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Empowerment

--Gang I gotta tell ya I've been welding my little heart out this past month and it's just such a great feeling to finally get the hang of something! Finally bought one of those H-F tube notching fixtures, the kind that uses holesaws. Got it dialed in and have been teaching myself how to weld tube joints. I've found that the way that works best for me is to tack, natch, then weld around the tube in 4 quarter-round, so to speak, runs of the tig torch. Blew a lot of holes for quite some time: there's no doubt that the secret to being good at it is to be good from all positions; i.e. when I weld towards me from one side the welds look good, but when the torch has to be positioned differently quality of joint suffers. I'm getting better tho, heh. Practice, practice, eh? Here's a shot of the boarding ladder I've been building after I got a coat of paint on it. Nothing fancy but it was a great learning experience.

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--For more in depth on what I'm doing here's a pile of photos:
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Reply to
steamer
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I never knew that they carried it, how is it called and what is the item number?

thanks

i
Reply to
Ignoramus1064

I bought one of those a few years ago, I think it was from Northern Hydraulics, and I could never get it to work. I was trying to notch

3/4" EMT with a hole saw, using a 1/2 hp Black and Decker drill. Mostly it would just knock the teeth off the hole saw (I think a bi-metallic blue moly?) or if I did get it to cut the hole would never be centered on the tubing. I tried shimming it out to center the hole, but could never get it to cut consistently. So I just put it away and continued doing my fishmouths with winmiter.exe and an angle grinder.

I've always wondered if it was me or the fixture. The "Ol' Joint Jigger" looks exactly the same as this fixture, but costs three times as much, so I always figured it was the fixture.

Got any tips on how you dialed it in?

Dave

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Reply to
dlwilson

I skipped the tubing notching nonsense and just build everything with square tubing :) Just whack with the band saw and weld away. I keep some

1/2", 3/4" and 1" sticks in stock and can hack together whatever I need in minutes.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

--Yah I've been doing that for a few years but occasionally there are advantages to using round tube. I was past due to get the hang of it..

Reply to
steamer

--Don't recall. What I do remember is that there were two models: a wimpy one and this one. It's heavier than the real cheapie and is solidly, if not accurately built. Will look around for a model number and get back to the list.

Reply to
steamer

If I have to do the round tube notching thing, a hole saw in the Bridgeport works well.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

Reply to
RoyJ

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