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IMO the entry level HF flux welder should be discontinued. In my experience with it, producing even remotely clean welds is impossible. I'm not sure what applications they have in mind with this unit but I really can't think of any user being satisfied with the outcome.

If so, check in here!

Just added a Kemppi forum: https://weldingsite.com/kemppi/

Right now we had to go to manual approof all members. Every time we turn manual approval off spammers figure out how to get in.

Holy moly, that's amazing work! I'm going to ask you about the best way to build a gate for my walkway.

Plug one hole and another opens. Got it cleaned out...

Welcome, Mike! Glad you found the site and hope to see your future posts.

That looks like factory quality. Great job.

Or you could make the lightest duty loader known to man and use 1/8" as your test run. ?‍♂️?

Looking forward to that! You will need a beefier welder for that thickness of steel though.

Adequate power supply is important. I didn't think much of the cord length since I needed to use an extension anyway. I had picked up a 10ga a while back and I just use that for anything that wants a 20amp circuit.

Update: The railing has not failed. Looks great and remains a solid as the day I finished the install. The only point I give any thought to is where I welded the two 8 foot sections of railing together, as to the fabricator it's an obvious mark. Now, I have a truck with a ladder rack so I would...

In the $150-$200 price range you could also check out the Harbor Freight Titanium Easy Flux 125 (the green one, link here: https://www.harborfreight.com/easy-flux-125-amp-welder-56355.html). If ultra portability is desired, a good choice. Though the example welds @California showed with his...

Welcome! Glad to have your knowledge here.

Welcome! I had never picked up a welder until two years ago when a project was upon me. It's a lot of fun.

Welcome aboard! What do you weld, anything in particular?

Yikes. Looks like some of my welds! If you don't know what you're doing, people can get hurt. This reminds of a time I was driving on the freeway and a piece of metal got kicked up from the car in front of me and hit my windshield. Sent a bunch of glass dust and some crumbles into the car. By...

Took some time but I think I got all the spam removed. Also I updated some spam prevention settings. Might get another wave of spam but if so we'll get it taken care of faster.

I'll get on it. Sorry about that.

Didn't get to this in November, maybe December?

I made about 80 cuts with the chop saw through half inch wrought iron... that nose must have made me quite popular with the neighbors. It's quite hideous.

When it comes to metal tubing or rods or anything i can fit in my chop saw, I can use a cutoff blade and get the job done (albeit cutting a one inch thick wrought iron post isn't pretty with a cutoff blade, it eventually gets the job done). What's the best tool, and what are the best...

I have a small pit boss smoker which does a great job for the size and price ($189 on sale at lowes last year) but the only downside is it needs a bigger hopper for long smokes. In fact I can only get a couple hours out of the stock hopper but if I want to do an overnight smoke, I need a good 7...

Today I am... changing the title of this thread.

It takes time to build an active forum. Oh and the occasional promotion or contest.

Welcome to California! The run is about 25 feet. :ROFLMAO:

I grew up on a 55 acre hobby farm in a town of 1,200. Today, I live three miles from the beach in San Diego... recently got a place with almost a quarter acre corner lot in a neighborhood with no HOA. My last place was a block from the beach in an HOA so I know the struggles with that. I too...

I bought a couple from HF and a couple from HD (I think they are diabolo brand?). I didn't notice a whole lot of difference. But then again I'm not very experienced yet.

The house wasn't in poor condition per se but we wanted to make some improvements before moving in... which of course didn't get finished before moving in. Also one thing leads to another... didn't want to put in a nice floor before making the floorplan changes in the living and kitchen areas...

Also just for reference, this is the past two months of my life... sorry for the sideways photos.

Yeah that's on the list already. I hung about 40 sheets in this house already. Did all of the mud and taping myself. This wall was so smooth I was considering smoothing the texture in the entire house but didn't have time to bite that much off considering everything else on the to-do list. But...

First coat of flat black rust-oleum ultra cover premium paint. Brushed it on. I'll do one more coat. I'm no longer concerned with the appearance of the welds as they are nearly impossible to see unless you get your face right up to the weld. Good thing I didn't spend much time grinding! I'm...

I'm sure it looks exactly the same as the other day but this is the second fabrication. All that's left now is paint. Notice how I'm not posting close up photos of the welds. :ROFLMAO::eek:

Yeah I already learned that if it's so ugly that it needs to be ground off completely, it needs a new weld. If you want it to be nice looking that is.

I picked up a few different flap discs plus sanding paper, and a pointed cone drill bit attachment. I know it won't be pretty on the underside unless I spend dozens and dozens of hours on it so I'm probably going to settle for "good enough" this time.

Thought about that. After the fact of course. Took the day off today. Will resume tomorrow. Hey wait I thought I was going to finish this last weekend?

Yeah I have used bondo many times as a secret weapon. Might have to bust it out this time too.

This is where I left off today. Another day of re-doing work due to inexperience. The newell posts are secured with lags and the baulesters are set in epoxy on the treads and welded to the railing. Once I finish the final dozen baulesters I'll wire brush everything and grind down what I can...

