It pays to shop around when buying steel

Posted on 01/18/2010 by Matt

Just the other day I was looking for some angle iron and square tubing for a utility trailer I want to build. Only to find out that a couple of the places I checked on were way high in price. If I would have just taken their prices and bought it, I would’ve overpaid by more than 100%. The point I’m trying to make is, once I shopped around I got my steel for a lot cheaper. I’ve written different articles on where you should should and should not buy steel from. You definitely don’t want to buy steel from a box store, but even different welding shops can be ridiculous, so you need to pay attention, otherwise for sure you will overpay.

One different welding shop quoted me at over $7 a foot for 2 x 2 x 3/16 square tube. Only to find out that I can get it at different places for around $2.75 a foot. The same thing happened for 2 x 2 x 3/16 angle iron. The shop that was overcharging wanted to charge me over $3 per foot when the when the other guys are only going to charge me about $1.60 a foot.

Basically it’s just like anything in life, everybody wants to separate you from your money so you have to be careful. Nobody is going to watch out for your money like you can.

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Do you really need an auto darkening welding helmet?

Posted on 01/13/2010 by Matt

One of the biggest misconceptions out there, is whether or not you need an auto darkening welding helmet (speedglass). I’m not going to lie to you, having an auto darkening welding helmet is a good thing to have if you can afford it and if you’re not going to abuse it. If you’re going to have it rolling around in the back of your pickup, you should seriously consider a standard welding hood.

When you first start out learning how to weld, it can be a real advantage to use a speedglass just for the simple fact that you can see what’s going on. This is probably more important for learning how to stick weld than it is for learning how to wire feed weld, since the wire feed welding requires you to only pull the trigger. Plus you can get everything set up before you put your hood down. The advantage to seeing what’s going on when your stick welding, is that you can put your hood down and know exactly where the rod is when you’re scratching to try and start your arc. If you don’t have this feature, you have no idea where you are starting your arc, unless you have experience. Another advantage to an auto darkening hood is, if you are doing a lot of production welding. If you’re starting and stopping an awful lot or are stitch welding for long periods of time, it’s handy to not have to lift up your hood every time you need to find your next spot to weld.

Auto darkening welding helmets can range anywhere from $100 all the way up to $400. It all depends on your budget and what you want out of it. Most of them will have a feature to set the shade of lens you want to use. Some will even go down to a shade 5 so You can use it for cutting with a torch.

A standard welding hood can be as little as $5 at a garage sale up to about $50. That’s generally the highest price out there, unless you get one with some really fancy graphics. Standard welding helmets are very affordable and if you happen to wreck it, it’s no big deal since it only costed very little.

I have personally used auto darkening hoods, but to this day, I choose not to just for the simple fact that I think they’re kind of expensive and I really don’t need one. Some people will lead you to believe that you need an auto darkening hood, but I disagree. I think it’s a luxury, not a necessity. Spend your money on your welding machine and your welding rods and make sure that those are up to snuff. That’s a better place to spend your money. The more you practice welding, the more you will realize your welding rod or welding gun are nothing more than an extension of your hand, and it’s pretty easy to figure out where that is at all times, even if you’re not looking. After all, practice does make perfect.

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Where is the best place to buy steel?

Posted on 01/05/2010 by Matt

I check in on a few welding forums from time to time. There really are some great ones out there. There are some really knowledgeable people giving out some great advise. If you are looking to learn as much as you can about the welding trade, forums can be a great way to do it.

One of the most common mistakes I see people making has nothing to do with technique. It has to do with where they are buying their materials. Time after time I see guys mentioning that they bought their steel from some big box store. Box stores are great for many things, but not for buying steel. I have yet to see a box store sell steel without marking it up at least 200% from what you would pay at your local welding shop.

A box store might be able to sell enough lumber to pass the savings on to their customers, but they just can’t sell enough steel to do the same. The steel industry itself is not big enough and it’s not geared towards consumers. The average person living down the street from you doesn’t buy steel. He has however, probably bought some 2 x 4s some time in his life.

The next time you need steel for your weekend welding project, it will surely be worth your time to check out your local welding shop or steelyard. You might even want to look at your local scrapyard or recycling place. Sometimes they get some pretty good stuff that companies just throw away.

