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"Welding"
If you’re new to welding and want a full set of safety gear, or if you need a second set for travel, Lincoln offers two “package” deals called Ready-Paks. The basic version includes a cloth welding jacket, a set of leather work gloves, a set of welding gloves, Lincoln’s low-end safety glasses, and Lincoln’s Viking 1840 variable shade (9 to 13) welding helmet. Pictured above is their new “premium” version, which subs in the upgraded Viking 3350 helmet (with a greater shade range, 6 to 13), a leather sleeved jacket, and an upgraded set of welding gloves and safety glasses — plus some leather welding sleeves. In both cases you get a big (and pretty durable-looking) duffel bag in which to carry the gear.
Victor Technologies announced a new welder today, the Fabricator 211i, which seems targeted at the truck welder market. Designed for 208/230 VAC single-phase primary power (at 50 or 60 Hz), it also accepts to 115V/20A with the installation of an included adapter, so it’ll work with pretty much whatever truck generator you’ve got. The manufacturer claims it’ll deliver full rated output when hooked up to a 6,000 watt generator, and can deliver up to 150 amps off of a 3kW 115V gennie.
The folks at Miller dropped us a line today to tell us they’re releasing a new DVD aimed at “hobbyists and home fabricators looking to become more proficient with the TIG welding process.” Substitute “become” for “become more” and that pretty much describes me to a T. I’ve spent plenty of time with my Millermatic MIG rig, but I’ve never tried TIG welding.
Once the obvious reality of active camouflage is realized, I will become like the ninja of old, creeping about my everyday shop business with the stealth of a large jungle cat. You shall look upon my prism-like façade and go in fear. Until then, the best we’ve got is digital camo wrapped around an auto-darkening visor, like this new Elite auto-darkening rig from Miller.
I’ve seen both the Miller welding helmet and Spartan’s cald in the Mark VI MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor from Halo 3 in action. Perhaps it’s time someone asked how the 21st century stacks up against the 26th century in a point-by-point comparison — and Toolmonger is that someone. Because when you need something pointless and slightly unnecessary, much like Bluto from Animal House, that someone is often us.
The last and only time Toolmonger covered a welding hammer was back in ’06. It seems like this is a tool most people don’t think about — but somebody at Hobart has been thinking about chipping hammers. It may not be a new idea, but they combined two commonly used welding tools — a chipping hammer and a wire brush — into one. Now you’ll have one less tool to hunt for.
You need to weld two pipes together at a 90° angle, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. The junction of two perpendicular pipes is a saddle shape, not a simple flat cut. Previously, Toolmonger covered PipeMaster welding templates which adjusted to any angle intersection angle but were a little spendy. If you don’t need that kind of flexibility, you might be able to use one of TruCut’s Pipe Guides.
This picture posted by reader tmib Seattle is cool on several levels. First there’s the front loader — then you see it’s a front loader with a welding table chained to the front of the bucket. Read a little further and you find out tmib built that table himself for a bunch of Boy Scouts to learn how to weld on. We give — that’s awesome personified.
Great job and great image. We hope to see a steady stream of the next generation welder and ironworker pics learning the craft in the great outdoors again this year. It’s a great thing you are doing and I’m sure it’s a blast to be a part of. Our hat is off and (root) beer raised to you and your scouts, sir.
Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]
Let’s pretend for a minute that you are Hobart. You make fine welding equipment as well as some great safety gear-like gloves. For years you’ve watched other companies take multi-purpose gloves and make a killing. What do you do? Well, Hobart decided to enter the ring themselves with the mantra “more is more.” They’re now rocking three new sets of gloves including multi-use (Mechanics gloves). This is the newest multi-pack of Hobart gloves for around $23.
The pack contains two pairs of Welding Gloves and one pair of the Work/Multi-Use gloves. We don’t know much about them yet, but as soon as we can get a set in the shop we’ll start the torture testing all gloves seem to get around here. We’re excited to see how they hold up against other work gloves like Mechanix.
More tools should be named for what they do. Take Mayhew’s Dominator Weld Wakker — like the previously mentioned Seam Buster, you hear the name, take one look at the tool, and you know it’s used to break apart spot welds or bonded panels.
Speaking of saddle cuts (e.g., TM drum smoker post on 1/18/2010), Instructables has a new posting on making perfect pipe saddle cuts with a bandsaw or chopsaw. For same diameter pipes, the author, samson3000, uses two cuts at approx. 35° close to, but not through, the center of the pipe so there’s a flat spot (as shown above), not a sharp point. An end view of the cut, pictured below, shows a pretty tight saddle.
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