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Making the welder pay for itself

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I usually don't start my make busy projects until winter but this year has literally been a wash fishing wise. I have more cancelled trips then actual trips this year due to all the rain. In fact I probably have more cancelled trips this year then in the previous ten years. Partly the problem is I fish the Delaware river almost exclusively and it's been a brown muddy mess and rarely went below 4' on the gauge. Sooooooo I have been losing less flies and less gear so I have nothing to tie, pour or rig since I only tie, pour and rig when needed. So it's time to put my new welder to use saving me money. I now have a really nice vise/bench grinder stand made from scavenged free material and a can of spray paint. I guess I'm an upcycler but the free part is the real draw for me. I may make another if I can scavenge more stuff so I can have a grinder stand and a vise stand.

 

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Looks nice and beefy.

 

I hear ya about the cancelled trips. This year my fishing buddy has cancelled more trips than ever it seems. So far I've only had 27 days on the water which is not a lot for me. We have a trip coming up in 2 weeks, if he cancels that I'm gonna cancel HIM.

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It's very heavy duty and the base is a large drum brake from a truck. It's very stable and can be rolled around the shop with ease which is important since my shop is a one car garage. Since it's primarily a wood shop, most spark producing metal work is done in the driveway.

 

I got out fishing about 8 times in the spring and 4 times since then. The four times I got out this summer the river was not even fishable on one trip but made for a fun boat ride. The other 3 times the river was as high as I've ever fished it in 25 or so years. This was a really unique year where the lowest flows were actually in the spring. Of course the river is at a fishable level now but there's more rain expected which has been the pattern all summer. There's one or two days every two or three weeks where the river's at a manageable level and then a deluge, a week of high water and another deluge. I'm actually thinking of putting the boat away early.

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Real nice job on that stand! I need to get a vise, and that's a great idea! I'm short on space in my garage too!

 

I have a Montgomery Wards 285 amp AC/DC welder that my wife bought for me one Christmas when we first got married. Haven't done much welding in several years, but nice to have when needed.

 

I only wish it had been a MIG welder.

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the stand is working out real good for me. It rolls easily out into the driveway and back. I have yet to buy a bottle so I have it set up for flux core which is stick welding lite with a wire feed machine. For mig welding I would need a bottle of C25 or straight CO2. C25 is about 160 bucks for a 20lb bottle but a bottle of straight CO2 is consdierably less. A 20 lb bottle would probably last me years. since I do all my welding outside in the driveway and don't want the hassle of setting up wind screens, I'm just going to leave it set up for flux core for now. For my welding needs, flux core is just fine.

 

My next project will be a proper axle for my outboard motor stand. Still trying to source (acquire for free) some square tubing for this.

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would never mount a vise to a stand. big no-no in the metal working shops

 

Long as you only do certain jobs on them they are fine. I was the foreman/main TIG welder of a fabrication shop for a number of years and we had a few stand mounted vises. Bases were 300lb round steel plate and we used them for certain jobs such as braiding wire rope or heating/bending small brackets. Larger jobs that required lots of pressure for bending thicker steel were done on the bench mounted vise of course, but stand mounted is fine long as you know its limitations, especially since he's using it at home and not doing heavy work in a commercial shop wink.png

 

Looks like you're having some fun with the welder Greg. I can't believe how much the price of gas has gone up since I use to buy it. Back 12 or so years ago I when I was building the tube frame on my GTO I was buying mix gas for my mig about every other weekend and it was no where near $160 back then. Crazy how much things have gone up in price.

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would never mount a vise to a stand. big no-no in the metal working shops

 

would never mount a vise to a stand. big no-no in the metal working shops

 

 

Long as you only do certain jobs on them they are fine. I was the foreman/main TIG welder of a fabrication shop for a number of years and we had a few stand mounted vises. Bases were 300lb round steel plate and we used them for certain jobs such as braiding wire rope or heating/bending small brackets. Larger jobs that required lots of pressure for bending thicker steel were done on the bench mounted vise of course, but stand mounted is fine long as you know its limitations, especially since he's using it at home and not doing heavy work in a commercial shop ;)

 

Looks like you're having some fun with the welder Greg. I can't believe how much the price of gas has gone up since I use to buy it. Back 12 or so years ago I when I was building the tube frame on my GTO I was buying mix gas for my mig about every other weekend and it was no where near $160 back then. Crazy how much things have gone up in price.

I get it but I'm not operating a machine shop or a forge. With that said I have seen plenty of similar stands used to hold vises in many shops but they are bolted to the floor for stability. I'm just a simple DIYer doing very simple tasks like a hair packer and I need portability for what I'm mostly doing. I also have a larger bench vise permanently mounted on a bench but I rarely use it because I really don't need great stability but when I do it's there.

 

Having a blast with it. its the actual bottle that cost the most. After having a bottle it's only about 40 bucks to fill. The bottle alone cost around a hundred bucks give or take 20. In my area most of the welding supply companies will only fill their bottles so you ave to buy a full bottle first and then you can refill it as long as the bottle is still certified.

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I'm just a backyard builder too. used to own a custom car shop and did some frabrication. now I weld my mower deck is about the largest I do

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