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Cheap Welding for Punks

by TimAnderson on October 24, 2008

Table of Contents

Cheap Welding for Punks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Cheap Welding for Punks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: Welding With Books! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2: Don't Poison Gas Attack Yourself, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 3: AC Stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 4: DC Stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 5: Solar Welder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 6: Battery Spoolgun - Flux Core Wirefeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 7: Oxy-Acetylene (Oxy-Fuel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
 Author:TimAnderson author's website
Tim Anderson is the author of the "Heirloom Technology" column in Make Magazine. He is co-founder of www.zcorp.com, manufacturers of "3D Printer"
output devices. His detailed drawings of traditional Pacific Island sailing canoes are at http://www.mit.edu/people/robot.

Tim's philosophy involves building minimum-consumption personal infrastructure from recycled scavenged materials.
Redirecting the waste stream. Doing much with little. A reverse peace-corps to learn from poor people all over the world.

Intro: Cheap Welding for Punks

Cheap homemade welders compared: AC stick, DC stick, DC spoolgun. Oxyfuel discussion.

Welding is usually the easiest and quickest way to build something.

You just put the parts next to each other and weld them.
You don't have to drill bolt holes and go to the hardware store for bolts.
Metal doesn't split like wood. It doesn't have grain and knots that make every piece different.
You can get all kinds of scrap metal for free. Bed frames, parts of old cars, etc etc.
And you can make your own welder for free or close to it.

Don't have access to a welder? LIAR!! All it takes is some junk car batteries and a welding rod.
Or some dead microwave ovens to butcher for the transformers.
Make your own industrial revolution!

Make these welders yourself!

AC stick welder,
DC stick welding with car batteries
wirefeed spoolgun with car batteries
Solar powered battery welder

This instructable is my "table of contents" for welding projects. When I do more projects I'll add more steps here to link to them.

Step 1: Welding With Books!

The most important welding tool is... INFORMATION.
Whenever I screw up a weld, I go look up how I should have done it. Sure enough, there's a proper polarity, current, feed rate, shielding gas/flow rate, flux etc for the
weld. I do it that way, and suddenly I'm a great welder.

No matter how many welding books I get, I need them all. There's some kind of Japanese-style collusion between publishers to distribute the information between all the
books. None of them have all the information you need. Every book will add a lot of information the others don't have. They also tend to devote a lot of space to info you'll
never need, like how to weld train tracks using an automated submerged-arc machine.

The Miller online welding calculators are really good, especially for something like TIG that has 5 or 6 different parameters.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
Step 2: Don't Poison Gas Attack Yourself, etc.
Welders don't live very long.
Smoke including welding smoke is usually full of some poison or other.
Manganese poisoning is one of the hazards, especially if you do a lot of welding in confined spaces. Wear a respirator with the proper filter.
Or make your own, 1942 style!

New Zealand has a great online manual on welding safety. The number of ways to harm yourself with welding is truly amazing. I took a welding class once. It turned out
I'd been doing some really dangerous things. Lets say you need to arc weld a distance from your welder. So you carry a coil of cable. If you weld with that coil of cable
around you, you can stop your heart with an induced current.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
Step 3: AC Stick
Weld Steel, stainless steel and (sort of) aluminum.
Cost: $0 and up.
see the entire DIY AC Stick Welder Instructable.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
It costs nothing to make. The junk you need is probably already in your alley or garage. A bundle of rods costs $7 or so anywhere in the world.
It's much easier to make this welder run on 220 volts than on 110, since it draws half as much current on 220 and your breakers are less likely to blow.
Striking an arc without sticking the rod to the work is a skill, look for some instructional videos on youtube. I do it by listening. It makes a particular sound when you do it
right.
It's very easy to weld on steel that's about the same thickness as your welding rods or a little thicker.
For thinner walled stuff it takes some skill and looking up the proper settings.
Stainless is also easy to weld with this unit. Just get some stainless rods at the welding store. Use low power and thin rods, stainless is a poor conductor of heat and it's
easy to melt through. But it's easy to make it look nice. It's "stainless" so it's easy to make nice shiny welds.
They sell aluminum rods also, but I've never gotten them to work for me.

