Soon after I won the bid for the steel staircase, my hobby of welding began. Like everything, money is always...

John B. Carnett | posted 6:20pm, September 3, 2009

Soon after I won the bid for the steel staircase, my hobby of welding began. As with everything, money always asks me to do Carnet calculations:

Then I ran to buy equipment.

This of course ignores the skills to do any of these things-but Carnet’s calculations include the discovery phase, during which I made all the mistakes, asked almost anyone for help, and then somehow came out from the other side to be more proficient. Operator. In 50% of the cases, I really save money.

My father-in-law bought me a 140 amp 110 volt Hobart MIG welder as a birthday gift. I have no mentor, no skills, only the urge to weld something. I started soldering and never looked back. I now own my original Hobart MIG, a Miller 252a/220v that allows me to weld half-inch steel, and a Miller dynasty, which is a combination rod and TIG device.

The following are your basic welding types. I will keep this very simple because you just want to get your feet wet and start playing.

This is old-school technology. It allows the use of fairly inexpensive equipment for deep penetration. The people who do this all day are true artists. You will see that this is heavily used in fields such as oil rigs, bridge construction, shipbuilding, etc., but smaller units can easily be used in your garage. There will be an arc between the material you are connecting to and the consumable electrode. The welding rod is coated with flux to protect the welding area and eliminate the need for shielding gas. The thickness of the material that can be welded is related to the power output of the machine and the thickness of the electrode. Bar welding equipment can be purchased in large consumer stores and is a very cheap way to get started with welding. The problem is that using a welding rod to weld a good weld requires more skill than using MIG, so I can only imagine that the number of equipment sold each year is only 20 minutes of use time. If you have a friend who is good at bar welding, this is a good starting point, otherwise I suggest you start with the MIG device.

This is the welding process, which looks like a gun that shoots metal. MIG is like a welding rod, but there is no need to stop and replace the used welding rod. The machine has a spool, which can be fed automatically by simply pulling the trigger. You can use wires coated with flux, or ordinary steel wire and shielding gas. The output power of the welding machine, the thickness of the welding wire on the spool and the feeding speed of the welding wire will all affect the thickness of the welded metal using the MIG device. Gears are more complex, so welding the same thickness of metal is more costly than stick welding.

With practice and care, you can complete a decent MIG welding in an hour. Most consumer goods stores only sell MIG equipment up to 140 amps/110 volts, but this will allow weekend welders to manage most projects. Over time, your needs will expand, and you will want to weld thicker metals, or weld longer without stopping: then you will turn to high-end 220-volt equipment sold in welding shops.

This is the most complicated form of welding and may consume you when you learn it. It is very quiet because the electrodes are not consumed. You manually place the tungsten electrode on the welding area, which is protected by an inert or semi-inert gas mixture to protect the area. When you heat the area, you can manually fill the connector with your hand feeder. You need to melt the material just right so that you can fill it just right. Think of it as a miniature superheat source of molten metal. This allows welding very thin or thick materials, good control and incredible welding, but it is very slow and looks scary if you suck it. The thickness you can weld depends on the output of the machine and the thickness of the filler metal. Your large store does not provide TIG devices.

Coming soon: Part Two-Cutting Gear!

PopSci's special photographer John B. Carnett is using the latest green technology to build his dream home. Follow the progress of the project on his Green Dream blog: popsci.com/green-dream_

There are more ways to adjust and customize Chrome than you think.

With or without buttons-it's up to you.

Back from the trip. Well, kind of.

Do you like science, technology and DIY projects?

Sign up to receive popular science emails and get highlights.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program that aims to provide us with a way to earn money by linking to Amazon.com and affiliate sites. Registering or using this website signifies acceptance of our terms of service.