I grew up in Pops Racer's shop (to the extent that I grew up at all) and as kids, my sibs and I got spoiled by having immediate access to top tier welding equipment. Where other kids would nail things together, we'd weld them. The quality of our welding was... variable... but usually adequate for whatever kid project we were attempting.
Its funny how when you're 12 years old, you rush headlong into places your older wiser self fears to tread. I can remember a pair of lamps I made by welding mild steel to discarded iron air cooled VW cylinders. You can't weld steel to iron, but I didn't know that. The lamps didn't fall apart (that I know of) but then again, I wasn't trusting my life or anyone else's life to those welds at 70 mph on the highway. Now, older and wiser, and with more at stake, I tread more cautiously.
As I got back to working on cars and other shop jobs I found myself in need of welding. Between some of Pops' extra bits, a new set of hoses, and the oxy and fuel tanks, it was easy to get going with gas welding. I can braze adequately with oxy-fuel and it's super handy for other occasions where something needs to be heated, but actually welding with gas is tricky and I found myself wanting TIG more and more frequently. Of course I can still go to Pops' Shop and use his top tier welding gear, but I'm an American male, dagnabit, so I need immediate access and I need it immediately. Less irrationally, I know if I have TIG in house I'll weld more and likely get better at it faster.
What Kind of TIG Machine?
The rise of digital inverter technology has resulted in an explosion of affordable TIG machines ranging from extremely inexpensive (albeit with questionable quality) to machines with quality nearly approximating the Big Blue and Big Red machines at a more affordable price. The two brands with (reputedly, maybe) better quality and customer service are Primeweld and AHP. Arc Captain and Harbor Freight are a little less expensive and have their advocates too. If DC-only will meet your needs, these machines can be had for $400-500. The AC/DC machines that can weld aluminum run close to $1000.
I decided to go with PrimeWeld for a couple of reasons. Their customer service is said to be stellar (I already tested this by changing my order 3 different times - they remained steadfastly patient and gracious). PrimeWeld machines have physical knobs for all of the functions, obviating the need for touch screens with menus and sub-menus (this is a big deal for me). Maybe most important of all, PrimeWeld machines come with premium quality CK Worldwide torches and and similarly high quality pedals (the first generation PrimeWeld machines came with something that informally earned the name 'FrankenPedal:' fixing this was one of the upgrades for gen 2). Pops Racer often compares welding to guitar playing and I've found that the neck - the part the player actually touches - to be the most important part of a guitar to get right. On the same principle, it made intuitive sense that a quality torch and pedal are probably worth spending a little more. And the final straw - ArcCaptain and Harbor Freight have sales and coupon codes etc all the time, Primeweld seems to do this rarely. But Big Data quickly figured out that I was looking for a TIG machine and when Primeweld had a black Friday deal, I was immediately informed. Big Data is good at catching me at times when I'm a little more impulsive so the order was duly placed.
You're Halfway There (maybe)
The machine is half, or less than half, the cost of setting up for TIG. Also necessary are Argon (requiring purchase of a tank if you don't have an empty one to swap), a table, welding rod, and the consumables. My Primeweld came with one tungsten electrode, one diffuser collet body and collet, and two gas cups. I already knew I wanted a gas lens and two specific sizes of cup, so this was an extra order.
TIG consumables.
You can get a set like this from Amazon for about $35-45. This might be a good idea if you want to experiment with different setups, but if you know what you want it's probably best to spend roughly the same money on a smaller number of high quality consumables.
Being just a kid in the racing shop, I was not actually aware that all these different options existed. I just grabbed the torch and used whatever was already on there. Pops Racer is not alone in saying that the overwhelming majority of his welding is done with one or two cup sizes and just one of everything else. So I got a gas lens collet body (the brassy looking things second row up from the bottom) and two #5 and two #8 stubby cups (the cups are the pink things in the back row, but those pictured aren't stubbies). #5 is good for aluminum and tight precision work. #8 works if you're welding heavier material or need a wider gas cone (like welding an outside corner). The one optional thing I did know about was shorter back caps (the black things upper right) which are useful for working in tight spaces. My torch came with long and short back caps, so that's covered. The small collection of quality stuff I got from Weldmonger was about the same price as the big collection from Amazon - but I suspect this is another one of those things where quality gear matters.
