Welding

I am not a welding expert. I don’t even know how to weld. But I own a welder. It’s sweet. Mostly I just wipe it down with a towel and coil the cables up nicely. That way it’s clean whenever car life friends come to visit. Some of them are like… “wow sweet you have a welder!” And others are like… “yah… we’re bro’s, you’ve got a welder too“.

Some day I’ll figure out how to really use it. For now I’ll just keep burning holes in rusty 20gauge steel while inhaling burnt paint and bondo fumes, all the while making sure my cables stay nicely coiled and the casing dust free.

Seriously… I can’t believe it took me so long to buy this thing. I guess a large part of my procrastination has been cost. Depending on where you shop, it looks like you can spend anywhere from $800-$1000 for a small brand name MIG. And then… on top of that you need a mask and a few other basic tools to actually weld.  Beyond that… eventually you’ll want to be set up with gas, which is a couple hundred dollars more. I’m not there yet, but I will be.

I’m not sure if I got a “good” welder or not… but it’s a Lincoln 180. I believe it’s Lincoln’s smallest 220V Mig.  Usually listed for about $800 at various retailers… I found one at Canadian Tire for $599 complete with a cheap mask and a bunch of other stuff.  Good deal. I have no regrets.

I’m not really sure though, why I have a category on my webpage for my welder.  I guess… I thought and become a fabricator extraordinaire like some other people who I really admire.  And I thought you’d want to read about that.  The truth of it now though… is that fabricating stuff isn’t always hard, but it does take practice and patience.  I’m too embarassed to show you all my practice, and in general I’m not very patient.

The actuality now is that I use my welder almost everytime I hit the garage.  General wrenching now, is typically assembly stuff that seems to take me only seconds.  Part of that is knowing my car really well… and part of it is just the enormous amount of time that making stuff takes me in comparison.  It’s entirely rewarding and confidence inspiring though.  Five years ago… I remember feeling completely screwed when I did something as simple as stripping a seatbelt mounting nut on the body.  I almost felt like I had to throw my car away. 

I should have just bought  a welder then.