I Strike an Arc

Unbelievably, welding has occurred in my home. And there are good things and bad things to report.

Bad: I am easily the worst welder who ever lived.

Good: I am getting so good with the grinder, it almost doesn't matter.

My first stretch of welding was messed up by two major factors. I could not see the puddle or the work, and I had misread the gauge chart and set the voltage way too high. So when I flipped the mask up, I was roughly a quarter of an inch from the actual junction of the two metals, and the weld was huge.

I solved the voltage problem or current or whatever it is, and I wet back to work Finally, I realized that I was blind. The chart in the helmet handbook had deceived me. I turned the darkness down from the prescribed setting, and then I could SORT OF see the puddle. But not really.

In the end, I had two inches of first-class welding and about thirty inches of disaster. I put the propane tank on the workbench, fired up the grinder, and got rid of everything I didn't like. I realize I probably removed 80% of the strength of the weld, but we are talking about an application where four tiny screws would have worked.

I'm not sure how to get a better look at the puddle. It looks nothing at all like the puddles in the video. Basically, all I saw was a hot wire jiggling around in the dark.

I didn't have problems with huge gobs of spatter flying off and landing on me. Nothing hit me at all, that I'm aware of. I'm a little nervous about the UVs hitting my eyes. The hemet darkened, obviously, but I can't help being paranoid.

I had other fun today. What I did was this: I took an inch-wide strip of steel and welded it inside one half of the propane tank, around the rim, so it would stick up and give the other half something to sit on. But when I grabbed the strip to start working, I realized it was galvanized. So I treated it with acid.

I poured pool acid in the bottom of a bucket and rotated the now-hoop-shaped strip through it with my bare hands. Pool acid is pretty weak, believe it or not. At least as far as human skin is concerned. But after the first four inches went into the acid, I realized I was being hit with fumes, and the whole point was to AVOID breathing anything associated with zinc. Luckily, I realized this after something like two seconds, and I was actually able to refrain from getting more than half a breath of this stuff.

I took it outside, holding my breath, and finished the job with the wind behind me. Then I hosed the acid off and took the metal inside. I hope this trick works as well as people say it does, because I am not anxious to wake up with the zinc flu. I wire-brushed the entire thing with a drill attachment before welding, just in case.

I was roundly jeered for threatening to wear my chef pants instead of jeans. However, the maid has apparently hidden my chef pants somewhere in Latin America, so I wore the jeans. I was pleased to note that they were very loose. Silver lining I guess. God bless my bicycle.

I really did a nice job with the grinder. There are lots of pockets in the weld, though. I am seriously considering running solder into them. Who will know? I guess it might get hot enough to melt, though. Maybe I can do another pass with the welder eventually.

I hope I didn't do anything wrong, other than welding badly. I'll know by tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all the advice. I actually took some of it.