Acquire welding tools and learn how to use them has been added to my post retirement activities! Looks great !
That’s what I did, started welding after retirement. I bought a home hobbiest Miller 141 wire feed TIG welder. It cost almost $1000 on sale 6 years ago, that’s without the gas tank. There still around that. Their small tank was around $200, empty. It welds better with the tank. In my opinion all its good for is to weld sheet, like fixing cracks in fenders, rear carriers and chain guards. I use it to attach something hard to position that I can remove with a hammer tap. I put on canti pegs, then mount the brakes to make sure there right. I also use it to tack on mounts for chain guards. I tap to get the mounts right but mostly they just fall off with a tap. Once they are where I want them I use my very old 240 volt AC Miller stick welder I got from an estate sale. It needed to be taken apart and cleaned. Minor repairs done but the total cost was less than $200. I did have to have an electrician put the higher voltage in my shop. The TIG welds aren’t durable they are too thin and brittle and cranking the heat way beyond what’s recommended doesn’t penetrate like the stick. I just weld over the TIG weld with my stick on hard to place stuff. I don’t think you need wire feed for what we do. I only use 6011 electrodes in a variety of sizes. They are easy to use and I don’t feel like learning how to use different ones. I have a few electrodes for stainless which I have used to make old fashioned handle bar mount vintage style water bottle cages. I also have a few filler rods but you can put a clean piece of coat hanger wire or the short piece of 6011 that was clamped in the rod holder and is too short to weld with in the gap and fry it with a 6011. Real welders will cringe. I would look for an old used Miller or Lincoln stick welder, DC would make less splatter but mine is AC and I can almost always remove the splatter with a hammer and punch. In my option for a beginner even a new good stick welder would be more useful than a TIG. Don’t buy a cheap buzz box stick welder, they don’t work good enough. If you can get access to two good car or marine batteries you can learn to weld with that. Look up battery welding on the net, it’s important to set it up so the electrons flow in the right direction, or else you won’t get an arc. I started this way using jumper cables for leads but they soon burned out. I used romax home wiring, splicing all three copper wires together at both ends. I held the romax to the batteries with vice grips. I also used vice grips to attach the ground and to hold the 6011 electrodes. You’ll need a good auto darkening helmet. Get at least a student grade one like they use in university industrial welding classes, cost about $100. Don’t get an internet or big box $35 one. I built a bike frame using battery welding and old bike frames welded together to make a custom. I did this years ago for a RRB Build Off. It was ugly with fat gob welds. It lasted one summer before one of the welds cracked, but that was partly because I didn’t have a tube long enough and tried to butt weld two pieces together. Start battery welding by buying a mild steel rod at the hardware store (it should say weldable on the tag), bend the rods on a wood form so they line up with the bicycle headset and front axle. Cut to length at the axle, cut a slot with a hacksaw or angle grinder and insert a washer or an axle centering washer with the tab that locks into the fork hole on cheap bikes. Battery weld the washer to the rod, thread the other end and thread on chrome acorn nuts. You just made a set of truss rods. If you don’t have a top rod mount take some angle iron, drill a one inch hole on it with a hole saw, battery weld the locking washer with the key way tab over the hole, grind and file the angle iron to look fancy and Art Deco and you have a set of truss rods you made for less than an eBay auction, maybe even including your investment in the welding rig. All of a sudden You’ll be using it all the time, it’s faster and easier to fix a wheel barrow by welding than by drilling and bolting. I still use battery welding for simple fabrication in areas where there is no electricity, like repairing a heavy duty steel shelf in a remote shed. I carry the stuff in my ATV trailer.
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