Second Attempt at Metal Fab.. My Stand..

Ok.. So I actually went and purchased a mig welder to build this brewstand... I've fiddled around with an arc welder a few times but never built anything out of metal..

Here is my second attempt at metal fabrication... My first was last week when I built the stand for the welder..

Excuse the paint.. I have the stand all primed and couldnt wait to see what the ultra-metallic silver would look like..

Just to be clear, this is a blatant troll for ego boosting comments.. Anything with explitives works just great for me..

 

Looks very clean and nice. I'm wondering what the holes and stand are for in the middle portion of the stand. I'm guessing for passing tubing and for the propane tank or transfer pump to rest on. Nice job according to me.

 

Sorry I forgot an expletive. Looks DA#& hot!

 

Looks f&ckin sweet...that must be for an electric rig?

Good job.

 

Niiiiice....

 

expletive!!!

 

There, fixed that for you

 

Not to shabby! Welding is ****in fun, huh??!!

 

Looks pretty ****ing sweet!

 

It's so awesome I crapped my pants!

Seriously though, for not ever having done metal work that's pretty impressive.

 

I have to show this to my wife. It will help her understand why I always keep a spare pair of skivvies close at hand.

 

Thanks All..

It is an all-electric rig controlled by a BCS-460.. Actually gonna have both a Rims and Herms Circuit... Utilizing 10 solenoid valves, 8 Solid State Relays, Lotsa switches and buttons, and 4 Thermocouples.. Probably the neatest design element in my opinion is the purge functionality for the Herms and Rims Circuits..

It will have the capability to run in Full Auto Herms, Semi Auto Herms, Manual Herms, Full Auto Rims, Semi-Auto Rims, Manual Rims, and Full Manual Modes.. HLT Heat is a 5500w Element, RIMS Circuit is 1200w..

Will be employing a 20"x20"x8" Nema 4x enclosure (you can see the mounting rails in a few of the pics) to house all electronics. A small control panel will control mode selection (solenoid valve flow path configurations) as well as circuit purges and manual transfers..

Here are my HLT and MLT..

 

Looks freakin great, now show us the close ups of the welds, hehehehehe.

Good luck.

P.S. I can't weld worth crap either, but i am a freakin artist with a grinder!!!!!!!!!!

 

Actually most of my truly crappy welds were out of my system byt the time I finished the stand for the welder.. And I intentionally didnt grind any of those down.. I wanted to be able to look at them in 4 or 5 years and gigle about how truly pathetic they were.. All but one or two of the welds on the brew-stand are pretty little mig beads.. Once I started to get a feel for what the gun was telling me about feed rate and power it was pretty simple to put down some nice welds..

 

Nice job! I bought a mig for a project too.. I am with Simphoto02, I am not a good welder... but it holds and I can grind it to make it pretty =)

 

recommendations on cheap, but nice enough mig welder. Main purpose would be to build a brew stand, and other fun building projects. Not everyday use by any means.

 

Lincoln at home depot, etc. or a similar hobart if you can find one. It's worth it to buy one than can take gas otherwise it flux core welding not MIG. Flux core works but is much more messy, splatters and slag.

 

So you have to have gas with mig?

 

MIG Metal Inert Gas welding.

Not needed if you use flux core wire but as stated before messier. 25/75 argon/co2 with standard wire makes great clean welds if all settings are correct and you are practiced.

Another tip is if you use recycled steel then BOTH 25/75 and flux core will give you great penetration and better welds. flux and gas combination blow the contaminates out and help ya get good metal to metal welds.

 

I bought the Northern Tool Mig-135..

(Northern Industrial MIG Welder — 115 Volt, 22-135 Amp, Model# MIG 135 | Wirefeed Welders | Northern Tool + Equipment)

I am pretty sure it is a re-branded Lincoln.. They look identical.. I have been very pleased with it.. I am running 75/25 shielding Gas and .030 Solid Core Wire and it just sings right along.. Much quicker and easier to learn than I expected.. Read the 80+ reviews on the Northern Tool site..

 

Biggest issue home owners run into with doing their own welding and getting these excellent light duty migs is the duty cycle. A lot of people don't understand the concept of weld for 2 minutes and let it cool for 8 minutes. Keeps the capacitors all nice and happy.

The industrial 3 phase welders are 100% duty cycle and you can weld till your hearts content. Just take your time with the 30/70 or 20/80 or what ever the duty cycle and the welder will be around for a long time.

Also, if you find a used one at a cheap price, chances are that is why.

 

Great Point Simphoto02... I actually considered this quite a bit before I made my purchase.. At the end of the day most of the welds I will be doing are small and short, easily accomplished in 2 minutes or less.. When I need more I can just take my time.. Even though I have 220 service in the garage, I wanted the "nearly anywhere" flexibility of the 120 unit for those instances when I tote the little unit to a buddies house for this or that, dont want to have to drag along my big genset..

 

I went with the Lincoln power mig 180, 220v. For the simple reason that if anybody needed something welded, they would have to bring it here. I don't like loaning out my tools, especially to people who may not know how to use em.