I'm using a 25 foot 20 gauge plugged into a 20 amp. My only issues are related to welding these really weird angles without much metal on metal contact. So as I try to get a bead started sometimes the arc is jumpy. But like I said that's because of the contact or lack thereof. When I'm just...

As a follow up on the failed welds... once we removed the railing, the whole unit had a bit of flex to it and that movement basically got all of the baulesters swaying and that was enough to break some welds. Also we tried a three person job with only two people so it wasn't as stable as I had...

Here's a weld I did with the DC titanium flux 125 on voltage I and speed 6, which seems to be pretty good. This is with a quick wire brush by hand after the weld. I'm pretty sure this weld would be impossible on the standard AC flux 125. I can definitely feel much better control and penetration...

I used a welding blanket for the spatter inside... only a couple embers got on the stair treads. The rest of the welding and grinding will be done outside. But yeah I'm a firm believer in ramboard for any reno project.

Wider angle

:love:The DC unit is night and day. Much more control and the portability came in handy today when I had to weld the baulesters indoors. Tomorrow the three man job of removing this entire railing and then I'll finish all the welds, prime it, and paint, then reinstall and epoxy the baulesters...

I took back the cheapo AC flux unit and got the titanium flux 125 today. I didn't test it out yet. So technically the handrail is steel and the baulesters are wrought iron. Indeed I've already been practicing on scrap railing. It's at the point where I can grind the visible parts down to a...

@California I will take your advice. I was hoping that with some time I could get good with this unit but if you were never able to get the spatter down, I might as well cut my losses and trade it now. I like the looks of the easy titanium unit, will check it out tomorrow.

@Gary Fowler The unit i have has low and high settings but I was using an extension cord out of necessity. I only have a couple 20amp circuits in my house right now so getting to the back yard with 20amp requires an extension cord. I will I the speed and use some cooking spray next time.

Well I'm in San Diego where currently almost any "home improvement" is billed at $100/hr per person. It's way out of control but supply and demand has pushed prices up. It's motivated me to do almost everything myself and only bring in a professional when I mess something up.

Today I re-did everything I did yesterday. :ROFLMAO: I started the day by grinding and found that my welds had cracks in the middle where the pieces met. So basically I had no room between the pieces and the welds were on the surface only. I guess that could be okay if I didn't grind everything...

Well i started welding yesterday. I have read a little about welders and generally felt mig seemed like a reasonably easy way to get started. I was going to rent a welder for the weekend but at $60 a day for a Lincoln mig, I found myself lured to the world's favorite project tool shop for a $99...

My first welding project will be one that goes front and center in our entry way... a wrought iron (actually molded steel) railing and baulesters. After a couple of orders from house of forgings and a trip to king architectural metals here in southern California I'm ready to get started and...

Looks like a torch to me...

Hi Everybody, We just completed the drawing for our May, 2020 "Win a Welder" giveaway contest. Here are the results! 1st Prize Winner - $500 toward a welder of your choice @Gary Fowler 2nd Prize Winner - $100 amazon gift card @Eaglevfp 3rd Prize Winners (3) @CB @poncho62 @Craig...

Thanks for playing everybody, we do a final update and will do the drawing tomorrow afternoon, pacific time.

Wow, very nice!

Qualified member list updated. Drawing happening on Monday!

Will update it today!

Very nice work!

Updated the qualified members list... looking pretty good with 44 members posting project threads this month and 22 with 10 or more posts. But very few referrals and very few facebook shares means you can still get some extra points if you haven't done either of those.

Looks great!

Welcome to the community.

That's probably not a bad idea! Or you'd just hear from everybody who just wanted a free meal? Either way I'm hoping the contest fun continues... definitely more action than I was expecting!

Nice work! So what have you moved with it?

So, are you going to try to fix it? What's your plan? I don't think any mechanics would be comfortable putting a repaired block back on the road which is maybe why it's not done very often. But the pressure is not something a weld shouldn't be able to hold.

Good to hear. This layout is coming to TractorByNet soon too.

Yes, check this thread: https://weldingsite.com/threads/win-a-welder-may-2020-contest.74/

We call that the TractorByNet effect. In other words, I invited 180,000 tractor guys and 2,500 of them joined. :eek:

Are you sure you didn't already see our list of prizes? ?

Good Post! :geek:

This is a good one! Nice work.

A lot of sites have the "like" button on posts but I wanted to do something a little different. I thought about making it a "Good Advice" or "Helpful" button but then figured maybe there would be good posts that weren't necessarily advice (for example a project that is just a picture) or...

Welcome aboard!

Welcome!

Sounds like you'll fit right in here!

:ROFLMAO: I thought you were serious for about half a second there. We actually did invite LMF members but by email... maybe in the spam folder.

Let's see some of your work!

Yeah we'll work it out if the winner is from Canada or another country.

Oh I've been thinking about that. There are some high end stores here that sell reclaimed wood for thousands.

Looking forward to seeing them!

Keep us updated on how this one comes along.

May the 4th was definitely with you! This is awesome.

