Welding Tips and Tricks

Just sharing a find... I came across this toolkit at Home Depot and it's been great for organizing TIG consumables. The 2-tier design is nice (handy for, say, 17 vs. 9 parts), and it's got feet in the back so it doesn't topple when open.

I particularly liked that the bins are removable - so, if you organize / label your stuff and want to shuffle the layout, you just move the bins instead of the contents. And unlike other bin organizers I tried, the handle is on the top so your ceramic cups don't get knocked around every time you pick it up or set it down.
To give you an idea of scale, each of those bins is holding 1 long and 2 normal ceramic cups. The bottom bins are about 50% larger all-around.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-22-in- ... /202021301
There's also a version with a deep bottom instead of bins:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-22-in- ... /202021302

Cheers,
Richard

Very nice, looks extremely handy.
I'll get a pic of my tig box, soon.
~John

I like that. I see two TIG Fingers...Jody will be proud.

Superiorwelding wrote:I like that. I see two TIG Fingers...Jody will be proud.

You know what?
After all the tig finger videos, I finally bought three of them. there on the way, should be here in a couple days.
A buddy of mine had one, and I used it a little, and finally realized I needed one.
Funny how that happens.
~John

Superiorwelding wrote:I like that. I see two TIG Fingers...Jody will be proud.

Yeah, I bought a 3-pack to support the cause - that was like a year before I ever touched a welder, so I've been hanging onto them for a while.

Update to complete the story... Here's what I bought to populate the kit. Cheap stuff from eBay / China, but it'll let me figure out what I do and don't use, and I'll refresh the more popular parts with better quality if needed.

Total cost was about $180, including $30 for the box, ~$75 for the torch parts, ~$50 for tungsten, and about ~$30 for the TIG Fingers.

Here are the torch kits I bought:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261264994655 - 51pc cups, collets, gas lenses
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171104122324 - 12pc long nozzles & gas lenses

In case those links expire, he runs these two eBay stores:
http://stores.ebay.com/riverwelder/
http://stores.ebay.com/plasmacutterconsumables/

For tungsten, I went to HTP.  I bought a 10-pack each of 0.40", 1/16", and 3/32" in 2% lanthanated to get me started.
http://www.usaweld.com/Tungsten-s/59.htm

I've since found even better pricing at weldingcity.com, which is about 20% cheaper even after shipping fees.
http://www.weldingcity.com/tungsten-ele ... ated-blue/
They also have handy 10-packs with two sizes.

And, of course, the obligatory TIG Finger:
http://www.weldmongerstore.com/tig-finger/
I bought a 3-pack some time back, but it looks like that's not available now.

For filler rod, I picked up an assortment of types and sizes at my LWS in 1-pound tubes. I suspect with shipping, buying locally for filler rod will be the cheaper option, though I've got my eye on 10x 10-pound boxes of rod at mwsco.com that seems to be a smoking price (though maybe a lifetime supply for me).

Cheers,
Richard

That is an excellent assortment of TIG torch parts, very well organized. Thanks for sharing the info.!!

Jim

If there was a like button id click it. I have the same box and i keep my rarely used 17v in the bottom as my main rig(26v) stays on the truck. It makes for an awesome grab and go box for when i know i have a tig project coming up. As for the tig fingers, i mostly walk the cup but i bought a dozen, gave a few to friends in the trade here and there. They work great for what they are intended for and when i need them i have them(keep two in the truck). As a matter of fact i used one last week, 30" stainless pipe that was a couple inches off the ground with no room to walk the cup. they come in handy.

Thought I would did this topic back up. I went and looked at the organizer first mentioned and liked it a lot. I did not buy it then and while walking through Harbor Freight I stumbled upon these. Item No.94458, they were $3.99 each and for that kind of money, it is a steal. I set one up for some of my 9 stuff and the other for 17. I will get two more, one for my gas lens' and the other for misc tig pieces.
-Jonathan

RichardH wrote:For filler rod, I picked up an assortment of types and sizes at my LWS in 1-pound tubes. I suspect with shipping, buying locally for filler rod will be the cheaper option, though I've got my eye on 10x 10-pound boxes of rod at mwsco.com that seems to be a smoking price (though maybe a lifetime supply for me).

Cheers,
Richard

If you ever need thin tig filler rod (<1/16"), I've found weldingsupply.com and Ebay Seller "FillermetalQueen" has the best pricing, especially if you buy in the 5 lbs/10 lbs boxes. (the price per lbs is way better than trying to get 1-lbs quantities). Weldingsupply.com has "house brand" thin tig rod, and FillermetalQueen on EBay sells "Blue Demon" brand filler.

Jonathan, that's a good find. It looks very handy. In my own shop, I'd probably prefer having different types in separate containers - a lot easier to move around and open up. Right now, I do most of my welding off-site, so having everything in one handled tote has been nice.

But I'll admit that I've got too much in mine, and it's gotten worse since I took these pics... No surprise, but I'm finding that I tend toward a couple cup sizes and don't need every size between 4 and 12. At one point, I thought I might do size 17 on one layer and 9 on the other, but I'm settling into just using 17 & 26 for now.

Oscar, thanks for the pointers. I ended up biting the bullet and jump-starting my stock with a range of 309L, 4043, and ER70S2 filler rods in 10# tubes from my LWS. Per-pound, it was cheaper than the cheapest online service after adding in shipping. But I didn't have these guys on my checklist, so I'll give them a look. (The super cheap deal I thought I found was a typo, which didn't surprise me.)

Cheers,
Richard