More machining than welding, but got to at least weld a little today. Turned a slug, and milled a square hole in a round peg. then welded a piece of tubing that the end of a shaft will eventually fit inside and be welded. This will ultimately operate the oil valve that feeds the burner of a steam locomotive boiler. Got to try out the TIG function of the engine house's Miller Multimatic 220. It seemed to make a nice smooth DC TIG arc. I'd stick welded 7018 with it before, and it did that well(but I don't believe it will run 6010.) I was happy with it, considering it was the first TIG bead I'd ever ran with it.

!/8" wall tube to a square socket made of 1045. Pre-heated the 1045, and welded at 150A. ER70S-2. There's a 1/2" long stub that the tubing is pressed over to locate it, so it had a nice heat sink behind it.

Recently became aware of these Knipex mini bolt cutters. Man, they make cutting 1/8" steel and stainless filler rod so much easier. No more Welpers for me. They'll be on the MIG cart where they are best suited. At fifty bucks, I think they're a bargain, considering they're a high quality German made tool, not some Chinesium POS.

Edited to correct the price. I paid around $50 not $30. They'll outlast me, so I think its still a good value.

Tagging Matt Hayden as we'd communicated earlier on dual shield questions. Wasn't happy with the performance of the Lincoln 71M dual shield wire I tried. No matter what I did, there was random worm tracks, lousy root fusion in 1F, and man it was smoky. Decided to try another flavor and wow what a difference. This is Eutectic DO266S set at 25V/250 IPM 40 CFH 75/25 gas. The first thing I noticed was a fraction of the smoke, and no worm tracks. Wet in really nice. And even in 1F there's root fusion. Very promising. Still need to get used to it. Definitely need to slow down for more fill, and shift my aim up a little, as I'm favoring too low in the fillet. This may end up my go to dual shield. It's a little spendy at about $8.79/pound, but it works.