any welders here?

[paulxcook]

How hard is it to weld? I don't mean anything too intricate. I'm planning to eventually buy a power rack, which is a piece of weight lifting equipment, and while it should be fairly sturdy I would like to weld it together once I have it assembled for further assurance of strength.

However, I have no idea how expensive or difficult of a process this is or if it would be worth it to try, so if any of ATOT has experience or knowledge of welding, I am all ears and would appreciate your advice.

 

[Eli]

If you know someone with a welder and experience, it wouldn't be too hard...

Not something you can just do on a whim though. You need several hundred dollars in equipment, not to mention things to practice on. There is a learning curve.

A piece of workout equpment is probably finished, though. You would have to tear down to the bare metal anywhere you wanted to weld it. Seems like it should be sturdy enough on its own...

 

[Engineer]

I work in a machine building shop (lots of welders) and this is not something that you're going to jump into. There are lots of factors to getting the proper weld and to make it "stick" (penetrate the metal) without burning holes through it. If you feel it's necessary (I don't), I would hire a machine shop or welding shop with a truck to come out and weld it.

 

[rbV5]

Oh make sure you pick up a larger prehung door for the capenter when you're out picking up the rod for the welder.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Engineer
I work in a machine building shop (lots of welders) and this is not something that you're going to jump into. There are lots of factors to getting the proper weld and to make it "stick" (penetrate the metal) without burning holes through it. If you feel it's necessary (I don't), I would hire a machine shop or welding shop with a truck to come out and weld it.

Seconded. Based on a 2-week segment of a machining intro course, designed to familiarize students with the basic workings of common machining processes, welding isn't something you pick up quick. A lot of welds in that class failed like they were made of cooled taffy.
We were given run-throughs on TIG, MIG, stick welding, brazing, and regular oxy-acetylene welding. Welds were considered good if the material specimens broke under tension before the weld broke. There were not many welds made in that class which could manage that.

I'm told that welders in industry make a decent amount of money, partly because you need some skill and training to do it, but also because it's just dirty, and it can be a bit dangerous.
My high school physics teacher had worked as a welder, and his really fond memories of it included those times when hot specks of metal would land on his shoes and burn down until they hit his feet.


Also, if you do get into any kind of welding, particularly one that uses an electric arc (SMAW/stick, MIG, or TIG), you need to wear protective clothing, unless you enjoy increased risk of skin cancer. Those arcs throw off a lot of UV. That's also why no one should ever look directly at the arc without proper shielding.

 

[dartworth]

<---welding for over 10 years and have the scars to prove it

 

[nageov3t]

my WoW character is a blacksmith

 

[PottedMeat]

I just started trying to gas weld. Paid about $150 for a Victor hoses/regulators/torches/goggles kit. Got a 20cuft O2 and 10cuft Acetylene tank at a garage sale for 5 bucks. Refills/Exchanges cost about $7 for O2 and $16 for Acetylene. Going for all new equipment would cost about $350. Generic steel welding rod is about $5.00/lb. Welding steel feels pretty easy, though thin material is pretty easy to burn through. My first project was a carrier for the tanks/hoses - used some cheap galvanized conduit - took ~5-6 hours to make ( just fiddling around with how I wanted it to work ). One of those things I forgot to buy was an angle grinder, it's a bitch using a file or positioning a big piece around a bench grinder.

 

[grohl]

I went through the whole thought process you are about welding - I had some cool projects in mind. The advice I got was to take a class, and I did. I learned how to use a cutting torch and then stick welding. Since then I bought a MIG-wire welder and never looked back. It takes _lots_ of practice but don't let it scare you. Bringing together metal without the need for fasteners is very, very cool. My welds are definitely getting better. It brings out a whole realm of possibilities for the do-it-yourselfer. Plus knowing how to weld is just plain cool. Brag to your friends!

 

[grohl]

Also consider the costs involved. To be able to work with metal, you'll need a grinder, chop saw, welder, wire/sticks, helmet, gloves, brush, clamps, hammer, all of which cost me (craigslist, sales, etc) about $750. I'd like to add a cutting torch to my setup some day.

