OT: The flame has been lit, I hope

I bought my son one of those but it never really took. He's into metal working at the moment, bought himself a little forge and is slowly turning old lawn mower blades into knifes and machete's. He wants to learn to weld.

George H.

Welding is a good skill. Both of my son's are/were good at welding. ...Jim Thompson

Learning to weld is mostly practise. In trade schools there are usually about 30 students and one instructor. So in a two hour class each students gets about 4 minutes of personal attention. Which is actually enough.

When I went to trade school it was free and a good deal. But now I would recommend getting a welder and a book or two. A buzz box off craigslist and some rod would be the low cost way to go.

Dan

A book might be useful for the theory. You can download the U.S. Army 'Training Circular' TC 9-237, Welding Theory and Applications, almost

Hey, it's 2015- there are also plenty of Youtube videos showing you techniques to make 'stack of dimes' TIG welds and such like. All free.

Or you can pay $500-$1000 for a course or seminar, but that money might be better spent on practice and project materials.

--sp

My house came with a buzz box and some rods. Old goggles. I bought myself a book, (when I plugged in the buzz box it made a hell of a racket, and I found the plug wiring was all f'ed.) I made a few mistakes and then a few successful welds, (fairly ugly) and nothing much since.

Hah! Two new masks for X-mas! He won't expect it....

Harbor freight or somewhere else?

George H.

Wonder what he'll end up designing

NT

I wouldn't trust any safety equipment from HF. Some stuff is great, some not so much. With safety stuff it's impossible to know what you have until it's too late.

If he proves enlightened, I'll pass all my tricks >:-} ...Jim Thompson

It is easy to know what you have as far as safety stuff. You just have to use a little common sense.

Dan

How do you know whether glass absorbs UV? How do you know how unbreakable it is? There are many such problems with safety equipment. I wouldn't bet on an of their electrical stuff, either. There have been reports of bogus UL stamps, etc.

You mean like the one you call a "Poor Man's Current Source" ? That was a neat trick using a single transistor and resistor to set up a constant current source. I like it.

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I would use what the guys at the most prosperous looking local welding shop use. I imagine they'd be happy to talk to you about it.

I bought this one ($235 including shipping in 2007), but I'm a sucker for good tools:

Some people say the $50 ones are okay, some don't.

Some of them are a bit on the tacky side .. but what do you want for $30?

--sp

Nice :)

The kit I got as a kit was just a handful of standard parts and one of those solderless breadboards.

There were just 2 transistors, TO92's. I broke the leads of both in a couple of minutes - almost the end of my electronics career.

So I can see the utility in the one you bought him.

Hey it's only $10 shipping to UK.

Well the top of line can wait till it becomes more than a hobby. I've got this old style flip down one, I've heard the auto-darkening ones make it much easier to get the arc started.

There are a huge number of hits on amazon. Maybe something in the $50-100 range. I'll ask on rec.crafts.metal.... and see what I stir up. :^)

George H.

I assume you mean a FET, not a BJT

NT

I don't remember it :-( ...Jim Thompson

I found it ;-) ...Jim Thompson

No, it's BJT with the resistor between emitter and base. The e/b voltage is fairly constant at about 600mV, and so the current is constant. The collector is used to dump the extra current, if there is any.

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