If you just need a few small pieces of steel, a lot of welding shops will just give you what you need out of their scrap bin. They can’t afford to keep every piece of left over scrap iron. I used to work at places where guys would come in looking for a few small pieces of steel. We would tell them to have a look in the scrap pile and they were happy as hell. Even if you need a few odds and ends, the owner of the shop might just give it to you for scrap price. He would just be throwing it out anyway. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

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Should I build it or buy it?

Posted on 12/26/2009 by Matt

This seems to be one of the biggest questions floating around welding forums. No matter what forum I look through, I always see people asking if they should build something or just buy one already built. That question always seems to get asked by some of the less experienced people, and for good reason. Since they are newer, they are not sure if it would be cheaper or even better to build it or buy it.

The asking of the question has never pissed me off. It’s the smart assed answers by so called experts that usually seem to get the best of me. Without fail, you will always see some long timer virtually slap the guy in the face with a response like “you could never build it for what you can buy it for at______”. Then they usually follow that up with “from looking at your previous questions I don’t think your even capable of building that”.

It’s this type of a response that resembles the schoolyard. Do we really need bullies in a welding forum? Try to offer some constructive criticism to people when they ask for some information. What good does it do to tell people to forget building their project because they can buy it cheaper? Maybe the guy is looking for a project to pass the time on weekends. Maybe he just wants a good project to be able to learn more about the welding trade. Maybe money is not always the biggest concern for people. I personally love to see guys building their own projects. That is one of the things that makes most guys tick, to be able to get out to the garage and build something.

Sometimes the original guy that posts the question needs to be told that they should practice first, rather than try to build something that will kill him or others. Sometimes guys might be bitting off more than they can chew according to their skill level. If that’s the case, why not let them know that in a civilized way instead of jumping down the guys throat. If you get nasty with a new guy for asking simple questions, what does that make welders in general look like? It makes us look like assholes. There is no doubt that there are plenty of jerks in the welding trade. Heck, I used to work with more than my share. It really makes life hard if you have to be around people like that, so don’t be like that. Try to offer something of some value to people trying to learn about welding. We all need to remember that we were new at one time or another. Nobody was born a welding expert.

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A beginners guide to striking an arc with a welding rod.

Posted on 12/13/2009 by Matt

striking an arcThe theory behind keeping an arc going is, the electrical current is forced between the welding rod tip and the steel you are welding. If you want to be a successful welder you must be able to strike an arc and keep it going without even thinking about it.

The 2 most common ways of starting your arc are by tapping and scratching your welding rod to the steel. Scratching seems to be the most natural way used by beginners.

Scratching is when you swipe the rod across the steel as if you were trying to light a match. Once the rod makes contact with the steel, the arc starts. The only real reason for scratching it to get it started is so it won’t stick to the steel since it is in motion. The trick then is to locate where you want to weld and try to keep the arc going. This takes some practice to get the hang of it.

Tapping is basically stabbing the steel with your welding rod. This is better for starting your rod in the correct welding location, but it is harder to keep the rod from sticking and still maintaining an arc. The natural reaction is once the arc strikes, you will want to pull it away to keep it from sticking. The only problem is, beginners tend to pull it too far away and lose the arc. This can go on and on and is actually pretty funny to watch someone doing this. But we all need to remember we were new at one point also.

Sticking of your welding rod is caused by the rod melting to the steel before it is pulled away slightly to maintain it’s arc. I won’t go into how far away it should be from the steel since it is dependent on what type of rod you are using and the amperage you are welding with.

These are the basics and should give you an idea of how to strike an arc. Just remember that it takes practice and patience to get good at it. One day you will grab the stinger and it will all just click in your head. It will almost start to feel natural, then you will know it’s all coming together.

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Finding the difference between reverse and straight polarity.

Posted on 12/09/2009 by Matt

AC_DC_logoWhen you see the letters AC/DC on your welder, do you think of one of your favorite rock and roll bands? Seriously though, the difference is quite important to the final quality of your welds.

AC (Alternating Current) and DC (Direct Current) is used to describe the polarity of the electric current that the welder generates and in what direction it travels. If you use the wrong polarity for a certain welding rod, your weld strength will not be very good.

The general terms associated with polarity are reverse polarity and straight polarity. These are common to the welding trade. Another way to describe the two terms are electrode positive and electrode negative. Electrode positive is the same as reverse polarity. Electrode negative is the same as straight polarity. Hence the + and the – written on your welder where the cables connect to it.

