What Are Your Must-Have Welding Tools?

[Auminer]

Seems as I'm getting lazy and grabbing the plasma cutter, nuttin' fancy but dang it's handy.

 

[Old Irish]

Great posts! As my father in law is famous for saying "you can't have too many clamps". Which fortunately my wife often quotes him and consequently I have very many clamps. As Rancher Ed said, Angle Grinders. I'd expand on that to say that it's best to have an angle grinder for every application. Flapper wheel, cutting wheel, general grinding, cutting wheel, and cup brush for cleaning up. That's 5 grinders and some of them can be HF for the light stuff. The Dewalt grinders were on sale a while back for $80 and I bought several. but not enough! Should have bought more. Being able to just pick up a grinder that is ready to go for the purpose is an amazing time saver. Having to find a wrench and change wheels is super buzz kill when you are on a roll. And who wants that???

I think I finally almost have enough grinders, I have my old B&D 7" a 4" makita and 7 -4.5" + one I loaned to a friend 2 years ago that I think he took as a gift. I just need 2 more, a straight grinder to replace the pneumatic and a dewalt 4.5 through 6" rat tail.

 

[Lennyzx11]

I use my cordless bandsaw from Milwaukee a lot for cuts. I have a hypertherm plasma cutter but usually use the portaband (it’s the deep model)
Ditto on the angle grinders set up for individual uses. I have corded and cordless accumulated through the years. 5 maybe.
i want a cutoff saw but never needed it bad to date.

 

[Rustang]

Plenty of various size and shape vise grips, magnets, vise. A good bright adjustable magnetic base lamp.

 

[az rancher]

A Dewalt coldcut chop saw is wonderful. Recently added a Milwaukee 8 inch coldcut circular saw and it’s really nice cutting 2&3/8 pipe and smaller out on the job.

 

[Toby Von Snaefell]

I like and agree with all of the previous posts.
Probably my favourite tool related to welding & fabricating is the adjustable fume extractor. It can be positioned so as to draw the bulk of smoke/fumes/spray paint away from me.
I can plug in a length of 6" hi temp hose to reach further away than the bench, or attach to a vehicle exhaust pipe.
It is clunky and for some positions has to be held up with tiedowns or bungee cords. No big deal, my lungs are worth a bit of effort.

Ironically, In my business life, I designed and installed probably hundreds of brand new state of the art fume extractors (usually Nederman) but for my own shop
I have a 45 to 50 year old Torit system salvaged from a customers' welding shop when they wanted a better set up.
Same with the fan, high quality except its newer, only 40!
But hey, they were free, and work well enough for me.

My welding bench is 4' x 8' x 1/2 mild steel c/w 6" bench vise and bench mount 6" grinder/buffer at one end.
I use an old 12" Makita abrasive chop saw for rough cuts and a 14" carbide wheel Makita cold cut saw for the finer work.
They live on a dedicated cutting bench set up outside (again, fumes/dust) under a roof to stay dry

 

[Gary Fowler]

Basic welder tools will all fit in a 5 gallon bucket. A good AC/DC welding machine(this doesn't go in the 5 gallon bucket), a welding whip at least 10 feet long, half round pipe file for chipping slag, chipping hammer for tight spots that you cant use the file, hand wire brush, welding hood of course (auto darkening is better) with some spare clear lens, 4 pound ball pein hammer to beat steel into submission, good welding gloves (heavy Tillman for stick and light TIG gloves for other welding), cutting googles, tip cleaners for oxy-acetylene torch, bottle wrench to remove gauges and a tape measure, some 1/8" 6010, 3/32" 7018. That is the basic needs.

Convenience items to add are grinders (at least 4 of the 4.5 and one 7"), wrenches to fit the grinders, assorted grinder disc, sanding pads and brushes, a tri-square, torpedo level, port-a-bandsaw, drill press, hand drill motor(battery powered is ok), assorted drills of good quality, and lastly lots of various types and sizes of welding electrodes, brazing wire, solder for wiring needs, wire spools for MIG/FCAW.
Additionally a wire feed welder is nice to have for thin stuff. I still prefer stick for anything over 1/4" thick.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Forgot to add a chop saw to the convenient items, plus a oxy-acetylene cutting/heating torch and plasma cutting torch.

