Abucior,
That would be AMAZING! You’d be the biggest contributor to the welder if you did this! (I want to make a small plaque with donors to attach to the welder, and you’d be up top)
So, yes, we’d love these items. I can come pick these items up from you in the next while. I still want to pick up some extra masks for lessons, as well as other gear, but this would take a large chunk out of our costs!
Let me know!
We still need a tank, we’re waiting to hear back on a couple options. We’re going to get a 75/25 mix to start with, see how things go. I’m going to wait for the Tilt to close to see how much cash we have and then go out and buy what we need.
The best way to contribute is to toss a few coins in the Tilt, so please do that if you want to contribute and get on the list of supporters. We haven’t got enough for a spool gun/Aluminium setup yet, but I could see us getting there.
Haha. No, Rob, you should be at the top of the list for actually organizing this thing.
I have a car, so I’m happy to drop off the stuff at VHS whenever’s convenient. But I don’t have member access, so I’ll have to coordinate with someone. (Will anyone be around tonight?) Or like you say, you could pick it up from my place, but I’m fine either way. If you want to pick it up, you can contact me off list via gmail.com with username abucior. (That was my anti-spam-bot-scraper obfuscation to not directly post my email address).
Yes I will help with that, can you provide me with the serial or model number of the welder? I think I can provide a small tank for the 100% gas needed to weld aluminum. I shopped around and Coast welding was really helpful and have an exchange program for tanks. The cost to charge one was about $75.00
How do I contribute to the tilt?
ok just did, its up to $925 now
oops,
fixed the welding tent link
If we are welding it inside we probably just want a welding screen and some industrial ventilation fans.
Hey all!
I was out of town for a few days. The tilt finished with $717.50 contributed by members!!! They money is being transferred to my account, so the welder is now VHS property!
We did it!
I ran the numbers, and with the VHS equipment purchase policy, we have $320.89 to spend on accessories with the amount we raised. This is enough for everything we need for MIG, but not enough for a spool gun and extra tank for Aluminium welding. We’ll keep an eye out though, as this would be a nice next step.
I’ll be discussing and planning the PPE and setup in the #machine-shop channel on slack over the next little bit. I’ll try to get the welder ready to weld ASAP for those who can prove competence, and put a course together too (first dibs goes to contributors)
I don’t understand it was at $925 when I contributed
Yeah, fancy math… The TLDR is that all expected money is there.
I added in the expected contribution that VHS would make to bring us to $750. I wanted the tilt to show how close we were to the actual welder. VHS contributes a percentage of what the members contribute, and I can’t put that math into Tilt, so I picked the static number and put that in as a contribution.
Now that members have contributed more, VHS can contribute more, which is why we have $320.89 on top of the $750.
I have a tank for the 100% argon gas to weld aluminum. How much does the aluminum spool gun cost for that particular welder?
Sorry I’ve let things drag a bit on updating this.
After the tilt and paying for the welder, we have $320 for accessories. An aluminium spool gun is ~$500 new, so that’ll have to be a future purchase.
We’ve got the helmet and the cart. They’re great, thanks again @abucior
I went on a shopping trip to Lordco. I bought a MIG tool (pliers that have most of what you need to do normal tasks), some flux wire, welding gloves, and a bunch of welding tips. I did some test tacks with the flux core wire (first time trying it) and it did “ok”… Gas shielded is the way to go for sure, but it’s nice to have the flux for certain use cases.
We tried to get some sponsored gas, but haven’t had much luck, so I’m going to lease a bottle from a local welding shop for $90 a year for 1 year. They are several hundred to buy, so this is our best bet for now. We’ll keep trying to get some for free, but this let’s us try the tank size and not commit. I’ll be getting 75/25 gas. I think we’ll also need to pay the $60 for the fill.
This leaves me with about $100 for a bunch of steel wire, chipping hammer, wire brush, some angle grinder disks.
I’d also like to pick up another welding mask (as teaching, it’d be nice to have two people be able to see at once), another pair of gloves, a welding jacket, and some welding blankets. I’ve got a craigslist search running for these items, but haven’t gotten any recent hits for a good price. I may need to have the VHS equipment buying committee to help cover a bit of extra cost here, but I’ll try to keep it all under.
I am just waiting for a new credit card in the mail, the welding shop need one to do the lease (I broke my old one, they need a physical card). When I have that I’ll bring in a tank. I’ll try to do the prep for a basics course in the meantime.
I’ll be posting all receipts and a spreadsheet showing all costs.
Look forward to a welding refresher. It is years since I picked up a
cutting torch or welled. I wonder how long it will take to get back up to
speed. I enjoy the beauty of nice weld and the care required of fine
welding such as welding washers to bolts.
Awesome work Rob!
Awesome work dude!
I’m just about to drop the $$$ on a nice 250 amp TIG welder this afternoon.
I guess now VHS needs to acquire a space better suited for welding and metal work…
Just my two nickels:
According to previous comments a so called “low cost Stick Welder (ARC welder)” is in every way inferior to a MIG (Thread roll and gas welder.)
Having welded structures professionally and at home I never ever had a need for the MIG.even when repairing corroded patrs of my cars.
The below standardized tests are for professional careers all over the world. The described tests are for stick welding. If anybody really wants to get going with welding as a career, Stick welding is the way to go.