Any type of welding rod you buy will be labeled as to what polarity should be used for welding with it. Using the correct polarity will ensure the proper penetration and the over all look of the final bead.

If you use the wrong polarity you can tell by the signs. There will be an excessive amount of spatter, you will have bad penetration, and you will have less control of your arc.

Some welding machines have a switch to adjust the polarity. If your welder doesn’t have one you will need to switch the welding cables around where they plug into the machine. If you want reverse polarity, you need to make sure the electrode holder is plugged into the + terminal.

The easiest way to tell if you are using the wrong polarity is by the sound and the feel of the weld you are laying down. If you don’t have much experience with stick welding you will have a little more trouble determining the difference. I have seen guys weld all day long with the wrong polarity. Then I would grab their welder to use for couple of minutes and I could tell right away. It all comes down to experience.

If you don’t have much experience stick welding, you will need to double check the way the machine is set up. Follow what the welding rod package tells you to do and do it. If you are using 7018 rods, you will want to make sure it is set up for reverse polarity.

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Quick tip for striking an arc with a stick welder.

Posted on 12/06/2009 by Matt

WELDWhen you are just learning to stick weld it can be tricky to start your arc. Part of the problem could be both the amperage and the type of rod you are using. If the rod keeps sticking to the metal you might want try a different rod or change the amperage. For instance, if you are using 7018 rods you might want to try 6010 or 6011. They are much easier to learn how to strike an arc with. A good heat setting for 1/8″ 6010 or 6011′s is 105 – 110 amps. A good heat setting for 1/8″ 7018 is 120 – 125 amps.

This is just a quick tip. It is meant for practice and I am not recommending switching to a rod that is not correct for the job you are trying to do.

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Make some extra cash with a welding project.

Posted on 12/05/2009 by Matt

cash-wadI was talking to a friend of mine a few days ago and he mentioned that the place he worked was really slow and was worried about getting laid off. He was wondering what to do to try and make some extra money. I told him why don’t you put that welder in your garage to some good use. He didn’t know what I was talking about, so I said why don’t you build something and just sell it. I have been thinking about writing a post about this for some time and now seems as good as any.

Take the car rotisserie market as an example. There is not a ton of places locally to buy an auto rotisserie and even if you could find one it would most likely be pretty darn expensive. If you build one for about $300 – $400 worth of materials you could most likely sell it for double that and it would still be cheaper than the competition. If you sell it relatively local the buyer would be happy not to have to pay hundreds in shipping. It’s also free to advertise on craigslist so you wouldn’t have any costs to sell it.

If you need a bigger market for a more common item how about a trailer. I happen to know a guy who has a pretty awesome set of plans for both of those items. But seriously, it could be anything from a nice solid welding table to a sheetrock cart. The point is it could be some nice extra cash in your pocket. Plus it’s a lot more fun than just sitting on your couch watching Oprah.

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Ebay vs. Craigslist for welding gear.

Posted on 12/04/2009 by Matt

4815e9cc-00035-00709-400cb8e1I have been looking recently at the prices of welding supplies. I used to just buy all my gear at welding supply stores but, I’ve noticed how expensive everything seems to be. I decided to shop around on craigslist and there are some pretty good deals to be had. Especially if you are looking for a large item such as a welder but, BUYER BEWARE! Craigslist definitely has it’s place in the world but, it seems like it’s also a free-for-all. I have never run into as many scam artists as I have on Craigslist in recent years. Another downfall of buying your gear on Craigslist is who wants to drive 30 miles for a pair of welding gloves and another 45 miles for a welding hood.

If you start looking at Ebay you will soon realize that you can have all the same stuff shipped to your door for the same price as Craigslist or a fraction of the cost of a welding supply store. Plus if something goes wrong with the order you actually have some recourse you can take up with PayPal. Good luck trying to get your money back from some joker on Craigslist. In other words, you won’t get scammed on Ebay. I have been watching some items on Ebay and have found some (not all) of the prices are quite good, especially since I don’t need to leave the house to go shopping. Below is a list of some current auctions in real time on Ebay. I thought it would be fitting since this is a welding blog.

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Mig welding sheet metal tips. Video

Posted on 12/02/2009 by Matt

Here is a quick video showing a good way to weld very thin metal with a wire feed welder. I use a backer strip in the video, but sometimes you won’t be able to use one. Starting and stopping will prevent the sheet metal from getting too hot and will be almost necessary in order to lay down a nice looking bead.



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