Viking59 - Those brown spots are silicon that precipitates out of the weld wire - normal. We are in the same boat, new welders at 60. Be careful the welding vortex will swallow your wallet quickly. I had a small project and went through the HF 125 and 170 welders then I found a new Lincoln 180HD (Ho...

My higher amperage angel looks much better but I still notice a larger diameter circular hole where I start the cut. Any way to avoid this?

Thanks

Wow - puts me to shame. Love that design! Here is my first attempt. Found out that using 3/8" ply the pilot arc tip is the same distance from the work piece as the wire standoff provided (about 1/8"). I did some trials to dial it in with short straight cuts and all the spark spray was well...

Thanks - that was very helpful. Since my post, don’t know if it’s good info but they said if you were below 40 amps dragging is ok.

Mike

I was Father's Day gifted a CUT50F pilot-arc plasma cutter. Tried it out on some 1/4" material and wow. I've been requested to make some yard art figures. Looking online I was going to use 16ga. steel and make templates. My gun came with a bent wire standoff applied. I have read that if you tak...

Or this: https://www.eastwood.com/adjustable-steel-welding-table.html?SRCCODE=PLA00020&gclid=CjwKCAjwma3ZBRBwEiwA-CsblKMJfB8k1cvf8MeWqjNz3HOUSCc85TM8V17zqNYXLLZh0HLdoP73WBoCRm8QAvD_BwE I couldn't believe it but the other day I was looking at CL and found a never used Miller 30FX folding table. ...

I found that putting a cheater lens in my helmet made a world of difference, just another concession us old farts need to deal with. Wonder if this is part of my issue too. I wear contact lenses. Instead of bifocals I have one contact for distance and the other for closeup. Right now I'm at the poi...

Thanks for the table suggestions. That Miller table got me thinking. For my woodworking hobby I have two Kreg "Mobile Project" centers ( https://www.kregtool.com/store/c64/work-supports/p419/mobile-project-center/ ) . The tops are plastic but I could attach MDF easily to the top. Maybe eve...

Had a chance tonight to try out my new helmet. What a difference. Now I removed another excuse for poor welds. Actually my weld with better sight did look better. Another thing that I think is hurting my welds is I’m doing them on the ground on my knees. Is there a welding table for hobby welders th...

I'm a new welder at 61. I had a mobile base project for my woodturning lathe that I was going to save money on doing myself instead of buying. I was going to make it with flux-cored wire welding so I first bought a HF 120. This would have saved me around $150. But, TOO much splatter with the AC weld...