 

[grohl]

my original post

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: dartworth
<---welding for over 10 years and have the scars to prove it

Welded for most of my 30+ years in the construction trade. My retinas are a mass of scar tissue from flash burns. (not usually from me, from other people who were careless.)

I really doubt you'll need (or want) to weld this frame together. First of all, it's probably built well enough that the bolts are more than strong enough to hold it together properly. Next, IF you weld it together, can you move it into the room where you want it? IF you welded it inside the room, could you get it out if you move? (BTW, the sparks and slag from welding can start fires and fuck things up, so do it outside IF you do it.)

 

[narzy]

Originally posted by: paulxcook
How hard is it to weld? I don't mean anything too intricate. I'm planning to eventually buy a power rack, which is a piece of weight lifting equipment, and while it should be fairly sturdy I would like to weld it together once I have it assembled for further assurance of strength.

However, I have no idea how expensive or difficult of a process this is or if it would be worth it to try, so if any of ATOT has experience or knowledge of welding, I am all ears and would appreciate your advice.

I took a welding class in college. The amount of information you need to know to understand welding is insane, I never went further with it because I couldn't see myself standing around welding for 8hrs/day. The easiest process IMO is probably MIG welding but even then there are a lot of variables you need to know to get a good weld that won't fall apart or look like complete shit. I wouldn't weld anything that supported a lot of weight without having a firm understanding of what I was doing. Basically what I am saying is that it is probably not a good idea to make your first welding project your weight rack.

You need to know what type of metal you're welding, if it is finished you need to grind off enough of the finish that it won't burn when you heat the metal, type of current (AC or DC), current, amperage and filler all come in to play depending on the type and thickness of the material, your shield gas mixture needs to be correct...ect...ect...The equipment is also not cheap. The welders you see at Lowes or Home Depot are crap. a good entry level MIG machine will cost at least $600 and can easily cost well over $10,000+

The least expensive process is Gas but it is also one of the hardest in my experience only surpassed by TIG welding (I hate TIG with a passion.)

The least expensive entry level process is Arc or 'stick' welding. You can get a machine for 200 to 400 bucks that will do what you want for light welding work but if you decide you really like it again you can get in to $10,000+ machines. Top down Horizontal welds are generally easy Parallel welds are a bitch and overhead welding is painful . Arc is also a fairly dirty process where you have to chip off slag and if you weld incorrectly getting all the slag off is extremely difficult. You need to use the correct rod for the application and each rod behaves differently and requires different settings.

All of the tools and safety equipment are also a rather large investment, I got mine for around $400.

If you are really interested in learning how to weld most community colleges have welding programs and sometimes the instructor will help you with a project. It takes an enormous amount of practice to become even halfway decent and even Master Welders screw up from time to time.

From what I understand in principal when you weld the joint that you have joined will be extremely strong but also more brittle than the rest of the metal. The area around the weld will become weaker because of the heating process, the idea is to find the perfect balance between the strength and penetration of the weld vs. the weakening of the surrounding metal, if you screw up the metal will fail.

Hope that helps.

I am no expert on the topic so some information may be horribly wrong.

Edit:

Oh yeah, one more tidbit of information, Some metals are extremely toxic to weld (galvanized for example) also never, ever, ever weld anything that contained or held a volatile substance (eg: gas tanks, oil drums ect...) It's a great way to blow yourself up. I know master welders who wont do it.

 

[GiggleGirl]

my dads been a welder almost all his life. even has all of the equipment in his garage. its not that easy to do. takes a while to learn and there is a sort of technique to it. also there are many different types of materials you can use to do the welding. its pretty specific. and i do remember as a kid, my dad would let me weld some stuff.

its cool wearing that awesome face shield and thick suedey leather body protection. haha

 

[paulxcook]

It sounds like welding is a lot more involved than I was hoping it was. It may be something I'll want to get into when we get a different house with some workshop space and have some real projects worth the time to learn all this, but for now I'll probably call around to a few shops and see if they can come out when/if I need 'em. Thanks for the input guys. ATOT is really valuable for stuff like this.