic Arc welding I can see where MIG will slot into my workflow. I am itching to add to my collection of Welders, this caper is addictive.

hmm, Token Tools Synergic , Lincoln 180c or should I stretch the budget for a Kemmpi EVO 200....

joez

Nice work Joez - I don't think you'll go wrong with the stick welder for starters and your welds look good. Good choice on bandsaw as well. I've found the RB26's generate oodles of slag, which can be an issue if you're welding out of position, but great otherwise. I'd get a little box of plain old Gemini 12's (2.5mm is pretty versatile) to have on hand as well.
My only tips are that you should:
* try and do some beefy tacks on each of the corners of the tube, so then you can run a nice hot weld from tack to tack without leaving any gaps or risking burn through on the end.; and
* instead of having open box ends, use mitre cuts, (particularly in coastal areas where rust is an issue) so that you can completely enclose the table frame and therefore be able to paint all surfaces.
Good point about having multiple machines vs a single multi-function unit. Also, if you're swapping from one process to another a lot, then it amazing how old switching cables can get.
Regarding MIG - I wouldn't get too caught up with the synergic functions. I have the Tokentools 210 MIG which has this, but I found that I usually manually adjust to a few 'go to' settings and tweak from there. I have a spool gun for aluminium work and it works a treat, although it will never replace my AC/DC TIG (also a tokentools) for thin aluminium. I bought the MIG primarily to deal with thin wall gal tube.
Cheers
- Mick

Originally Posted by WelderMick

Also, if you're swapping from one process to another a lot, then it amazing how old switching cables can get.

My ageing UniMIG combo has the nice feature of having dedicated torch connections inside the spool enclosure, leaving the non-work connection on the front free, so I have my stick lead in there all the time. Assuming I'm happy to go DCEP (and I've yet to notice the difference) I can just grab the electrode holder, flip the MIG/Stick switch on the front and away I go.

Originally Posted by RustyArc

My ageing UniMIG combo has the nice feature of having dedicated torch connections inside the spool enclosure, leaving the non-work connection on the front free, so I have my stick lead in there all the time. Assuming I'm happy to go DCEP (and I've yet to notice the difference) I can just grab the electrode holder, flip the MIG/Stick switch on the front and away I go.

Yeah same on my MIG actually. I was thinking more about plasma cutter actually when I wrote that. My TIG machine is plasma/stick/tig, so swapping between plasma and say tig swaps all the cables, foot pedal and gas. OK unless you get all rigged up for TIG, purged out the gas line then remember you have one more thing to plasma cut

If you have asperiations of carting your mig to another job within your yard, forget the Lincoln 180C, I have one and it's a transformer, heavy as, save your bucks and get the Kempis, watching the YouTube promos and looking at that dude walking down through a factory suggest it is an inverter machine.
forget the Tig mate. She is a bitch that demands totally clean surfaces before welding, with a rack of rusty steel at my place picked up from various merchants, no way was I going to be a slave to her desire, with the mig, as long as your earth surface is clean, it will strike. I use my mig on gasless only, can't afford the bottle stuff, am happy with what I have, won't be lugging it anywhere, have a Lincoln inverter stick to do that.

DD

Originally Posted by Dingo Dog

If you have asperiations of carting your mig to another job within your yard, forget the Lincoln 180C, I have one and it's a transformer, heavy as, save your bucks and get the Kempis, watching the YouTube promos and looking at that dude walking down through a factory suggest it is an inverter machine.

DD

Thanks DD, I bought an arc inverter for portability, dont think I'll be moving the MIG more than 10 meters in and around the shed. The Lincoln seems like a very popular option.

I imagine you won't go too far wrong with the Lincoln 180C, but as mentioned, it is an old-style transformer machine, and can't imagine buying that kind of unit these days unless I had a very good reason. If you're after a "quality" MIG machine, I like the look of the Cigweld Transmig machines (although have never used one).