A beginners journey .....

[eyspy]

Some of my first projects in my ‘Welding Journey’

I inherited an old ‘stick welder’ when my father passed away 5 years ago, and only just recently started using it to repair things around the house. (wife’s chastity belt !) I stick welded a stand for my vice in the shed out of some old scrap found laying around. I find having the vice away from my work bench more convenient.
The next project (again out of scrap) was to make a stand for my 355 mm drop saw. This works very well in conjunction with a couple of rollers stands. Then a need arose for a stand for my grinding wheels.
Storage space soon became a problem, so I made up a ‘wife pleasing’ overhead storage rack from some 40 x 40 square and some 19 x 19 square with a thin top of MDF board. It’s all stick welded and is supported by two cross bars on each end, with a central threaded rod hanging from the ceiling beams. Works very well and is supporting a lot of weight.

The welding bug having been well and truly bitten, I lashed out and bought a used 210 amp MIG from a farm auction spooled with 1.2 mm wire. I have a crook back so the next item just had to be (you guessed it), a welding bench. After spending about a week going through about a trillion ideas in this and other welding forums, I decided on the open top table to give endless clamping options.

I bought some old, rusted iron from a local salvage yard (1/5 th cost of new stock) and set about making my table. I wanted something that was as close to square and level as I could possibly do without having a flat surface to start with.

My idea was to lay 3 lengths of 100mm ‘H’ iron on the concrete floor, and spend a lot of time getting these perfectly level by putting shims underneath. Once this was achieved it was a simple matter of laying all my steel on top, squaring up using the 3-4-5 method, then get to work with the mig. The steel for the top is ‘C channel’, 75mm(3 “) x 40mm (1 1/2”) x 6mm (1/4”)
, with cross bars out of 25mm (1”) x 10mm (3/8th”).
The legs are 80mm x 45mm.
The whole thing took about 6 hours to construct and I am fairly happy with the result. I welded some round tube off cuts on the four corners as a holder for the mig gun.

As I live a few hundred metres from the ocean, everything I do in steel gets a coat of ‘Zinc Oxide’ metal primer, to keep rust at bay. I left the top clean for good weld contact.
I learnt a lot MIG welding this bench, the main being “I can’t weld for s**t”. But now that I ave a bench that saves my back, I intend to practice, practice, practice, till my up coming welding course in TAFE collage starts. Till then, If it moves and I can catch it, I am going to weld the sucker !!!!

[farmersamm]

It looks really good from what I can see.

I've had to refresh the page 3 times already in order to get the download, and I still don't have 3 complete pics. Pics that are too big wreak havoc with guys, like me, on dialup.

Compound angles are hard to do. Looks like you did the fitup really well.

There's a really simple trick to the compound layouts. It works using a straightedge, but it's a little unwieldy. Don't have pics of how to do it. You did well without it.

job!

[eyspy]

Originally Posted by farmersamm

It looks really good from what I can see.

I've had to refresh the page 3 times already in order to get the download, and I still don't have 3 complete pics. Pics that are too big wreak havoc with guys, like me, on dialup.

Compound angles are hard to do. Looks like you did the fitup really well.

There's a really simple trick to the compound layouts. It works using a straightedge, but it's a little unwieldy. Don't have pics of how to do it. You did well without it.

job!

Thanks for the input. I hear what you say with loading the page, I was thinking about this before you posted. I shrunk the pictures to about 1/3 the size and uploaded them to Photobucket, and deleted the larger files. When I went back to delete the larger ones of this thread I realized that my edit option is not visible (I think this is due to the fact that I cut and pasted the editorial content of my post in another application and it will not display correctly on my screen)

So now, I think I have stuffed it up completely !!!

If there is a moderator who can delete my post, I will post up a fresh lot of pictures and text.

Thanks

[LarryO]

eyspy

You must be in OZ to have a WIA welder.

[eyspy]

Originally Posted by LarryO

eyspy

You must be in OZ to have a WIA welder.

Sure is !

2 hours north of Adelaide by the seaside.
The WIA welders are top notch stuff !! This one is an oldie but a goodie, a WIA 210s with remote feed.

[LarryO]

They are also the Miller distributers in Australia

[eyspy]

That's right. They make and sell WIA, but just sell the 'Miller'

Both very good machines from what I understand. Because the WIA is made here in SA, it is the machine I was after. I have heard nothing but good reports on them. I spoke at length with one of the head honchos at WIA before my purchase and he assured me that this older model 210s that I have purchased, is better than the one's they are punching out now. Mainly due to the fact that they have had to source a lot of their components from China so they can be competitive with price.

The older models all had top shelf components and inevitably last longer. At least that is what I have been told. I am new to MIG's, so I could be told anything and I have to believe it!!

[eyspy]

[Joker11]

Lotsa good stuff!
keep the pictures coming!

I think in regards to Brand Names, we all have our preferences and for various reasons. I am a Lincoln guy by choice. I don't think Lincoln has any REAL advantage over Miller. I have never heard of WIA, but it probably isn't any worse than Miller either.

Now, having owned a Hobart, I can say you got REAL lucky inheriting a WIA and not a Hobart.

Now go build some more stuff so we can see the pictures!

[Kangi]

I love that table-I'm feeling inspired!