I bought an angle grinder last summer when they were on sale at Harbor Freight.  I think everybody was recommending 4.5" so I probably bought that, but when I was in there, I was pretty confused by the options, and didn't have a clue what kind of attachments to buy.  I will see what I got. If I got the wrong size, I'd planned to get a second one because your suggestion (or someone's) about having two--one for grinding and one for cleaning--is exactly the kind of thing my personality grabs onto because it will keep me from cussing and getting aggravated having to constantly switch out the attachment.

Wow, those are great prices!

The second link has been pulled, but those are old stick welders right?

If I knew what to look for or avoid, I would be tempted to do that here in Kentucky---shop on Craigslist.  

HOWEVER..

A couple of things beyond ignorance are keeping me from it  (ignorance about what, specifically, I'm looking at as far as condition and such, when dealing with old equipment in a new-to-me field).

1-I'm not going to install 220 outside (or in my garage, which isn't even wired for power) any time soon. Someday, but that's a LONG way down the road.  If I have to deal with coming up with some sort of 220-capable extension cord to reach 50' (which is where I'd need to weld--in my driveway) I'll never get welding.  That's the kind of "one thing stacks on top of another" that I'm already sick of dealing with in olde house restoration.  I'm at the point where I just won't take on anything that depends on getting anything else done. It will end up as more junk piled in my garage waiting for me to "get something else ready."  I'm not proud of it, but that's my life.



2-I'm really, really, REALLY enamored of the little welders (I know you didn't see my whole learning and decision process in the old thread, and that's a lot to read through if you don't need the education)  I'm a small woman (back down to about 125  I'm guessing, after having maybe 20 extra on my aging body for a couple of years) and though I have always been very strong for my size, my days of wanting to schlepp anything very heavy are SO over.  

If I need a dolly to move it, I won't use it nearly as much as if I can just pick the thing up, carry it out to the driveway, drag out the tub with my equipment in it, plug into a 12- gauge drop cord attached to one of my 20-amp kitchen breakers (even this I have to feed out a window, still, which is a pita)  and start welding.

Once I saw what Rat_Patrol could do with his little welder, I was sold.

I don't have his experience, of course, and that's why I'm a little scared of something as simple (so y'all say) as a mower deck.  I won't be trying a trailer or car frame because, as  @biere (I think it was him, anyway)  would say, "I'm worried about the bus full of nuns."

Beyond that, in school I used stick welders, and my memories of those are very fuzzy, and though I sure did love welding EVERYTHING I've seen online, and hearing all of you talk in posts about wire welders, has made me feel like stick is old school for my purposes.

For bridges, tanks, skyscrapers and such....yeah I'm guessing stick welding is still god and goddess of that world.

For me, at home in my driveway....wire welding seems like the way to go.

There was a lot of back and forth about MIG vs flux core, but I have no shelter or wind break, so flux core seems like the way for me to start.

This is a starter welder for me, and might be all I ever need.  A lot of the guys with experience understand how limiting it will be for me, and wish I would get better equipment. But I want to see if I'll actually DO this, if that makes sense?

Could I plug in a big welder and make it function and stick metal together?

Yeah, probably.  Though it would be awkward and I'd stick rods to shit and blow holes in shit and make all kinds of ugly mistakes.

I'd be a lot more scared after all these years.

I'm still nervous about screwing up even with the little welder. But y'all have inspired me to go for it.

Wow, that's even cheaper than when we looked last year!



Questions:

1-What's the beanie for?  Does the welding helmet hurt?


2-I figure I will HAVE to use regular leather gloves because chances of finding welding gloves in my size without doing an expensive special order are probably going to be zero, but I will check that out.  Nobody has small gloves that aren't soft fabric or pink or something.  TSC has recently started carrying leather gloves for women (yeah, they're pink) but they have a fabric back.  I may have to order anyhow.


3-I still need magnets, right?  (though I suspect I can use a pipe clamp to crank the deck together enough to get it welded


4-Why 4.5 angle grinder instead of 4?  

I have a 4.5.  This is my grinder, and I would get another like it (or similar) but I'd like to understand why 4.5 is better)

I apparently followed instructions when y'all said I needed one of these last year.