Another project of nontrivial expense was adding a 50 amp 220-240 volt outlet to my garage. Most of these inverter machines can run on 110-120 volts, but performance is limited and I suspected that would become annoying rather quickly. The 50 amp breaker and the big outlet weren't too pricey but the heavy gauge wire required for 50 amp service was a little steep. It would have been more affordable if the breaker box was close to a good spot for welding, but alas, I needed 28 feet of cable. I did a lot of comparison shopping online and eventually found some 6-2 indoor/outdoor cable on clearance, but it was still $80-ish for the amount I needed.
Gotta Have a Place
Superfast Matt talks about making things for a fraction* of the cost of buying. The * caveat is that yes, 5/3 is indeed a fraction. I ran in to something similar with my welding table. There are a couple of affordable welding tables out there; one that's small and collapsible and another that's a little bigger and has dog holes for clamps and fixtures. These are the listings from Harbor Freight and run about $90 and $170 respectively, but these same tables are sold by lots of different vendors.
However, as usual, I had my own ideas. Well some ideas of my own, like even bigger but still collapsible and making it more of a multi-purpose workbench than just for welding. And also some ideas I got from The Metalist, one of many welding/metalworking YouTube channels. A lot of his videos are him making tools and his welding table video below had a bunch of cool ideas.
I am not doing table extensions like the Metalist's right away, but I am building the frame so that extensions can easily be added. I also like the idea of using drilled and tapped holes for bolting things down rather than the more usual dog holes. Being able to bolt things down makes it possible to temporarily place a vise, a shear or any other benchtop tool for a specific job - and to get it out of the way when that job is over.
Here I am drilling and tapping the holes. The table top is 24" x 36" 1/4" inch mild steel plate. That should be stout enough to stay flat. Or at least flat enough for the precision of my jobs. The holes are spaced every 3 inches. Which makes a total of 77 m8 x 1.25 holes. Dear readers, 77 is a nontrivial number. I did have the foresight to order high quality carbide drill bits and a high quality cobalt tap. They really do cut a lot better. But it's still a lot of holes.
Pro tip (not from a pro): carbide drill bits cut like buttah - but they're also quite brittle and easy to break. Don't ask me how I know. I drilled as many of the holes as possible on the drill press, which went well. But my drill press can't reach all the way to the middle of a 24 x 36 plate so I had to do some of these with a hand drill and it doesn't take much of an off angle to snap those carbide bits right off. Fortunately these bits came as a set of three. I still have one left, and I will reserve it for use only with the drill press in the future.
In all I figure this whole project will run me about $220, which, as Superfast Matt would point out, can be expressed as a fraction of $170.
I wanted casters on my table and I wanted them to be adjustable for leveling. So this requires threaded inserts which was an excuse to spend quality time with Pops Racer in the Pops Shop. When I was a kid I remember thinking the auto feed (see video above; the wheel that's turning itself) was so techno-cool. It seems quaintly ancient now, like a steam locomotive.
Threaded inserts, ready to go. People who are really good machinists can make things like this and they come out looking mirror-perfect. I am not a machinist at all, let alone a really good one. But these should be serviceable. Tapping the holes turned in to a bit of an adventure. I tried to make the internal threads with a tap that Pops has had laying around for at least 50 years and machine tapping steel is somewhat demanding. So then I went on a deep dive into all the different kinds of taps. The really correct tap was going to be super pricey and I accidentally ordered two different kinds of "second best choice." Turns out the second best choices were fine. Being new and sharp counts for a lot, apparently.
Ready to weld. I could weld these serviceably now, but there are a couple things I want to practice first in hopes of making these look reasonably presentable. If I weld them ugly, my welding table will have ugly welds forever.
I had thought about this style of clamps, but all the ones I've seen are 5/8" or 3/4" bolts. eBay to the rescue: these mini step clamps are made to serve the suddenly exploding home/hobby miniature machine tool market. Affordable but slow to arrive (these come from India). I like these so much I ordered some more.