Step 4: DC Stick
Weld Steel and stainless steel
Cost: $0 and up.
Another welder that's already laying in pieces in your alley, car, and garage.
see the entire DIY DC Stick Welder Instructable.

A few old batteries can deliver awesome amounts of current.

Combine 6volt and 12 volt batteries to get any voltage you need. I've never needed more than 36 volts.
I've done some really heavy welding with batteries. I've also cut holes by dipping the rods in water first.
For stainless, you can wire it electrode positive so most of the heat goes into the rod rather than the work. It's harder to strike an arc with this DC unit than the AC one.
The AC unit has a higher "open-circuit voltage". Batteries are a "voltage source" and the arc is much shorter than with a "current source".

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
Step 5: Solar Welder
Here's my Solar Powered Welder project.
Pretty much any alternative energy project will include something that will make a fine welder.
If you're living in an off-grid house with a battery bank, you've got the most powerful welder ever made!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
Step 6: Battery Spoolgun - Flux Core Wirefeed
Welds Steel
Cost: $75 and up.
see the entire DIY Battery SpoolGun instructable.

Wirefeed is very easy to use. A lot like a gluegun. Just point it at the pieces you want joined and pull the trigger.
Flux-core wire means you don't need a shielding gas cylinder. The fluxcore wire I've used has deposited very thin slag. Not much work to brush it off. Fluxcore wire costs
$4/lb and up.

Cheap fluxcore wirefeed welders are abundant in hardware stores and used on craigslist.
For even less cost on ebay you can get a spoolgun and run it on car batteries. Old car batteries will put out as much current as a very expensive welder.

Control welding heat with distance from the gun to the weld. Close in is a short low resistance wire - more current and heat - melt it in. Further out - longer wire - more
resistance - less heat and a puddle that builds up higher.

To weld stainless steel and aluminum you'll need shielding gas.

For ~$200 you can add a gas cylinder and regulator.
Different materials require different shielding gases.

Thin walled materials such as tubing require skill.

You must look up wire diameter, feed rate, and voltage to get a good weld and not burn holes.
You must look up and do everything exactly right to weld aluminum.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
Step 7: Oxy-Acetylene (Oxy-Fuel)
Weld Steel, stainless steel, aluminum. Braze anything. Really good on sheetmetal, thin tubing, and rusty stuff.
Cost: $200 and up.

A lot of people have a set of tanks around just for cutting. They don't realize it's their best welder for a lot of jobs. Put your smallest tip on it and it's easier to use on thin
tubing and sheetmetal than any other welder I've tried. You can use coat hangers and random wire for filler rod.

Acetylene isn't the only fuel for this, you can use propane, hydrogen, or pretty much any flammable gas. Acetylene has the hottest flame. Get the free manual for gas
cutting/welding from the welding supply shop. It has tables for what size tip and pressure to use for what fuel. And what thickness of what metal you're working on. Like all
other welding, checking the book first makes your welds beautiful.

I just gas welded a stainless steel ladder from tubing. I used stainless bicycle spokes from junk wheels for filler rod. Now I want to make a whole lot more stuff like that.
You don't need a helmet or gloves, just a pair of welding goggles. It's really quiet.

At Oshkosh they teach people to weld airplane frames and aluminum with oxy-acetylene and oxy-hydrogen. It's a really sociable type of welding. It doesn't drive people
off with UV, fumes and noise. For aluminum you use some white flux to paint on the area before heating.
We used ESAB #35 aluminum flux and Alcotec alloy ER1100 3/64" welding rods.
TM tinmantech Aluminum Premium Flux also.

Muffler shops, even the big franchises use oxy-acetylene for patching pipes. You can adjust the flame to "reducing" with a shortage of oxygen. The starved flame turns
rust back into steel.

Stainless will rust unless you treat it right. You can't use a steel brush or an old grinding wheel that's been used on regular steel. That will rub rustable iron onto the
surface. Get a fresh grinding wheel and only use it for stainless. After welding you need to "passivate" the stainless. Rustable iron crystals come to the surface of the
weld. You need to clean your weld with something - not steel wool, not steel brush. I'm using a bronze brush. Then use lemon juice to etch all the iron off the surface. The
chrome and nickel that remains won't rust. Unless you mix grades of stainless, or have an electrical problem, or....

