This post will be a little bit of info about my experience getting started with welding, as well as the tools and equipment I’ve been using so far.  Throughout the article, the tools and equipment I talk about will be linked to Amazon.  “Quick disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases“, and I use that to help cover my web hosting fees so I can keep my website up and running.  Thank you for purchasing items via my links, I appreciate it very much!!

For quite some time now I’ve been wanting to get into welding.  I’ve always known it would be a great skill to have and adding metal to some of my woodworking projects could definitely take those pieces to the next level.  If you’ve followed my StuffSethMakes Instagram or my blog at all, you may remember I took one of Jory Brigham’s courses up in Paso Robles.  You can see that post and the side table I built by clicking here.  Well, Jory teamed up with Jason Radcliffe of 44 Steel (also a contestant on SpikeTV’s Framework) for a new course building a bench that uses both wood and steel, with part of the legs being welded and powder coated. Since I got so much out of the previous course, I felt like this would be a great opportunity to jump in and start to learn some welding.

It was a great weekend of learning and getting some hands-on experience with welding.  Here’s a photo of the bench I built, walnut with black powder coated steel leg braces:

Of course, coming home from the weekend all I could think about was welding and all the cool things I could build with my new skills…I just needed my own equipment, and the Lincoln SquareWave 200 TIG Welder we used at the course was easily out of my price range.  Fast forward a few months and I’d been looking at a bunch of different welders and trying to figure out things like quality, reviews, features, and price.  I finally decided to move forward with the Forney 140MP.  I really liked the features this machine had and since I don’t have 220v power in my garage, this machine works in my garage and the price was right!  I also purchased a Forney Patriot Auto Darkening Welding Helmet to keep the ol’ peepers safe from the blinding arc  🙂

This machine is the Forney 140MP and the MP stands for “multi-process”.  That means I have the option of doing mig welding, tig welding, or stick welding.  At the welding course up in Paso Robles we were tig welding and tig is a much cleaner process.  You use a different torch for tig welding than with mig, and you manually feed the welding rod whereas the mig torch feeds wire through the torch itself. With tig, you also use a foot pedal to control your heat/amperage, whereas again with mig, everything comes out of the mig torch itself. Then with stick welding, you use a stick electrode that you hold with what looks like a jumper cable clamp.  Then you strike it down on your workpiece to get an arc and you’re off to the races.  The 140MP doesn’t come with the tig torch or the tig pedal.  They’ll need to be purchased separately but I’m hoping to pick those up before long.  My tig welds up in Paso Robles were not great, but now that I’ve got a whole lot more experience welding (even thought it’s mig) I’m anxious to try tig again and really compare the two.

You’ll also need a tank of gas.  Since I’m currently doing mig welding I picked up a 125 size cylinder of the proper gas mix of 75% argon/25% carbon dioxide.  If you’re going to be doing tig welding you’ll need 100% argon.  I have an Airgas location near me so I’ve been going there for refills.

After firing up my machine for the first time and laying down some ugly test beads until I started to get the hang of things, I decided it was time to tackle my first project.  Since my wife has been so supportive of me as I continue to grow in this new builder/maker career, my first project was a set of 3 decorative trellises for the front yard.  My wife works very hard on our yard keeping things growing, manicured and maintained and these trellises are more like art pieces (yard art, garden art, garden sculpture, etc) as opposed to trellises that will get covered in vines (you can’t see them if they’re covered in vines!).  Anyway, first project done and painted in a sage green color and they look awesome!  It’s interesting how much you can learn from just doing one project.

That was a good starter project and now I’d love to build some even better ones, one-upping these in larger size steel, larger frame, larger everything.  If you’re looking for a statement piece for your yard or if you’ve got a venue, restaurant, bar, brewery or hotel that could use something like this, I’d love to hear from you!  Shoot me an email and we can throw around some ideas.

Moving on now to a really big project.  A while back I did some small scale woodworking jobs for a local ramen/yakitori restaurant in San Diego.  Now that they’re opening their second location they called on me to do several custom tables, a large booth and a hostess stand.  And what did I pitch?  Steel and wood, of course  🙂  After the designs were approved I got started ordering all the metal and started figuring out my cuts.  Woodworking and metalworking have a lot of similarities and a lot of differences, and there are some tools specific to metalworking that are extremely helpful.  Of course there are a lot of gimmicky gadgets out there too.  But here are a few more notes about what I’ve gotten started with.