One thing that's struck me watching people's welding videos on YouTube is how high their table tops are (or how low their seats are). Pops' table isn't set up like this, but he is usually either 1) using a jig that elevates the work above the table top, or 2) welding a space frame chassis, which requires repositioning oneself repeatedly and very little of the job done seated. But Justin on the Fabrication Series channel explains some good reasons for bringing the work up closer.
Keeping it Chill
TIG torches can be gas cooled or water cooled. Gas cooled is simpler and less expensive. Water cooled is needed if you're welding continuously for longer times, especially with aluminum. When I was a kid, I didn't weld aluminum (shop scraps of steel were free game for kid projects; aluminum scraps went for recycling) and never welded anything for very long, so I actually didn't know that I was using water cooled torches or that it was necessary to turn the water cooling pump on. Imagine my surprise when I started working on my project car fuel tank and the torch got alarmingly hot in my hand after about 5 minutes use. So much less like holding an inferno in my hand when I turned on the cooler.
The other nice thing about water cooled torches is that they're smaller and lighter. The downside is that water cooled torches require a water cooling system. These of course can be purchased (start around $250ish) but there are also a number of DIY systems which are described in detail on various YouTube channels. The DIY options range from a 5 gallon bucket with a fish tank motor to more elaborate setups using fan/radiator assemblies made for cooling hard working computer CPUs. Interestingly, Pops Racer, who generally goes for the best tools, uses a DIY water cooling system, and one based on large volume rather than active cooling.
I started off trying to go cheap with the 12v DC pump above and a cheap power supply. This was very noisy and the water flow was irregular. This may have been a contributor to overheating my torch in dramatic fashion. Thankfully the tech folks at CK Worldwide were helpful and gracious and the melted parts are now replaced. So, yeah, false economy.
For just $15 more than the cheap pump and power supply, I should have bought the pump above from the beginning. It's AC, so no separate power supply, so much neater packaging. Better yet, it has an adjustable pressure limiter so I was able to dial up the pressure until the water flow was smooth. The CK Worldwide tech guy told me I need 1qt/min water flow which this setup easily achieves.
Another detail: I added some quick disconnect fittings because my garage isn't heated and I need to be able to take the cooler inside when temps drop below freezing.
Side Note: I am starting to develop some brand loyalty for Vevor. Yes, compared to Snap-On, it's still budget Asian made gear. But there is a spectrum of quality/cost which on the budget end of the scale often has dramatic inflection points. So far I've found Vevor to hit the sweet spot.
Underside of the lid. I used this screen filter to keep any debris or junk out of the pump's intake hose.
Clean and Prep
I have tried a few practice welds on some scrap material from the Metal Supermarket, but they are not of an asthetic standard that makes me want to post pictures of them here. One of the reasons for the not-beautiful appearance I just learned about is the nasty phenomenon known as Mill Scale. As I understand it, the hot rolled steel process forces the impurities in the material and the residue from the coke and all kinds of other nasty stuff up to the surface of the metal. One result is that your hands get filthy whenever you pick it up. Another is that the TIG arc cannot make friends with this layer of nasty crud. So if you want to get a good weld you have to get rid of the mill scale. There are quite a number of proposed methods of removing this.
Mill Scale: a stubborn adherent layer of industrial waste.
One tip I've garnered is that silicon carbide abrasives work much better than aluminum oxide or zirconia. I got some silicon carbide scouring discs for my angle grinder. These are a bit like round ScotchBrite pads, but coarser, and impregnanted with silicon carbide abrasives These work great when they're new, but they quickly get fouled and have to be replaced - so it's best to remove as much of the crud as possible before hitting them with the discs. For big pieces, the best I've found so far is wiping the surface down with acetone.
For smaller pieces some people like vinegar (long slow marinating process) vs muriatic or phosphoric acid (works faster, but nasty to deal with). I tried vinegar on some smaller pieces and it worked great - but took over 24 hours. It goes a little faster if you periodically agitate the vinegar and brush off the loose crud.
The best results I've gotten so far were on the plate for my DIY bandsaw converter (see below). For this did the vinegar soak AND the silicon carbide scouring disc.
