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[Andy H]

I taught myself stick welding 20 years ago. I managed to get consistently good welds but I got sick of having to beat the living daylights out of each weld afterwards to remove the flux to check the weld or before painting or starting another weld.

It is useful for agricultural welding* though...........................

* (welding broken farm machinery outdoors when the wind is blowing)

[scimmy_man]

after I got a decent MIG welder, I gave my sip stick set away.

never missed it.

[Webby the Bear]

I can see why you wouldnt need it. But i have a few plans for thicker stuff so i'm thinking it'll get used. Who knows though.

I've text the BIL to borrow it so i'll post up some piccies of my first attempts.

heres a question though.........

with MIG you know where you're stick out is cos you can see the nozzle. but can you easily see where your electrode is in relation to thye workpiece?

[Nick W]

That's part of the knack of striking and maintaing the arc; 'knowing' how far from the surface the end of the rod is. Like all welding, if you can't clearly see the actual weld as it happens then you're unlikely to make a good weld.

You originally mentioned 1/2" capacity, are you intending to do heavy structural steel work like bridges? Or just armour plate the Omega?

[Webby the Bear]

Haha! Armour plating the omega

Firstly the plan is to build a couple of tables. one for light work and really just to attempt to make one. second will be heavy duty and used as a welding table. secondly i want to build a heavy duty vice.

and after that i'm considering a trailer. lol

[Nick W]

Tables: you must have plenty of space!
Realistically, if you're going to do that, then the heavy duty welding table will do all you need. Use 50x50x3mm box  section for the legs. Make the top frame from 25mm box, with angle iron diagonals. Weld the legs to the frame ensuring that everything is square when finished(which is the hard part). Add a similar frame about 50mm up from the bottom, and panel it with wood as a storage space. Have a piece of 6mm steel cut for the top, and select as flat a piece as possible. Bolt it to the top frame along all four sides and the diagonals  with countersunk bolts every 50mm. That shouldn't tax your welder. It will .cost some serious cash, which is why fabrication shops save them for the precision jobs. I use an offcut of 10mm MDF on top of the chest freezer, or clamped to a £20 folding workbench.

Vices: a fabricated vice is possible but will require machining to be any good, and will still be light duty. £100 at Machine Mart will buy a useable, large engineers vice. I would look for a secondhand 6" or bigger Record, which are out there and a much better deal.

A trailer doesn't need to be that hefty either, take a look at one of the commercially available ones.

[Webby the Bear]

So you reckon 3mm will be sturdy enough for welding on and bashing stuff on? i kinda had it in my mind it'd need to be around the half inch as per vids ive seen on the net.

as for space its going outside in't back garden covered up when not in use. as my garage is rammed

[Marks DTM Calib]

So you reckon 3mm will be sturdy enough for welding on and bashing stuff on? i kinda had it in my mind it'd need to be around the half inch as per vids ive seen on the net.

as for space its going outside in't back garden covered up when not in use. as my garage is rammed

12mm!

Jesus, that's structural steel for supporting tons of weight!

[Webby the Bear]

So you reckon 3mm will be sturdy enough for welding on and bashing stuff on? i kinda had it in my mind it'd need to be around the half inch as per vids ive seen on the net.

as for space its going outside in't back garden covered up when not in use. as my garage is rammed

12mm!

Jesus, that's structural steel for supporting tons of weight!

Fair enough Mark,

Just going by what i seen on't tube

[Marks DTM Calib]

Have a look on U Tube for videos of structural steel work assembly.......

Oh and remember....you wont weld things much thicker than 3mm of a 13A domestic power supply......

[Webby the Bear]

Yeah i remember you saying that, hence the thread really.

i was under the impression (wrongly it seems) that the DC inverter based arc welders plug in to the standard 220v with a capacity of welding to quite large thicknesses. i thought it was the AC ones where you had to get a man in to up ya leccy output 

[Marks DTM Calib]

Er no....you have a limited amount of energy that you can draw from the mains, that energy equates more or less to the amount you can use to melt metal.....

[Webby the Bear]

Interesting, let me see if i can find some machines / threads that i'm on about.

Thanks for the advice mate.

[henryd]

So you reckon 3mm will be sturdy enough for welding on and bashing stuff on? i kinda had it in my mind it'd need to be around the half inch as per vids ive seen on the net.

as for space its going outside in't back garden covered up when not in use. as my garage is rammed

12mm!

Jesus, that's structural steel for supporting tons of weight!

Lol,make a trailer out of 12mm Webby then you'll need something more than an Omega to tow it around

[Webby the Bear]

Haha ok i fekked up. go easy on a learning bear