This was a blip on the radar, as we had set the site up to require location before putting the location field on the registration form. Now it's on there. Thanks for reporting it though.

Wow! Awesome!

Well done! I bet you could sell those if you offered them for sale at a local nursery.

Excellent work! Looking forward to seeing the completed project.

Oh that's nice! Do you only have the coals on the bottom?

Great work! Let me guess... Texas? How long did it take you to build?

Question, was that your original bucket or did you use an extra bucket? I see that it's welded on so that implies some degree of permanence.

This post will be reserved to list users who have met criteria for additional entries! ------------------------- 1. Join weldingsite.com +1 entry (Existing members entered automatically) All members will meet this criteria. ------------------------- 2. Post a project THREAD +2 entries...

Awesome! I moved this to its own thread. Love the workmanship.

Excellent work and I love the color! I've split this off into its own thread.

Just added this. You can now see all of your uploaded attachments under your user menu -> Attachments and you can instantly access them when posting a thread or reply by clicking on the paper clip icon in the editor bar above the message input window.

There will be soon!

We are excited to announce our first ever WeldingSite contest! Starts now and ends May 31, 2020... 1st Prize: $500 toward the welder of your choice! 2nd Prize: $100 amazon gift card! 3rd Prize: Rapicca Welding Gloves (3 winners!) There are FIVE ways to enter and each person can earn up to 15...

Feel free to invite your friends! We will be doing a big promo in may in hopes of drawing new members in to get the knowledge and experience base larger.

Are you talking about the window where you compose a message? I assume you're on a desktop computer? Here's what I see on my phone while typing.

Awesome! Looks like a professional job.

Thanks, I like the idea of a consolidated projects forum. I'll look at this when I'm back at my computer.

Thanks @sea2summit for the suggestions. Good ideas. I hope to get working on this next week. Should be fun.

I for one think that this forum is off to a great start. I was a little concerned about whether we'd have any members stick around past the first day but it's been a couple of weeks and I'm liking the action. So far we've done a bit of promotion via a link on TractorByNet and PMs on...

Okay file size limit increased. Please try again.

I'll check into the settings.

Nice! Wasn't sure if anybody would see that. :D

Nice start! Moved your topic to its own thread.

Admin can't spell.

TBN members will get an invite soon too so expect another invite, haha.

Following this thread for myself. (y)

I've thought about getting my feet wet in fabrication as my wife and I both love furniture, often metal and wood. We were looking at a dining table for about $3,000 made of walnut and a steel base. I was thinking for that much money I could probably buy most of the tools needed and maybe...

Looking forward to seeing them!

Got you covered. Nice project!

That's me.

If your post is worthy of its own thread, I'll break it off into one so it can have its 15 minutes of fame.

Imagine if every forum err I mean my garage was this well organized. :love:

Looks good to me.

Thanks Ed. I'm going to make this post sticky. Keep the great posts coming!

Glad to see some mower guys checking in. Welcome aboard.

I know it's only day 2 but I'm curious to hear where everybody is hearing about WeldingSite?

I'm guessing you've built an attachment or two for your kubota?

There are probably a few hiding in the bushes.

Great thanks!

Welcome to the site!

Welcome to WS

Welcome! Yes fresh and clean, hasn't been broken in yet. Thanks for joining.

Nice idea and I'm guessing the price was right.

Love the welding table, looks like a quality piece.

Great project. How do you toggle the winch? Is that what the lever on the left side is for?

Maybe this site can turn you into a welder?

Amen to that! :D

Welcome! Thanks for joining.

Mine would be home improvement amateur hour. :confused:

If you've got $500 to spend on the welder only, what TIG welder would you buy?

Let's see those creations. Photos please!

Somebody told me to add this section so I'm thinking there should be at least a few Hobart guys here.

If you've got a Miller welder, let's hear from you. :geek:

Raise your hand if you own a Lincoln welder!

Okay guys... let's see your junk piles and scrapped projects that didn't work out. I know you've all got them. :D

I've heard MIG welding is referred to as the glue gun of welding. But it's also supposed to be more efficient than TIG. For those of you who use MIG as your go-do, would you say it's because you started with MIG or prefer it over other processes?

In addition to the obvious welder, what are your must-have welding tools that you can't live without? Feel free to include photos.

Those of you who are veteran welders, what advice would you give newbie welders just starting out? How can we benefit from your mistakes? :cool:

Would you just put that under fabrication for now?

Hello there. 30 members now, more on the way.

I made it myself!

If you'd like to access the forum through Tapatalk, it is now activated. Please let me know if you have any issues.

Too cute for the welding crowd? No participation trophies?

Would you like to be #14 on every site we start? ?

I'm sure most if not all of the early members will be welding experts, but it would be very helpful if you could start things off by posting threads and links to useful content or frequently asked questions. These early threads would be thought of as the basis for sticky threads in each section...

I hope you like the setup. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. The bones are here and should be working well but I have a few things on the to-do list: - We will enable TapaTalk tomorrow - Forum icons will be the torch instead of the "paper" news thing - Custom fields for user...

Bragging rights. You beat me to first post on my own site ahhhhh good job!