My fleet mechanic is going to let me use his welder so I can teach myself the art. It's a Lincoln Weld Pak 100 HD. He will give me the basic tour, i.e., plug it in over here, turn it on here, open this valve, don't set the garage on fire, etc. Is anyone familiar with this type of welder and any words of wisdom/encouragement? I've never tried it before.

home depot sells a book in the welding department...spend the $12

That's basically the same welder I have.

You can learn a lot by just experimenting with the settings on different thicknesses of metal scrap or pipe.

Clip the ground on the steel pipe and crank up the settings. See what that does. Make several 2-3 inch long passes. Do little "U" shaped moves as you move down the pipe letting the metal puddle back up on itself.

Then try lower settings until you notice the weld no longer penetrates due to lack of heat ( voltage )

Try sheet metal. Weld pieces together and then try to break your welds. Spend an hour or two and get comfortable with the whole process. Set the gas to 15-20 psi. Higher if you are out in the wind.

Welding is really fun and satisfying.

KT

I have a Lincoln SP100-T which I think is the same welder (Canadian designation) and I learned to use it in a few days. My suggestions:

-see if you can get an auto-darkening helmet. It takes the learning curve right down because you can see what you are doing the whole time.

-do NOT practice on your car. Get some light gauge steel and fool around with different welds, different positions, and different settings until you learn how to control the weld puddle and penetration.

Once you get it right it is as easy to use a Mig welder as it is to use a caulking gun and it should sound like bacon frying with little or no weld spatter.

then youll be buying one fo sho!!

Harbor Freight has a surprisingly good auto-darkening helmet for $50.

The mantra for welding is practice, practice, practice....and buy the book. =)

weld shop open! Get a piece of scrap and practice making lines..then if you blow a hole in one, see if you can fill it in by going around the edges and blending into the middle. May not be common occurance, but itll help you get control of your bead.

QUOTE (CptTripps @ Feb 16 2005, 07:14 PM)

Harbor Freight has a surprisingly good auto-darkening helmet for $50.

I got one of those cheap HF auto darkening helmets. Woke up one morning around 3am, after light welding the night before, my eyes felt like someone poured sand in them. Hurt like crazy. I'm not sure it was the mask or reflected light getting behind the mask, but I'm reluctant to use it next time. Flash burn is no fun.

Ended up going to the Dr. He found some metal in one eye so just scraped it out and took the little grinder to get the rust spot out. It was a good day.

The HF auto helmet is $99 on sale for $50. It seems to have some good specs on it. #9 and #13 shades at 1/25000

I have one of them also, it works great, I had many sleepless nights from arc flash back in the late 70's when I used to weld for a living. Doc told me if I kept it up, I would be blind by the time I was 25. I quit welding for a living. It was in a production environment. I still weld, just not very often. The auto darkening helmet is great. I actually have both types.

You guys probably think I am a big sissy, but I use a full face shield when I grind. I am a lousy welder & do lots of gringing. You can do some serious grinding with a hooded long sleeve sweat shirt, leather gloves & a full face shield.

I have 2 of those harbor freight autodarkening helmets, and my pops left his full out blinders set (non autodarkening). Lemme say that the autodarkening rocks! Just don't forget to put it out in the sun before using it..

QUOTE (MarkV @ Feb 17 2005, 12:38 PM)

You guys probably think I am a big sissy, but I use a full face shield when I grind. I am a lousy welder & do lots of gringing. You can do some serious grinding with a hooded long sleeve sweat shirt, leather gloves & a full face shield.

Thats just working smart. Wish I had that much on when I was using my grinder with a cut off wheel. I nearly gave myself a sex change and a root canal when the grinder flew out of my hand and swung back at me.

I have to wonder where your mouth was...




M

QUOTE (redshift @ Feb 17 2005, 05:43 PM)

I have to wonder where your mouth was... M

That's just gross. Funny. BUT gross.



Actually the grinder kicked back when the wheel got caught on the side and kicked back towards my head, then straight down cutting up my shirt and my shorts.

I had a Speed-Glass auto-darkening helmet that I paid $200 for, and wasn't all that impressed. The HF one is a LOT nicer IMHO...

Even at $100, it's worth it.