I do the "grinder and paint" trick too, so don't feel bad. As long as you can say "I welded and it helded" nothing much else matters if you're doing it for yourself. Customer work, just like your painting biz, is a different animal, you have to please the customer and meet your own standards for that kind of work. Thanks for watching!

You're welcome, thanks for letting me know!

I know my audience is wider than the US, but what I don't know is what every country calls their Chinese Tool Outlet Store. Most countries have one, I've even heard some of the names, I just don't remember what they are. I'm glad my video helped, thanks for watching!

I first learned with oxy/acetylene too. I welded and cut a lot of stuff over the years, including aluminum, with gas welding. If your material is clean, meaning not rusty, not oily and not covered in mill scale, you should be able to weld it without further cleaning. But it never hurts to wipe it down with solvent and give the area you're going to be welding a quick pass with a flap disk and then a quick spray with anti spatter. 6013 and 40 amps or so should be a good place to start for thin material like your square tube. But you're going to need a fairly small diameter rod, 3/32 is as big as I'd go and 1/16 would probably be even better. A bigger diameter rod will be hard to strike at low amperage. Most inverter type stick welders will have a Hot Start that helps get the arc struck and steady. If it can be adjusted I like to start around 20%, but don't be afraid to crank it up if you have trouble getting the arc struck. Yours might also have other functions like Anti Stick, which senses when you get the rod stuck and shuts the power off to the stinger. Also, there's something called Arc Force which tries to determine when the voltage goes too low (because the rod is getting too close to the weld puddle) and ups the amperage to keep the rod from getting stuck. Good luck and thanks for watching!

Yes, it plugs into a standard 120v outlet. I highly recommend that you use it on a 20 amp circuit (check your electrical box to see what the breaker is rated for, most garages in the US I've seen have 20 amp circuits). Also, if you live in an old house like mine I suggest you replace your current outlet and breaker with new, high quality pieces from an electrical supply shop (the parts you get in places like Home Depot are crap). I've run it on a 15 amp lighting circuit successfully, but setting the welder above 90 amps will probably pop the breaker and might smoke the outlet if it's a cheap one. If you use an extension cord make sure it's a good, heavy duty, outdoor style cord.

Sadly, me too.

No, and not worth it IMO. There's no gas solenoid and no easy way to add one, so gas will have to be manually controlled. Also, for TIG use there's no high frequency start, which means you'll have to scratch start which is hard on tungsten rods. Also, without A/C it won't weld aluminum very well. For very occasional use for steel or stainless steel I could see it, but for much use it would get old fast. What you'd need is a gas bottle, regulator, flow meter and hoses.

Exhaust tube is typically 16 gauge stainless steel. But it also could be thicker and regular mild steel. Headers are usually 18 gauge. If it's stainless it's not going to weld very good unless you buy wire specifically for stainless. I'd probably start with about 70 amps on the machine. If it blows through turn it down, but also you might want to weld an inch at a time and alternate sides of the tube. If it's old tube clean it up with a wire brush really well before welding.

I think I got it from Harbor Freight. I bought two different ones, one from HF and one from Lowes and one of the two didn't fit and I can't remember which. Here's a link on Amazon, but I'm not sure which of the two this is, sorry. amzn.to/47Y8JZH

thank you for the info! have a good one

Thx Chuck, always nice to have a refresher course

If you are never using gas you can just trim the silver gas shroud back, but still leave enough to stop the contact tip from being able to ground out.

The amperage control should control wire speed, from very slow to very fast. If it's not working then you have a defective unit. It might be something as simple as a wire that's come loose or a bad switch. Either way, if you just bought it new I'd return it for another one.

@@3rdpig Thank you, it seems to vary from fairly fast to really fast. I have a video, but I don’t think I can post it in the comments.

Yes. Unless I'm specially trying to lay a root pass into a V that I've ground out, weaving is typically what I do. How much depends on the material and the joint. But overlapping C motions, pausing for a second to fill before reversing direction will work in most scenarios.

I guess there's always the chance yours is DOA, after all, this is a very inexpensive machine of Chinese origin. But I'd take the time to doublecheck all the connections and the grounds before I returned it. Also, check the switch in the gun, that seems to be a weak spot. You could also check to see if it's hot with the stick holder in. Good luck!

In the old days a welding lens was just a very dark glass lens, typically a #5 shade in a pair of goggles for gas welding and torch cutting (much like a dark shade of sunglasses), and a #10 in a helmet or hood (I use helmet and hood interchangeably) for arc welding (which as you saw is like being blind in normal lighting). That's why you'd see welders get themselves into position with their hood tipped up, then nod their head to flip the hood down right before they start to weld. Todays welding helmets, even the cheap ones like the HF model I showed in the video, have an auto darkening lens. They're kind of like normal sunglasses until you strike the arc, then they darken before the arc light can reach your eyes. Without a dark lens, looking at an electrical arc during welding is like staring straight at the sun, it will temporarily blind you and damage your eyes. "Arc burn" on the eyes really, really sucks. I know, I've had it happen. Even reflected arc light can burn your eyes. It feels like your eyes are full of sand and repeated occurrences can permanently damage your eyes. Good auto darkening welding lenses will be adjustable for how fast they darken and how dark they get. They'll also be considerably larger than the old 2"x3"glass lenses and offer a true color, rather than the green tint of the old lenses. Some hoods like the YesWelder hood in the video will also have large, clear front covers as well as side lenses so you don't feel like you're looking down a tunnel when you're welding. As someone who welds "out of position" a lot, I appreciate the wider field of few that helmet gives me. Also, for those folks who weld a lot and have their welding hood on for hours every day, a hood with good balance and a comfortable headband is a must. For them the headgear can make or break a hood. Having to wear a hood on your head for 8 hours and it starts hurting after 1 hour isn't good. TLDR, Don't buy cheap, you've only got one set of eyes. The YesWelder hood I linked to is a good mid priced hood. If you're unsure just go to a reputable welding supply shop and ask for a good quality hood for a home/hobbyist welder. Plan on spending around $80 to $100. I hope this helps. Thanks for watching!

ive just bought Static Arc MMA, MIG, TIG lift welder here in the uk for £140, about $180. The mask it came with was terrible so bought one an auto darkening one from Screwfix in the UK for £30 and its a good mask for DIY use wearing it for a couple of hours at a time, (Scewfix is probably a bit like habour frieght)

PS it has a 140amp capacity