Cutting the metal to size is pretty much the first task, and there are a couple ways to go about that.  One option is to use an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel, which can be difficult to get a perfectly clean/straight cut.  Currently, I’m just using my old DeWalt miter saw outfitted with a 10-inch abrasive cut off wheel.  The abrasive cut off wheels work great but they do wear down and before you know it, your 10″ wheel is down to a 6″ wheel and it’s no longer big enough to cut all the way through your metal.

One thing I do like about using the old miter saw is that it’s easy to set it to whatever angle I need, just like when working with wood, but the abrasive cutoff wheel doesn’t leave a super clean edge on the exit side of the cut and I’ve got to take the extra time to grind down those rough edges.  Another downside to this method is that the abrasive cutoff wheels throw SO many sparks all over the place, it not only makes an incredible mess, but it’s a real safety concern as well.

All those hot sparks flying all over a dusty woodworking shop probably isn’t the safest thing, not to mention all the sparks that hit me in the face and land on my head.  Fun times!  LOL!  But I think the way I cut metal in my shop needs and update soon, and here are some things I’ve been considering:

A metal cutting chop saw like this Porter Cable model still uses an abrasive cutoff wheel but it has a better shroud to keep the sparks down.

A full-on metal cutting bandsaw like this Grizzly 7×12 model would be awesome, but I don’t know if I have the room in my budget or the real estate in my small workshop, and the Grizzly only cuts in the horizontal configuration.  The Klutch 4-1/2×6 model is a little smaller, and also has a vertical configuration for doing more detailed cuts (like on a woodworking bandsaw).  The price is great, but I’m always skeptical about lower priced “big” items like this.

Another bandsaw option I’ve come across is actually a combination of two items to create what seems like a great idea and that’s using the Milwaukee Deep Cut Portable Bandsaw, mounted on the Portaband Pro Deluxe Kit from Trick Tools.  Basically you mount the Milwaukee bandsaw in the Portaband Pro Deluxe and now you’ve got a very portable bandsaw capable of both horizontal cuts and vertical cuts with the included table attachment. The Portaband Pro Deluxe also includes an angle adjustment that allows you to cut various angles as well as a locking clamp/pliers to hold down your workpiece during the cut.  This is their 2nd version and from what I’ve seen online, it seems like they’ve made some improvements over the first version.

My concern would be “what if I needed to cut something a little larger than it’s capacity?” while at the same time wondering “how often would I actually be cutting something larger than it’s capacity?“.  Shop space is super important in my shop and with it being so portable, I can easily see myself folding this unit down and storing it under my table when I’m not using it.  The cost of this combination however is somewhere between the Klutch Bandsaw and the Grizzly Bandsaw.  What’s more valuable to me?  Saving money? Saving space? Am I sacrificing quality anywhere?  Ugh, I don’t know…definitely a lot to think about and I’m an overthinker soooooo I think I’m screwed, haha!

After you cut and it’s time to put things together, getting your parts squared up is very important.  Since I was going to be making several table bases I ordered a couple pairs of Genuine Speedsquares from Eric at Genuine Metalworks .  These are some beefy steel speed squares that you clamp your work to and it keeps things squared up while you tack parts together.  They’re also outfitted with holes and slots which are especially good when using a fabrication table (which is on my wish list).  Excellent purchase!  To purchase a set of your own, contact Eric through his Instagram page (he’s working on his new website). He’s always packaging up a bunch of orders. You could be next!

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Clamps, clamps, clamps.  You can never have too many.  I already have a whole bunch of Bessey F-clamps for woodworking, and while some of those may come in handy when working with metal, there are some other clamps that are specific to metalworking you should have in your clamp collection.  Since I went with the Forney welder, I decided to try out the Forney Self Locking C-Clamps and I gotta say, I really like them!  I have a couple other self-locking kinds of clamps but they pale in comparison to the Forney clamps.  The Forney clamps have a comfortable rubber grip (which also happens to be flame-resistant) and they’re easy to adjust, clamp down, and release with one hand.  I love them!  I currently have 14 of the Forney self-locking c-clamps and I’ll continue to add those to my shop.  They come in 3 sizes (6-inch, 9-inch, 11-inch).  Most of mine are the 9’s and 11’s and I only have two of the 6’s.  The 6’s still have a home in my shop but I prefer the bigger ones  🙂

Magnets!  There are a lot of magnets out there too.  I’m sure there are some that are more useful than others, and there are probably some that I don’t need (yet) for the type of welding I’m doing.  I have a couple of your standard red welding magnets, but I also have a few of these Mini Multi-Angle magnets from Strong Hand Tools and I’ve found them to be pretty handy.  For instance, I needed to weld some inserts into some square tubing for leveling feet and I don’t want the inserts to fall into the tube, so I used magnets to hold them flush to the edge.  I also have a couple of these Strong Hand Tools Corner Magnets to hold tabs in place while I weld them securely.

