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When welding a ¼” in a single pass, you have to consider joint design. A quarter inch, single pass weld is certainly possible, but the heat carrying capability of the ¼” plate isn’t as much as the 2 inch wall pipe.

Part of the theory of a single pass, maximum thickness recommendation comes from the welders ability to provide enough heat into whatever “weldment” you are welding to achieve that amount of thickness of weld.

Yesterday, I received a call from a customer really struggling with welding problems.  As human nature is, he wanted to know what was wrong with the product, rather than consider any possible issues he had in technique that incurred the problem. I began to ask a few basic and routine questions about settings and practice.

Safety is not an accident.  Sorry for the pun, but that’s true.  Borrowing from an old axiom, welding accidents are never planned but not planning causes the accident.  Even in your own home shop or garage, with just you around, safety should be top priority.

Time for another lecture about welding safety. Yes, our monthly safety meeting is due.  Well, virtual welding safety meeting that is.

It’s time to look around your shop.  I mean take a good look, with fresh eyes.  Where’s your fire extinguisher?  When was it charged or inspected last?  Take note of that and make sure it’s in a convenient place.

As the old saying goes,”… the number one reason for project failure is under capitalization.”  That is probably the number one truth worth considering if you are getting into the welding business, or even starting a new welding project. Welding can eat up hard earn cash with purchase of consumables, gases, and maintenance items. But other hidden costs are there. Take welding clamps for instance.

Yes, of course aluminum stick welding is possible, but the speed at which you move is something that you will have to practice over and over to get the best result. Although similarities may exist between steel and aluminum stick welding, there are also differences that are best experienced rather than described.

Well, is it possible?  I get this question all the time.  The short answer is yes, but it is also one that deserves a bit of qualification. So, here it goes:

There is a pecking order of methods of preferred welding aluminum.  The best process for the highest quality results is typically recognized as TIG.  But that being said, MIG works fairly well on thicker materials with a fairly smooth result.  It is also much more rapid, and welds from MIG can almost equal the quality of TIG welds, depending on a few factors.

Discarding welding rods is, as we said, no fun.  It’s costly and wasteful.   If you cannot  or do not wish to buy based off of monthly use patterns, or even if you are, you  will need a way to store the balance of the opened container until it is ready to use.

Have you ever gone to weld, and pulled out your favorite box of welding rods and discovered that the rods are rusty and flux is flaking off or feels like you just dipped them in a box of water?  If you have, then you are like me and nearly everyone else that is a welder.