correct!

hell TIG over MIG any day!

i wish i could afford one someday

Just watch EBay and Craigslist... I picked up my TIG for $650 and it's just about as big and indestructable as any welder you'll find. Even had a new torch and cable cover on it.

Miller Synchrowave 300... same as the one we use for fabricating at work. Was mislabeled as a "Synchromatic" on EBay and got hardly any looks... similar welders were going for $1200-1800 at the time (about 2 years ago).

damn thats a good deal!

can someone recommend an auto dark helmet to me, preferably with no batteries. i don't think i need some fancy $300 helmet, seems like a $50 does the same thing:confused:

oh and since i had off work yesterday because of the snow i decided to wire up my 220 line and flux core something. obviously i'm a newb but it was fun lighting up the snow covered neighborhood with my garage door open

I paid $49 for my HF helmet (solar powered). The first one lasted about 3 years (it still works but the battery is a little weak). I bought another one recently (think it was about $35 after coupons and stuff). I've done a fair amount of shade tree welding with it.


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91214

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...1299/91214.gif

thanks, i was hoping i didn't have to shell out a load of dough. response time, how fast do you need?

ok so my hemlet came in the mail today, auto dark as expected makes things a ton easier. here's the one i went with, it had great reviews and was on sale as if it wasn't cheap enough.
Northern Industrial Solar-Powered Auto-Darkening Welding Helmet | Welding Helmets | Northern Tool + Equipment

so after work i tried it out and added some scrap to my flux cored steel collage.

Yeah, looks like the same thing I have. Northern Tool and HF often sell the same Chinese stuff but in a slightly different box. Usually HF will be 5% cheaper. My neighbor and I both bought well water pumps in the same week. I saw him drilling his well so I went over to borrow his drill and saw his pump sitting there. Same picture on the box but it was a different color and the brand name was different. Exact same pump. I think he paid $20 more than I did.

I will be building this next week (if you were closer I would invite you over to help). It is a tow bar for a Geo Metro:

Attachment 200188

lol, what are you gonna be towing with the geo? mpg data will be interesting.

but yeah it's cool how you can do almost anything you can dream up with a welder. I still need a shop saw and figure out my best option for mig. i haven't been to any local gas suppliers to find out if they'll fill a privately owned tank. if they do i'll likely get an ~80cf tank and get it fill with 75/25 ar/co2.

No, I'll be towing a Geo (wouldn't mind having a parts car sitting around). I screwed up and sold two of them the other day and now I need some parts and don't have them.

Most of the places around here will fill a private bottle (in fact, they make you buy the bottle first). I get the cheapest gas I can find (probably 75/25).

Interesting story: I was going to get my only bottle filled one day and was going to buy a second one at that same time so I would never run out in the middle of a job. On the way to the gas place my wife wanted to stop at a landscaping store. We passed the store by mistake so we were turning around on a dirt road and I heard something crunch under my tire (it was an old beer bottle). I jumped out of the truck to see if I blew my tire and scared a stray cat that was in the woods. I saw him run away and jump over something. That something was an oxygen bottle someone had thrown in the woods (looked like a scuba tank or something). I picked it up and traded it out when I got to the gas place. It was like finding a $100 bill on the ground right when you were buying something for $99.99. How lucky was that?

wow that is lucky. will any cylinder work? if so i may to visit my grandfathers basement, the guy is a serious junk collector and used to be a plumber

They took my O2 cylinder and gave me back a regular welding cylinder. Whatever bottle you have will have some sort of value. The place I did business with gave me that value in credit towards buying the other bottle. They always take an empty bottle and hand you back a full one. You don't get to keep your original (at least where I go).