You may notice a bunch of metal dust stuck to the magnets in those photos, and that’s pretty common.  One thing that helps keep the metal dust off the magnets is getting magnets with an on/off switch, like these Adjust-O Magnets from Strong Hand Tools.  That way you can turn the magnet to the “off” position and the shavings just fall right off.  It’s genius!  They can also be easier to work with when putting them into position on your workpiece since they don’t “grab” the piece as you bring the magnet close.  These magnets cost more, but I think they’re definitely a good kind of magnet to have in the shop.  I don’t have any just yet, but I think some will find their way into my shop in the future.

If you’re going for a seamless joint appearance (like my current project), or if your welds aren’t all that pretty (like a lot of mine still), you’ll need to grind down the welds.  I have a 4.5″ Ridgid 18v Angle Grinder that I really like but doing any amount of continuous grinding wears through the battery pretty quick.  It’s a great grinder for quick hits on rough edges, and it’s lightweight (even with the big battery attached).  After doing a bit of research I decided to add a corded angle grinder to my shop and I decided on the Makita SJSII 5-Inch Angle Grinder, which is also a variable speed angle grinder.

(the grinder has 5 speeds, I just didn’t take a photo of it yet, ha!)

The Makita SJSII grinder has been an awesome tool to have with all this metal work, and the variable speed feature is something I don’t think I could live without.  I can crank up the speed when I’m grinding down welds, and slow it down for more delicate areas like edges and corners.  The Makita also has a soft-start which adds to the comfort and the SJSII technology keeps the vibration down.  After using the Ridgid grinder and an older Harbor Freight grinder, I definitely noticed a difference when I fired up the Makita for the first time.  I highly recommend the Makita SJSII 5-inch Angle Grinder!

I’ve also tried a few different flap discs and have found some that I like a lot.  So far, a couple different options I’ve landed on are the 5-inch Norton Red Heat flap discs in the 40 grit for quick material removal.  Those are great and have a decent lifespan but they are a little pricey (even at Lowe’s).  I also found 4.5-inch flap discs from Benchmark Abrasives to be a good option.  I bought a 10-pack of the 120 grit flap discs for a great price.  I think I’ll pick up a couple packs of other grits too.

I’ve been getting better at welding inside corners (fillet welds) and some of those can stay as is.  But in case it gets ugly, I also bought a Makita 1/4″ Die Grinder and a set of these Yufutol 1/4-inch shank carbide burrs.  I’m still getting familiar with using the die grinder but I have been happy with it the few times I’ve used it so far, and the carbide burrs are awesome.  They really chew away material.  Watch out though…they’ll shoot metal specks at you pretty good!  So far I’ve only used the die grinder and carbide burrs for cleaning up some ugly welds in tight spots but I’m sure I’ll find a lot of other uses as my welding career moves along and different projects come my way.

Of course, you’ve got to have welding wire and tips!

When I bought my welder I ordered some wire and extra tips but recently our local OSH store was closing and they had a lot of welding supplies on sale, so I picked up some extra.  For this current project I’ve been using a 10lb spool of .030 size wire, but on thinner material I’d use the .024 wire.  I also bought a 2lb spool of .035 wire which I’ll use for something eventually.  Of course, you just need to remember to switch out the appropriate contact tip to match the size wire you’re using.

Soooo, that’s a first round of info about my beginnings into welding.  It’s a TON of fun, and being able to weld is really going to take my projects to the next level.  Heck, I’m already in the middle of my first paying job…and it’s a big one!  I still have a lot to learn and a lot of practicing to do.  Welding is something you can get the general hang of fairly quickly with a few hours under the helmet, but getting good is going to take a lot of practice.  There are a lot of things to consider when welding.  Material thicknesses, wire feed speed settings, amperage/voltage settings, the speed at which you move the torch, the angle of the torch, wire stickout, shielding gas, bead patterns…that’s just some of it, and there’s a variety of combinations of all those things.  It’ll just take time and practice!  Here are a few extra pics of my first welds and you can see how far I’ve come in a short period of time.  You can follow me on Instagram (@stuffsethmakes) to see more updates on this current project and more!  I’m hoping to do an additional blog post when the restaurant project is finished.

If you’re looking to have some custom pieces built for your home or business, please contact me and we can chat about your needs!

Thanks so much for stopping by and using my Amazon links.  If you have any welding tips or have any suggestions on gear I should look into, please let me know in the comments or in an email.  Enjoy!