 

[drb1215]

Grinder and porta band saw (Milwaukee)

 

[rtj49]

Gary Fowler,
I love your saying you use a drill motor. The younger guys chuckle when I as for my drill motor.

 

[Chiefwebb]

I would like to mention I found the SWAG V4.0 Portaband Saw Table has been useful in many projects. I mount a deep cut Milwaukee band saw in mine. I have found that it is difficult to get it mounted square so I generally don't use it when cutting square tubing. I also use quite a bit a 2-ton Gantry Crane..

 

[Maury J]

Good point Bumper. I've seen a chop saw blade that does good clean cuts fast. Trying to remember the name of it. Anyone seen that woman April who has a build channel on Youtube? She started with wood and is now working with steel too? Great channel, her enthusiasm and creativity are fun to watch.

You're probably thinking of April Wilkerson. Very talented lady.

 

[Craig]

I think the tool I use the most that is not directly related to actually putting down weld bead is probably weld prep like a flapper disc.

 

[old yooper]

About what everyone else has said about tools that are needed, but while doing things close to the floor / ground, what I seem to grab first is,
a foam pad. Like one of those 2' x 2' x 1/2" pads for kids or exercise.
When you get old, just that 1/2" of foam between you and the hard ground makes a big difference.
Yes, they melt and stink a little with splatter.
They run around $8 each new, but I picked up 10 or so used ones at a yard sale for a buck each. They were a little dirty and some had a few chunks missing, didn't care they were inexpensive and they do what I want.

 

[Frank S]

It already been mentioned but I have several pneumatic needle scalars. I keep different disks flapper wheels soft disk wire brushes and cobs mounted on a hand full or 4 1/2 and 5 inch angle grinders and I keep 7" 36 grit soft disks mounted on 1 of my 7 inch grinders for most of my heavy grinding that falls into the duty line of the 9" heavy duty angle grinder.
Another absolute must have for me other than my Victor torch is the Airco Carbon arc gouging torch since I do quite a bit or repair work, gouging out a crack or separating members is made a lot easier with a carbon arc then cleaning up the cracks with a bur file on a die grinder.
And you can never have enough C clamps or vicegrip welders clamps. When fabricating having several lengths of sacrificial pieces of angle iron to tack in place serving as 3rd 4th and 5th hands is a must there have been times when I would need to use as many as 5 framing squares held in place with clamps and magnets so both of these need to be added to the list as well.
A 4lb hammer a chipping hammer and 3 or 4 different sized adjustable wrenches I have them ranging in size from 6" through 20"
there is always a need for a good mechanics set of hand tools IE wrenches socket sets screw drivers pliers and channel lock pliers.
Essentially just about every tool imaginable at times can become the most needed go to tool in your kit

 

[Chiefwebb]

My newest addition - a 2 ton gantry crane

 

[Viny]

Just last year, I built a rolling stand to hold my grinders, clamps, etc. It has a power strip on it that everything plugs into. I can now position it in a good spot relative to the project and it is so handy and keeps the work area uncluttered. I have gained so much time not untangling cords, etc. I would have done this much sooner had I been able to anticipate the impact.

 

[PILOON]

Clamps, clamps, clamps---and every pair of vice grips that I find at yard/garage sales for $1-2.00.
Couple of welding magnets,.'C' clamps.
Then I also have a bunch of long woodworking clamps that often come in handy as well.
2ea 5" grinders, one for wire brush and other for cutting discs plus a pile of 5" cutting disks bought when on sale.
Also have a 12" metal chop saw that has seen much duty.
While most chop saws are 14" and use the same motor you can't burn out the 12" plus I have a buddy that saves me all his 14" blades when worn down to my 12" size.
Guess I like welding!

 

[CADplans]

My "MUST" must have is my 9X16 metalcutting bandsaw,,

I literally have specific money set aside to replace this saw if it ever fails,, I have owned this one over 20 years, and it was well used when I got it,,
Here it is cutting several 0.75" thick steel bars,, at the same time,,

It will cut more than that, but, I only needed four parts.

 

[PILOON]

Chop saw (or cold cut) clamps, 'C' clamps, vice grips (lots) 2 grinders, one for discs other for wire cup brush.
Lots of cutting discs.
Chipping hammer, welding magnets (nice to have 2)
(Some long pipe clamps come in handy as well.)
AND a decent helmet, auto type is a treat! + non auto for lookers on.