Just finished this little project building a grate for a sump pit and two caps for fence post. I couldn’t find the grate big enough to cover the hole in one piece, plus the customer asked for a screen to keep leaves out. I decided to just build one. After deciding to use flat bar instead of tubing I was able to plug in all numbers in a excel spreadsheet format I purchased from a guy @ a website “MADE FOR PROFIT “ and was able to quote the job at a 40% margin. I do this on my spare time by with these numbers I wanna do more .
The tools I used are mine , the leads are mine and the welder I used was station at my house , but when it came to being mobile, I got one from the the rental yard for 75$ a day.
I think I’ll hold off buying my gas driven welder for now.

Ok , to be honest after laying out the cardboard cad, I I thought this was gonna look sharp, then I started matching up the and and cutting things out, next thing I knew I was squeezing and tacking, beating and welding. lol , it really was a fun ,easy and affordable project to create . Learned a bit about fit up, chill blocks (used a 3x3 aluminum angle to weld all panels) filled gaps with silicone bronze., and best of all its was done with my daughter, she actually engineered the whole thing, gave me a sketch and we work together to build it.
Question
1) silicone bronze don’t work on dirty steel right?
2) what the quickest way to clean off the old peel on stainless steel, you know the protective cover.
3) does the sili bronze filller flow like mud, or was I completely doing it wrong
Happy holidays
Brad Goodman Matt Hayden Shaun Graham

Brad Goodman Matt Hayden you guys ever fabricated with a slip roller, if so can you share your experience.
Allso, working plate and sheet metal is so different, especially with out a sheer, if you wanted to cut multiple small shapes with accuracy, what method would you recommend.
I'm trying to make a hoilday tree topper star out of 18 Guage, and 6 " cut off wheel. Let just say I taught my daughter the Importance of making the part match the template.
Anyhow I hope I get to post it.
Happy holidays

Drilling through these Stainless Steel fittings was a breeze with this drill press. 5/16 drill thru 1/4 stainless steel compression fittings.

Fun little project, piping for Instrumentation air measurements. 8 pipe , 150 lb mating flange welded with 316/316L -16 1/8 rod smaw . 110 amps DC + 3 pass. Never really ran stainless stick, but I always heard the the slag has a tendency to pop off at you, the funny thing is the slag keeps popping even after you clean the weld, kind like jumping beans. Was able to find a small box rod on the store shelf for about 115 bucks.

This thing felt like I was working on a giant rat trap. Now that I’m done I want to see it dump a load. lol also make me wanna build a crane or something, imagine that.

A month ago I took on this trailer , making some small odd repairs, including removing that battery, and relocate in side the newly mounted tool box. The real challenge was replacing the hydraulic pump , hose and fittings to match up with the original hydraulic ram. Then figuring out how to wire in the switch for a single action hydraulic line ( manufacturer had it set for dual action)
Finding the right fluid wasn’t to difficult, and with support of a local hydraulic parts supplier it only took a couple of trips. lol
Ill show the hydraulics in action on the next video.

Just got my stickers last night , really digging em. Thanks all.

My company dispatched my apprentice and I to an oil processing plant on the west cost for a crack repair on an oil heater treater. When we arrived in house staff was pulling this E-tube out and washing it for us. During the first inspection inspections a small crack on the exterior side was noticed on the toe of existing weld. After pulling washing and reinspecting a 21” crack was discovered on the back side.
I had E-tube propped up in the best possible position for ease of access on all sides, CARBON ARCED out the crack on backside . (1/2) deep and a total of 25 “ two inches past the the crack and welded her up with 7018 1/8 .
Next day came back gouged out the front all the way down to sound metal and welded it up on the 3rd day.
Front cracks was just as long as the front crack but dug in a lot deeper.
Base metal 515 grade 70 / 1-1/4 thick.
CAC made short work of joint prep. Joint used was referenced from AWS D1.1 (B-U8) CJP

So I finally broke out the check book and got me a new wire feeder that has a large spool capacity, went to the local home depot and pick up a scrap pice of 1"×1/16 tube and started playing with some low settings.
( linked up with linclon's cross linc really well)
Rather than spend 30 bucks for a bunch of tee joints a decided to make bait hook . It's not finished but my point is the profax vs1 was half the price of an ln 25 and came with a connector lug plus 3' of leed. So far happy with it. Can't wait to try dual shield, Flux and spray arc mood,
Welderskills thanks for the mig workbook and all the recent spray arc videos. 😉