But don't worry about that stuff for now, it'll still rust a lot slower than regular iron.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
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Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 139 comments

darnocpdx says: Mar 28, 2009. 12:18 AM REPLY

Yeah the glasses would probably prevent flash burn (temporary eye damage), but in the long run they're all blind...if they survive the fire that transpires on
their face when the paper ignites. I know I've caused my fair share of fires while welding.

pfred2 says: Feb 25, 2011. 1:36 PM REPLY

That is why all good Chinese welders use the yellow pages and I don't mean out of the phone book either!

twotowner says: Feb 23, 2011. 8:06 PM REPLY

Nice overview of the welding technologies. I am seriously going to have to try that reducing flame trick!

Gas is expensive, but if you keep your eye on the used equipment market, you can reduce the cost. (I got extremely lucky, full gas rig for nothing when I
found it cleaning out my mother in law's place.)

I would like to add that a welding book I bought warns against using coat hangers for filler since it is typically the poorest quality steel the manufacturer can
find.

bedrailstore says: Feb 21, 2011. 7:35 AM REPLY

I was hoping to make some bed rails like these: http://www.bedrailstore.com. Is it even worth the effort?

SwaggeringPagan says: Feb 21, 2011. 2:04 PM REPLY

Oh Cc'mon......nothing like adspooge to clutter up someone else'd gig.
The answer of course is a resounding YES, totally worth it to make this kind of thing yourself and not waste time and money buying a gate for Grama's
bedside.

Downcount says: Feb 5, 2010. 7:37 AM REPLY

Great instructible! i myself use a hydro-oxy torch for small things, but i like the many different ways you can arc weld!

lol btw i went to a so-called "expert HHO welding" site yesterday and they called gas torches a "Settling torch". Obviously not expert enough to know that it's
an Acetylene torch.

Hycro says: Dec 31, 2010. 5:04 AM REPLY

I'm thinking maybe buddy was spelling it how he pronounces it? A few "old-timers" that I know pronounce it as "a settling torch" because it's so similar to
acetylene in sound (and much easier to spell:P)

josh1324 says: Mar 4, 2010. 4:12 PM REPLY

lol

brb112988 says: Oct 16, 2010. 11:21 AM REPLY

if ur getting bad arc blow try taking the ground wire and wrapping the insulated part of the wire around the peice that you are welding and ground it out i dont
know what it does but it seemed to work pretty good for me when i was in welding school

wackyvorlon says: Dec 8, 2008. 5:22 PM REPLY

Bear in mind: Welding with AC is much harder than welding with DC.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
 darthdork says: Aug 26, 2010. 6:00 PM REPLY
i find it easyer

2 stroke says: Sep 29, 2010. 8:40 PM REPLY

me too i thin ac is easyier because no arc blow whick is fu_ _in annoying

Coffee bean says: Dec 9, 2008. 2:31 PM REPLY

y is that?

wackyvorlon says: Dec 9, 2008. 3:10 PM REPLY

The polarity is changing sixty times per second, so the arc is constantly stop and reestablishing itself. Makes the whole thing vibrate and the arc is
very hard to keep going.

Metalcaster14 says: Jun 19, 2009. 5:02 PM REPLY

yeah but remember that with DC you get arc blow which is pretty freakin' annoying

fieldman says: Dec 23, 2008. 1:36 PM REPLY

If you want to weld DC, look around for an SCR bank from a variable speed DC motor drive. I pulled one out of a dumpster and put the leads from
an ancient Marquette (massive coils) through it. Best welder I've ever used and that includes a lincoln upright with foot pedal. The problem with
small coil welders is the inrush current when an arc is struck. Put a capicator bank on them and they should work a lot better.

Astinsan says: Dec 12, 2008. 10:07 AM REPLY

Depends on your local manciple power. You may be on a 50hz system like in the euro countries. You are correct though. After a person masters
it, there isn't a problem getting and keeping it going. If you are to do a weld on something that really matters, one would use a dc welder or tig
welder.

