Am I being 'el-cheapo'? (metal related)

It is just one touch per joint with 3/32" 6013 electrode. Get an arc welder.

i

sounds like a good fix- it's not hard, expensive or time consuming.

the new ones are probably complete garbage too.

Hi Iggy! I do have a large MIG and TIG. My experience with OA is much broader, ergo my preference. BUT, taking your suggestion, this time around I will try the MIG.

Thanks, Ivan

FWIW, I have two grill baskets made of mild steel wire, each over 40 years old, on which I've used O/A to braze broken spot welds back together about a half-dozen times in total. They've held up now for perhaps 10 years since the last brazing job.

However, they're floppy as rabbit ears, now that I've taken the work hardening out of them for maybe an inch in each direction from the braze points. That hasn't hurt their performance.

Having arc-welded a bunch of concrete reinforcing mesh using the method Iggy describes, my experience is that there is much less of that softening that results from a quick hit with an arc welder.

If you get $1.79 + materials worth of entertainment out of welding up a basket, then you've hit break-even.

With 6013/stick, it is just a litle bzzz... and you are done.

i

Concrete reinforcing wire makes great cages . Any size you want .

Nothing at all "el-cheapo" about maintaining the items you already own and not joining the wasteful disposable mindset. Your welds are also unlikely to ever break again.

Thanks. It is also soo easy. I love 6013.

i

Besides, you're saving the environment, you hippie-dippie leftist, you.

Why, yes, you are a cheapskate!

But you are in good company. I'd weld my tomato cages if I weren't so lazy :)

I bought the heaviest ones I could find, using four verticals, three hoops and probably nine gauge wire. Still need to pound in a 6 ft T-post and wire it to the cage to keep the wimpy things from falling over towards the end of the season. Huge mess when one goes over...

I've had much better luck with 2" x 4" square four foot tall wire fence. Cut to length so you end up with maybe a three foot diameter circle when wired together. Set them over the tomato plant, pound in adjacent six foot T-post, wire to post. Cut tomato "extraction holes" here and there as needed. This has handled 60mph winds without any significant damage.

By the way, I do not use any tomato cages because they all underperform and make a mess in the yard in the off season.

I welded some 6 ft tall supports that I pounded into the ground, put

2x4s on them along the length of the garden, and tie little vertical 1x2s to the 2x4s.

I tie tomato plants to the 1x2s with insulation tape.

Works really great.

i

Take it the next step and replace the wood 2x4s and 1x2s with some 4" square welded wire mesh (concrete reinforcing), or go all out and get some grid wall panels from a store closing sale.

that is disgusting

I had the same problem here. Most of the store bought ones are light cheap steel. I found some made out of REAL steel (1/4" stainless) these were mig/TIG? welded and then powder coated as well.

They were about 20 bucks each but when you look at the cheap ones and how they bend and rot over the years this is a better use of money.

If I had a ring roller and the stainless I would have made my own.

I bet the new ones have wire that's only half the size of the old ones. Best thing to say to SWMBO is, "I'll take that under advisement, honey. What's for dinner?"

Steve

visit my blog at

watch for the book

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

You have tools. You need to justify having them. Did you have better things to do?

Now if you are a rich investment banker that could just buy a gross of baskets with what you tip your masseuse, I'd still tell you to use your tools, obviously you need diversions.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

What better way to justify having welders, than welding a garden accessory. I have put in a bunch of welded stuff into the garden, partly for utility reasons, and partly to prove usefulness of welding.

i