what color was it supposed to be?

Welder on. Now to make a trip to the store and get some ends for my leads.







Walter

Blue.... But that's a whole lotta blue.... To late now though.

Walter

1st photo looks greenish, but can see it better in the last few.

Yeah the light wasn't good in the shop for pictures.

Walter

Got the leads fixed up with the right ends on them and put on the reels with the tension set. Used the new oxy torch today and man it cuts nice. Just need to get a longer hose for it.



Walter

Since you've already painted it, might I suggest some plastic drive in caps for the open ends of the tubing?

Wasps and yellow jackets are always looking to build a nest inside tubing.

Got some ordered from fastneal. Looked at a few places near me and no one has them in stock. Should have welded them up solid but the caps will do. I have no more time to work on it at work and need to do some work at the hose so I can start building fence.

Walter

Looks great...!!!

King Architectural Metals in Mesquite has them as well.

For future reference.

Awesome will take a look at them.

Walter

Had to put the welder to work yesterday, first off it has been a long time since I have stick welded, and burning old junk 6011 wasn't much fun. But I had to weld a new shank on the bucket of my John Deere backhoe.

This is what we started with.



Got it all cut off and cleaned up.



new one in place.


All new teeth replaced.









Walter

Kool......looks good!!!

Nice job

All those fancy toys and you dont have a auto darkening helmet? I can't weld without mine, specially if I'm stick welding

I got one on the shelf from hs and it has set there for a few years. A cheap one isn't all that good and a lot of what I do at work isn't that great with a auto. Also stick welding is a lot worse on an auto than mig. This helmet also has a glass gold lens which is a lot easier to see the weld puddle and crisper to me than a cheap plastic lens in most helmets. But I do have a lot of fun toys to play with at work that is one of the pluses of being in the equipment rental business.


Walter

Yeah if my auto isn't fully charged then it's very sensitive and will darken when I start grinding, and will also go completely dark when welding instead of stopping at the setting I choose. I'll be honest, I suck at stick welding because I have a constant twitch in my hands, without auto darkening there is no telling where I will strike that arc

Working with metal is such a great skill. Wish I was better at it. I have all kinds of ideas but not the confidence to tackle most of them. Seeing projects like this really gets the creative juices flowing. Thanks for posting.

I hear you, I am not the great stick welder either as it has been a while since I have done any. I plan to get another auto helmet sometime but instead of a cheap one I am looking at the miller digital elite or equal quality. Not cheap but none of the good ones are. Practice practice practice is what it takes to be good at welding, and I still have a lot to do. I tend to always get close to the end of a project and start to rush it to get done. There is still some things on this that I wish I would have done different but that is life.

Walter

No problem, you have to start some where like most things we are always learning and trying to do better. Wood working is not my strong side and I have some projects that I need to get done so I have some practice to do.

Walter

I found mine in the dumpster behind a welding store in Rockwall, it was in an opened package missing the head band. I took the head band off the non-auto one I had at home, not a perfect fit but it saved me $150

Score, I have a hobart auto on the shelf at work and something is up with and just never looked at it. Just went right to my regular helmet.

Walter

I've used the same $30 hood with a $20 gold number 9 lens for the last 19 years. I don't have an auto darkening hood because the one I want was $350 the last time I looked into it. My hood has the biiiig lens, so when I'm in funky positions I can still see the weld.

E6011 1/8" is one of the easist electrodes to run. When you need a really strong weld, like the bucket, don't run downhill if possible, run it flat and drag the weld instead of push. Dragging produces a slightly stronger weld, but is next to impossible if you are filling a gap. Overhead, like you were doing always sucks. I will take the time to reposition the work of possible. Curl that bucket so you don't have to weld overhead.

I would chip the E6011 and run an E7018 over the top of it. That's a whole nuther ball of wax. They are tricky to run, but make a stupid strong weld. All of the columns and spans on my shop were welded with both electrodes. The trick with an E7018 is if overhead it HAS to be a drag weld, you can't push it. And if you are welding vertical you run it uphill. So start at the bottom and work to the top, yes against gravity.

Thanks for the tips fireman. Got a lot more practice to do with stick but there will be plenty of that when the fence comes along.

Walter

ChuckE2009 has some great videos on YouTube about different welds in different positions