Any of you lot welders? Going around in circles wondering about starting welding. Stick, MIG, TIG & the rest of the bloody acronym list... What would you start with? Stick looks more likely to teach the process from scratch (geddit ), but TIG looks far more useful, if a hundred or two more on startup. Not gonna be doing much, but there's an increasing list of 'it might be nice to have the facility' jobs.
Probably everything... That's my issue - it's a wide range of very varied possible jobs, hence TIG appealing. Was supposed to meet with giant blacksmith mate & have a go at some stuff, but, y'know, the bloody C-word intervened.
Haven't done any in years but I vote MIG as the most versatile, especially for small thin hobby stuff. But since the title is 'More Power' - Oxy Acetylene!
I've got loads of old tools of my dad's, very well made, including an old adjustable spanner like the one pictured at the start of this thread, pliers, trowels, screwdriver, saw, and his old pipe tobacco tins in which he kept his nails and screws. Most of these I still use, and I would never throw them out. No such thing as junk.
Here's some inspiration [to buy some more kit]: WWII 1944 REME TRAINING PAMPHLET WELDING TECHNIQUES OXY ACETYLENE ARC WAR OFFICE | eBay
Bosch multi-material drill bits. The blue ones, preferably in an impact driver Completely awesome. Wall tiles, brick, concrete, wood, plastic, metal. You won't usually get as clean a hole in wood as material specific bits & they often need a crisp punch mark in metal, but good lord they're handy. I may even like them as much as Forstners, and that's saying something. And who knew you could get sanding belt cleaning blocks?! (Probably quite a few of you, and you really should have mentioned it before.) Also superb. Adam Savage's YouTube channel is quite bad for the tool-addicted. He plainly has larger pockets than most, but his enthusiastic chatting about favourite tools while making odd stuff has inspired several 'I need want that' moments here. Worth a shufti: Tools: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJtitKU0CAehVwewqUdsYrDqg9Kp1jQvj Stuff: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJtitKU0CAegGi2QUH6ywt4EkjcR0jVam Etc. (The Ghostbusters thing turned into a long restoration of a vac form machine. And now I want to build one.) Adam Savage's Tested - YouTube
