Hey ya'll. Newish welder here. Saw a post about PPE and it made me wonder what I should be doing myself. I've never once seen someone wearing a respirator while welding.

I'm just a DIY/hobbyist but I am doing fab work more and more with both flux and mig. I work primarily in my garage with the door open. Should I be wearing a respirator? Is this a fairly new thing or just something a lot of people don't take seriously?

So I just finished welding school in June and I’m having a hard time deciding what kind of welding job I want to do.

I already know what I don’t want to do and that is be in a tank, be high in the sky(even though sounds cool).

I’ve been looking at getting into custom fabrication because I love building things and making things but I don’t know where to start, I thought about making my own shop(but I don’t have the money to open one or buy all the equipment I would need), I’ve been looking into rails because it looks like a lot of fun, I also thought about trying to get into some kind of robotic welding, and lastly, I really want to get into pipe welding. Pipe welding was the whole reason why I wanted to start welding and go to welding school in the first place.

Also why theres pride flags in the bio?

I wanted to avoid tedious grinding, so I mapped this entire geometry out for edge-to-edge butt joints on 16-gauge mild steel. I separated the head, spine, and legs into four distinct assembly zones (see first pic) to try and manage heat distortion during assembly.

Before I run the DXF and start nesting the cuts, does this seam layout make sense for TIG fit-up? Any red flags or tight corners I should worry about?

Anyone have suggestions on a reasonably priced o2 sensor for purging/welding SS pipe? Searched through old posts and came up empty handed. Purgeye looks great until you see the $8k price tag. We’ve got lengthy 100’+ runs of sch10 316 to weld out and a very picky customer.

I’ll make this short.
I have some experience welding, I liked doing it and want to get better.
I cannot afford to pay for school and I do not have good enough credit for a loan.
How do I get started? I need to learn on the job. I have attempted to get on as a helper everywhere around me and have had no success. I was an awesome helper to my last guy. At the end he just left me at a job site and I did hand rail solo.

Included a picture of something I did for the hell of it. Currently working on 18 wheelers.

Anyone got experience with these? Found them for a good price and not a fan of thick leather gloves for stick welding. Really ache my had muscles

I figured he is Arab, and he seems to like antigravity/tensegrity objects soo much.

I have base knowledge of welding, he seems like he is the only one in his field who like welding random objects, do you think we can show him some love on the way?

found this in our shop so im wondering whats the brand and what kind of gun is it

I had an original design for the handrails that involved welding a 1.5” x 1/4 bar to a 2” x 1/4 bar and running it through my forge to give it a hammered look with a big ball peen hammer, but they changed their mind and I had to blend the whole thing with multiple passes and grind it out smooth. The design with the bars under the handrails was pretty easy to bend after forge heating. I used an old cast iron vent pipe as the template to make the rings before welding them closed to the support bar.

I still have some touching up to do on a few places to make sure the bars are the right length to touch the posts that were installed on the new steps, but I’ve been grinding all day and my hands are buzzing. My main question is what I should do for the tight spots where my flap disks can’t really reach? Should I use a die grinder to get in there? Someone I know suggested bondo but I wanted to ask some more experienced people first.

Been back on Smaw this past week, but today was the 1st time I’ve used 2 different electrodes on a joint as well as my first “open groove” joint. So this was different compared to the backing plate joints.

I understand the the whole “key hole”. But Jesus that was difficult. How do I avoid blowing through and having a massive drip underneath. I get practicing, but any tips to help my blow through problem.
I did one flat (pictured) and one horizontal. It happened both times about 2 inches after I start.

Currently taking welding in high school but haven’t actually started welding yet

Couple of welds from today on a cable plow chute I'm building. Usually runs 6" stringers and bounce around to avoid too much warpage.

Curious what you guys think!