5-I don't know what grinding wheels or brushes I need to buy that would be useful, and based on responses in the old thread, wire brushes really throw metal pieces.  Seems like I need certain tools, including brushes, for welding, though, right?


6-Looks like Harbor Freight only has a 90-amp welder available right now. I thought they had a 125 too, but maybe they've dropped that one.  

Rat_Patrol, The only reason I'm looking is that I could walk in and set myself up TOMORROW to weld if I do Harbor Freight (we have one here).  Yours looks like a better welder for hardly any more money though.

Here's their low-end offering:
HF 90 amp Flux Welder

Yeah but I can't electrocute myself (not easily anyhow) or destroy my eyesight with a glue gun.

Haha!!!!

Women's welding gloves

The shipping makes them expensive but if I can find something else I need at Amazon that will cut it down a lot.

Now then..

For starting out..

We have a chop saw.  We use it for wood (it's a miter saw).

Would y'all buy a metal blade for it and use that for cutting stuff?

Or what?

Is all angle iron the same "weight"?

If not, what weight would y'all recommend for my mower deck?

I know there's gonna be a gap there when I clean up that break.

oH OH!

One thing I forgot to ask..

Rat_Patrol, you had to change tips.  Do I need extra tips?

Hmmm...For the $50 shipping, I could buy more welder locally, BUT...I don't see a better welder that runs on 110.

I fent.

Bought the welder only, as shipping doubled when I added another item, and I think I can get the supplementary stuff locally for less money when I don't have to pay shipping.

I may regret that.

I shall now begin using the list to shop for stuff, and my welder will be here next week!

Wow. That's an awesome little saw.

I have loot!!!

Took a couple of hours this afternoon and went to Harbor Freight and TSC.

Things I got:

At Harbor Freight I got:

Extra angle grinder  It was on sale plus I had a coupon. ( This one has a paddle switch. The other does not.  We'll see how long that little switch safety lasts. I predict ten minutes.)
grinding discs (already had the wire brush for the grinder)
Welding helmet  (I had a coupon.)
cheap vise grips so I won't worry about screwing up and ruining them by welding the mechanism together accidentally  or something stupid like that.
gloves
hammer
magnets-2
cheap wire brushes

At TSC I got:
Nozzle gel
Cute welding hat to go under the helmet--Hobart makes these in GIRL colors.  Who knew?

I noticed the price of wire is about the same at TSC and Harbor Freight.  Maybe even a little cheaper at TSC, and  it's Hobart brand instead of....something else.  I don't remember what HF's brand of wire was.

Of course, every time I see "Hobart" I think about the enormous dough mixer we had at Pizza Hut when I worked there in school.    At least it's an old, well-known company.   I have no idea whether that matters at all.

I think I'm gonna take my HF hammer back and get the Hobart one from TSC.  For $2 more, the handle seems bigger and more comfortable which will add up over time.



What I discovered...

I'm actually not afraid of the welder.

I'm afraid of the freaking GRINDERS.

Nobody in my background ever owned an angle grinder, and I have never been schooled in how to not die (or injure myself so I wish I were dead) using one.

Fortunately a former Navy nuc welder saw me looking confused in front of the grinder attachments and came to my aid.  He, of course, does not use the guard.  

Yeah.....NO.  

Ima use that freaking guard.  I don't use a guard on a table saw.  I hold the guard out of the way on a chop saw (the kind for wood).  I grew up using that stuff.  I understand how to pay attention and be safe.

With the grinder?  I will take the flesh off my fingers, all the way to the bone without that guard, cuz my mind will be on other things and I'll forget to pay attention to how close my hand is to the spinning disc.  The guard is  gonna get in my way. I know this.  But I'm using it.  At least for now.

ETA:  I looked at metal.

Wow, that's expensive.  $5 for a piece of 1/2" angle iron 3' long.

Ummm...that'll add up fast.  I'll have to find a better source than TSC for that.

I could do that for the mower deck (though I don't know what size I need--1/2" might be too small.  They were out of 3/4")  But for a big project, holy smokes....*sticker shock*

I will go there next time I visit my mom (likely next week)

I won't know what I'm looking at, but I'm sure the folks at the counter will help me.