BeanahVulgaris says: Oct 3, 2009. 3:20 PM REPLY

There is a patent of Nikola Tesla's that talks about rectification. This would allow higher currents with less loss from the semiconductors. US
pat 413353, some of the illustrations are to show the idea rather than an industrial use.

stasterisk says: Dec 9, 2008. 6:16 PM REPLY

that's a massive overstatement! both kinds of welding are easy.

wackyvorlon says: Dec 9, 2008. 8:53 PM REPLY

Not if you need a code weld.

iBurn says: Dec 10, 2008. 6:26 PM REPLY

...In all fairness...if you're doing a code weld, you PROBABLY aren't using these methods...

Coffee bean says: Dec 10, 2008. 11:13 AM REPLY

and that is

wackyvorlon says: Dec 10, 2008. 4:13 PM REPLY

In Canada, it is regulated by the CWB. It's a standard for weld quality and strength. Pressure vessel welds are regulated by the TSSA.
Until my tickets lapsed, I was ticketed in two positions for the CWB, and all-position for pressure welds.

Scubabubba says: Dec 10, 2008. 3:43 PM REPLY

If you have to make a weld that is legally "safe", like on a bridge or a pressure tank, you have to follow a code like the building code.

Coffee bean says: Dec 11, 2008. 11:23 AM REPLY

i agree with iBurn because anybody welding a bridge or a tank or things of that sort will have exp and probly store bought welders

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
 masterochicken says: Nov 17, 2010. 1:34 AM REPLY
And much more importantly, certs.

killerke says: Sep 18, 2010. 8:34 AM REPLY

Welding with is oldschool, that wath i think.
I've been schooled for 7 years in welding that is tested with RX pictures.
Most of it was welded with TIG(wig) and MIG/MAG

grtz

hedghawg71 says: Apr 29, 2010. 8:22 AM REPLY

I guess a severe Hot foot doesn't bother this OSHA nightmare in the pic. I was wearing my tennis shoes last summer when I was doing an emergency road
side repair on my boat trailer to get it home and the sparks and other things that fly off of that tip burned thru the toe of my tennis shoes and smoked my foot
pretty good. Normally when I am prepared to weld I got my engineer boots and starched jeans on and he has SANDALS on! Ouch!!!

themadtreky says: Sep 3, 2010. 6:47 PM REPLY

haha, I used to wear flip flops and shorts when I was welding in high school. got some cool scars.

natcrazz says: Jun 12, 2010. 8:40 AM REPLY

Would you recommend welding for punks if the punk has no previous experience welding whatsoever? I have a basic knowledge of electricity (circuits,
voltage, etc) and can do the math related, but I have relatively little practical experience. My intention is to spend the summer months with a friend teaching
ourselves to weld with the many resources online and in books. With which type of welding would you suggest we start?

trip0884 says: Feb 7, 2010. 10:24 AM REPLY

Call me a noob, but I haven't welded since I was 12 years old. My old man had an old stick welder that he let me use as a kid. I don't remember if it was AC
or DC (for some reason I think you could switch it--if that's possible). Also, I don't recall if it was 110 or 220V...that was about 13 years ago. I remember all
the PPE stuff (as that was stressed), how to lay a decent bead, and stressing them. What I'd really like to know is what type of welder would be best for my
needs. I want to weld some heavy gauge steel for a plow, but would also like the welder to be versatile enough for some shop work on lighter gauge metals
for building tool racks and artwork. Suggestions/help please?

stoobers says: Apr 12, 2010. 12:17 PM REPLY

If you want to weld things about as thick as bed rails (angle iron or unistrut) you need 1/16" 6013 electrodes (these are AC) and the welder needs a dial
so you can set it at 45 to 55 amps. Above this current you destroy the steel, or else you overheat the rod. These are very difficult welds and it takes
LOTS of practice. 6011 and 6013 are very different rods. 6013 are much easier and can be bought at harbor freight. Don't confuse 6011 and 6013!

If you want to weld heavy gauge things (like your plow), you need 1/8" 7018 (these are DC). Normally, AC/DC welds with 1/8" rods are 95 amps, but
7018 rods use 115 amps (95 is much too low), so welding is fast and pleasant, but super hot.

At 115 amps, lots and lots of heat is made. You should use at least 7018 for anything that needs very high strength.

