Bought a welder
 

It's been years since I welded. Today, since I have to make some modifications to the service body on my Fuso FG, I bought a small Harbor Freight 110 volt flux core wire feed welder ($120).

(http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44567)

Ooooh! It feels so good to weld again. I have an old arc welder but I don't have any readily accessible 220 volt outlet in a place I can work so it's just been sitting in the basement for the most part. There's something both primitive and cosmic about fusing metals together. I can imagine what those first human metalsmiths felt like.

I have the small Lincoln like that. It can take gas, but the flux core works good so I never got any gas yet. I have fixed a few things with it. I was able to turn it down and weld some real thin stuff too. That's a nice thing to have around! There is a great forum www.weldingweb.com. Check it out.

Thanks. That's a great website. Looks like people are having success with the HF welder although it seems unanimous that Lincoln wire is better than HF.

Check the link in my sig - they have classes on how to be a blacksmith
(I took one of the beginning blacksmithing classes - it was excellent) All that crap they taught me in Mechanical Engineering school really works =)

-John

kerry,

check out metalmeet.com too. i gotothis rec from a fellow forum member. great site