We have one here in our town!

I googled "welding supplies in my town"  and got it..  It's about ten miles from me and really convenient.  

I will go there, hopefully, tomorrow, and cross my fingers that there are nice guys behind the counter.  

They supply angle iron for BIG projects all over the region, so I will ask, first, "can I buy small quantities from y'all?"

We will see what they say.

ETA:  Oh wait.

You mean shops that manufacture things from metal..

I know a couple of those, too...in the small town south of me.

Hmmm..That will mean I need to TAKE MY TRAILER.

No problem, since I have one now.

While that is absolutely true, I've found that more than anything else, it's a garage and outbuildings stuffed full of tools and equipment.

Wait.  I'm not laughing at you. That's not funny.







Oh wait. Yes it is!

I have seen it over and over.

When I married uxb, an older gentleman and his wife were parents of uxb's best friend, and were like second parents to us.   I've never seen anything like his property.  It was a beautiful old stone house that he had built himself, on a farm he'd farmed his whole life.  He no longer farmed at the time I knew him. He was already retired.

But you had to be careful about saying to him, "I can't find X"  because a couple of days later he would show up at your house with it.  And he would have MADE IT.  If it was an old hinge that needed replacing, and you couldn't find one to match, he would come over, measure, look closely at it, leave, then two days later he'd be there with one he freaking MADE.  I mean he made it from scratch, out of metal.  He cut, welded, worked, drilled, and finished it.

He could make anything out of wood.  He could wire a house.  He could work metal.  He could plumb.  He could lay block or brick.  I never saw him pour concrete but I have no doubt he could do that as well as any professional.    He could roof.

There was, basically, nothing the man couldn't do.  And he owned the tool to do it.

I grew up that way, around people who did for themselves.  When I left the farm and moved away, then got married, I struggled with having to pay other people to do everything.  Being able to do things with metal is a big step for me, back toward more self-sufficiency.  I think when you're built to want to do things yourself, it's never okay when you can't.

Good news and bad news...

The bad news..

The welding shop in my town..no longer supplies metal.  I'm going to have to look elsewhere, or plan to pay through the nose when I need something.

I *can* order from the welding shop's parent company in Elizabethtown (which supplies angle iron and other metal, including enormous I-beams, to contractors  at all levels, and they will deliver to the shop the following day.  There is a $10 delivery fee.  I don't think that fee is exhorbitant, but it does add to the cost of the metal, especially if I'm only getting a piece or two.  I don't know enough about what I will regularly need yet,  to order more and just have it lying around.

Apparently the one seller of metal in town charges about the same as TSC prices.



The good news?  

My welder arrives tomorrow!!!

Update:  I found a place called Powell's Welding and Metal Sales in Hopkinsville, KY, about 45 minutes from me.  It looks promising. I will call tomorrow.

I'm near the Tennessee border, so Elizabethtown is an hour north.  Louisville is two hours give or take a few minutes.  Give or take a half hour if there's construction.

If this Hopkinsville place works out, it will be my best option. Even better than Sandusky's, which is in my home town.  

That's a full hour and a half from me.

I had no idea that metal supply was so hard to find.

Has that happened only recently?

Or has it always been hard to get metal?

I used to sit around the "Liar's Table" at a local hole-in-the-wall diner (how I get invited to sit at those tables is whole nuther story) and one of the other "liars" owns a machine shop.  Works on farm equipment, mostly.  Big combines and such.

I know he uses a lot of metal.  I plan to swing by there tomorrow and say, "Hey, Randy, will you sell me some metal from your scrap pile?  I need to practice."

He's an odd duck, so he may say no.

But it's worth a try.

Once he knows I'm tryin' to weld, and I tell him I'm havin' a hard time getting metal, he might offer.

We'll see.

ETA:  No wonder you can weld like hell's bridge builder.

You have family that welds for a living!

IT'S HERE IT'S HERE!!!

Gimme a minute. I'm reading the manual.

That little plastic-looking thing that screws on the end of the welding gun...

Tell me it's not actually plastic, but some kind of aluminum or something?



Yours looked like it had something like that on it.

I'm getting pics..

It's why I have no money.  I want to know about everything, and try everything.