So you should get a 110/220 volt welder that does both AC and DC. You can wire the machine's plug for either a 110 plug or a 220 plug. If you go the
110 route, you can't weld with any rods thicker than 1/16. 3/32 rods are too thick (not enough current out of a 110v box, and may destroy angle iron).
You can't weld angle iron well with 1/8 rod (too much current needed to melt the rod - metal gets destroyed), so it you don't need 220 for most projects.

A good rule of thumb: Rod should be no thicker than 1/2 the width of the metal you are welding. 1/16" on angle iron. 1/8" on 1/4" (or thicker) plate.

If you go the 220 route, be sure the welder can be turned down to 40 to 55 amps, else it is too hot to be used for thin stuff. Above 120 amps is also
useless, as pretty much any steel you will encounter as a hobby can be welded at 115 amps with 7018 rod.

My recommendation is to buy a cheap harbor freight 110v AC welder for thin things and make all your thin stuff with that. Then buy a 220 volt welder for
the jumbo stuff. That way, you can set the 120v welder at the perfect current for the 1/16" rods and set the 220v welder at the perfect current for the 1/8"
rod. Switching the current back and forth is surprisingly time consuming and the 110 welder is probably what you will use 90% of the time. If you spend
$500 on a 220v unit, that's great, but you are likely going to end up rolling the current down to 50 amps and so the $75 harbor freight "el cheapo" unit is
what I use almost exclusively for my fun welding projects.

trip0884 says: Apr 12, 2010. 1:21 PM REPLY

Thanks for the in depth reply. I plan on taking your advice concerning the el cheapo stuff, and appreciate the rule of thumb reminder. I guess my
projects will be the true test!

gold03 says: Jan 2, 2010. 9:01 PM REPLY

The battery welding technique is used in the field by guys who are four wheeling, and break stuff off their truck like shocks or springs. I have seen a drive
shaft repaired in the field using exhaust tubing and batteries.

This is an emergency fix to get you back to civilization where a nice, neat, strong repair can be made.

Everyone who wanders the earth, should know this particular skill.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Weld/
 abadfart says: Feb 4, 2010. 11:37 PM REPLY
iv seen it done with a spare alternator for work on remote areas

MrRodrigez says: Oct 1, 2009. 4:45 PM REPLY

well you can make a decent low-temp welds with a few couplers, a regulator and a mapp blowtorch and small oxygen tank.. but thats just me

kill-a-watt says: Oct 26, 2008. 4:17 PM REPLY

Scary. That poor guy has a sheet of newspaper to keep the UV rays from giving him sunburn. Are those sunglasses UV proof? Dark enough?

wackyvorlon says: Dec 8, 2008. 5:21 PM REPLY

He's supposed to be wearing a proper welding helmet. A sunburn from welding hurts like you wouldn't believe.

dabombmaker says: Oct 1, 2009. 3:01 PM REPLY

I can and have had to believe

kill-a-watt says: Dec 9, 2008. 4:40 AM REPLY

I wonder how much a proper welding helmet costs over there? My auto-darkening solar powered Chinese import cost less than a day's wages to me.

Calorie says: Dec 11, 2008. 5:03 PM REPLY

That's a very good question. Economists have a term called Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Economists are also incredibly bad at teaching their
ideas to others. It's almost like they try to make it impossible to learn by making it WAAAY to complicated or just too damned boring. A better way
to word this question is: How days does it take to earn the same helmet in China? We know it took about a day to earn. You also make a lot more
than the average Chinese worker. So it must take him more days worked to earn that helmet than it did you. There are a lot of ways that involve a
lot of complicated and boring math. But probably the best way to say it is many, many days of work. Probably on the order of months of wages.
Probably close to 7 months of wages. That is to say every penny he earns over 140 work days must go to the same helmet you bought for 1 day.
He may also not appreciate the need for a good helmet. We have OSHA, which is a government body that regulates work place safety. He also
has a lower educational background. And probably doesn't have any other choice.

kill-a-watt says: Dec 12, 2008. 6:14 AM REPLY

I have an auto-darkening helmet. The plain tinted lenses themselves are something like $7 each and they go into an ordinary plastic mask
that could be improvised with locally available materials. Yet he doesn't even have that! Seriously, I'll bet I could make a welding helmet out of
a large plastic food container. My brother recalls eating breakfast in a city in china by buying a huge pan-fried scallion-bread from one of
many street venders for something like 3 cents.