DIY Band Saw Adapter
I've been on the lookout for a band saw that can cut steel, but even used, they're quite pricey. But you can get a pretty capable portable band saw for about $100-125. They make stands for these, so you can prop them up and use them like a regular band saw, but if you have a fixture table (see above) you can easily improvise this out of flat plate.
The blade guard supplied with this saw is 1/8"thick - and the two screws for the blade guard are a handy spot to hang the saw from. But the threaded holes in my work table are m8 and 1/8" isn't thick enough to counter-sink m8 screws and leave them flush with the surface. I didn't want bolt heads sticking up in my work space and I didn't want to make the whole thing out of 1/4" plate. Solution: use 1/8" plate for the upper surface, and weld another piece of 1/8" plate underneath for the part where the screws go through.
Usually the throat depth of a band saw determines how long a piece of material you can cut off. The way these portable saws are angled, the throat depth only limits the length of the cut, not the length of the material you are cutting.
One big error on this job: I should have slotted the plate forward from the blade instead of backward. Hanging the saw from those two screws, right next to the slot, makes the plate want to twist under the weight of the saw. If this is too annoying, I can always weld over the existing slot and re-slot from the blade forward. Right now I have a clamp bridging across the slot.
The best part about this band saw is that when I'm not using it, I can remove it from the table and stow it on a shelf. My garage/shop is decently sized for a home hobbyist, but there isn't enough space to keep every tool set up all the time.
Working on the welding table legs. For some reason mill scale is a lot easier to remove from tube stock. Just a wire brush does the trick. I like the burnished steel appearance so I am trying Boeshield T9 as a rust preventive, otherwise leaving the finish as is.
Removing the mill scale from the table top was vastly more difficult. Using a wire wheel or silicon carbide discs or any other abrasive I tried, the abrasive medium instantly clogged up with tarry goo. This part was obviously way too big to soak in vinegar for 24 hours so I used muriatic acid. My muriatic acid experience was very different than what most online sources say, in that 1) diluted solution didn't do anything at all, and 2) working outside with pure muriatic acid I didn't get the infamous hideous chemical warfare fumes everyone talks about. My lovely and long-suffering wife purchased the acid for me in the hardware section of our grocery store and she got the "eco-friendly less toxic" version, which I always interpret as "doesn't work." But this stuff did work and was much less obnoxious than the usual is reputed to be.
Using my welding table to make my welding table - laying out the legs and leg braces. The step clamps worked so well I ordered some more of them. Unlike standard c-clamps (or mods thereof for fixture table use), the step clamps work really well with round profile work pieces.
To make the table foldable, I needed to use some tube collars that go around the legs but still allow the legs to rotate (or more accurately, allow the brace and other leg to rotate around the collared leg). I do have two sizes of tube stock one of which fits inside the other, but the tube stock has a line inside from where it's welded. This can be filed out with a great deal of effort.
Or, alternately, chuck them up in the lathe and clean out the inside surface with a boring bar.
One of my favorite things about machine work is the moving visual textures. It can have an almost hypnotic quality and I find it peaceful - however, getting too hypnotized is probably a good way to lose a finger. So, like a lot of things, follow Goldilocks' example.
Mostly tacked in place, still working on the diagonal braces. The welding is frustrating because this workpiece is very large and heavy, and can't easily be repositioned. So I often find myself welding at strange angles. When I get myself positioned properly and I can run a bead with good access, good ergonomics, and good visualization, I've gotten some nice looking welds. When my positioning isn't good, I've created some astonishingly ugly welds on this project. So, yeah, it's a learning curve.
The plywood stored in the background prevents me from folding this up all the way, but this should give the idea. The legs rotate inwards and then fold down. The idea is that this can be stored flat, standing on its wheels. It won't be very stable, and will need to be strapped to a wall or something for safety, but I do think it will be possible to fold this table up without too much inconvenience when I need the space freed up.
Table all done.
Leveled and installed in welding area. Working wonderfully well so far.
So now it's back to the car project. I am finishing up the wiring, which includes installing a wideband O2 sensor, which requires welding a new bung into the exhaust system. So that's a neat transition from welding prep back to the car job via welding.
Ordinary day in the life of a welder: rescuing the damsel from in her underwear, welding the villain to the stairs. And looking stylish all the while. With enough practice I can be this guy when I grow up.