Calorie says: Dec 12, 2008. 7:25 AM REPLY

That's 3 cents US I imagine. The dollar has a different value. The best way to look at it is the time worked it takes to earn a good. Look at
it this way. Salaries in NYC tend to be higher than elsewhere in the nation. However it is also more expensive to live in NYC. Does it make
sense to say that a loaf of bread costs more in NYC than it does in Thomasville, GA if they both take 20 minutes worth of work in a
minimum hour wage job? It is your time that is being traded in the the end for your wages. Also, there may be differences in how a culture
uses and produces products. Food consumption is very different in many Asian cultures than in the West. I noted your brother bought his
breakfast. I also noted he bought it from a street vendor. The same bread may have cost 20 times more in a restaurant. This is do to
overhead such as a restaurant, it's equipment, staff, upkeep, etc. As far as him making a helmet from scratch, why should he have that
knowledge? I think that there's a stereotype that people in the developing nations are very clever and can do anything with a bit of know
how and local materials. It's a romantic and false view. People in China are just like anyone else. There is division of labor. Some people
work more in other fields because they have the education, social background, connections, geographic chance and many other
variables. On that note, my close friend is from Beijing. One thing she cannot get over is how multi-talented Americans are. In her eyes we
have the ability to do many things. I restore car as well as study economics. She is a finance professor and is just floored at the idea of
people having so many skills. My neighbor was building a wall and she wanted to watch him do it. Again, she is use to people having a
single job and that's that. Education is low in China. Illiteracy rates are high. A person has minimal training and tends not to be heavily
invested in by a company. The capital (resources, training) a company provides can easily be poached by another company. There are no
real "no compete" laws (or copyright.) This means that I can learn everything I need to from my parent company about production or
whatever, quit and set up a company using my old employer's exact technology.

WhoTookMudshark says: Dec 12, 2008. 2:06 AM REPLY

I bet it's pretty safe to say that the Chinese version of a "welding helmet" (newspaper and reading glasses) probably cost a Chinese person
about a day's wages. Now that's what I call parity! XD

Calorie says: Dec 12, 2008. 7:28 AM REPLY

The glasses are very expensive. What's even more important is the lack of knowledge (education) about the effects on his health. He also
has few, if any options in his safety. Education is very important. Education means you have specialty skills. If you are specialized you can
earn more. Education means you can make choices about your future, rather than be driven by your socio-economic past.

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 DELETED_gabethegeek says: Dec 9, 2008. 2:43 PM
(removed by author or community request)

Kryptonite says: Dec 11, 2008. 2:24 PM REPLY

Wow, imagine having to weld with a mask like that! I wonder what the life expectancy of those people are? Is the third picture an image of that
guy out of M*A*S*H*? I notice that it would be impossible for him to see where he's welding, oh well, all's well ends well.

kill-a-watt says: Dec 11, 2008. 6:15 PM REPLY

probably not impossible, the paper is translucent and the light is very bright. If those glasses are glass or polycarb, they will block a bunch
of the UV I've forgotten to bring my helmet once, I tacked the project together by closing my eyes and giving the trigger a short squeeze
on the MIG. That was easy with a MIG though.

Kryptonite says: Dec 11, 2008. 6:52 PM REPLY

Hmm, I suppose you're right with the dude without eye holes, but it would be hard to get the end of your welder in the right spot. And
what is an MIG?

Prometheus says: Dec 12, 2008. 12:05 AM REPLY

Manganese Inert Gas. You can also use CD's (believe it or not) to shun most of the light from welding. Try holding a CD between
the sun and your eyes, generally "shiny-side-out". A double-sided DVD is best as there is no interference from the backside
layering. You can actually look directly into a 5mW 650nM (red) laser if there is such a disc between it and your eyes without harm
or even strain. Test this at a distance at first though, since any form or arc-welding gives off blue light and not red, possibly about
475-450nM due to it's sheer temperature. Two or more layers may be necessary to protect at a range of less than 10 feet.. FYI
"TIG" welding is "Tungsten-Inert-Gas" as well...

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