First Welding Project from a Newbie

admin

I've always wanted a welder and to learn to weld. I've been in manufacturing for 22 years and been around welding but never learned. A friend of mine and I bought a small factory and our Plant Manager told me that he'd teach me to weld. One of our suppliers allowed us to go "shopping" in their surplus equipment. I picked up a rough looking/well used Millermatic 200. I took it back to the shop and went to work rehabbing it. In the end, it didn't really need much mechanical work to get it going. A good cleaning of the years of dust, new rollers in the feeder, cleaning the liner, tightening up some loose wiring and fittings and a ton of bodywork and it looks like the first picture on this post. I wired up an outlet in my barn and was in business.My first project is to build a fire pit for my patio. I got an old LP tank and some pipe from my neighbor's junk heap and went to work. After opening up the tank and letting it sit with the opening down for a few weeks, I threw it in a bonfire. I was still a little nervous when I started to cut it with the plasma cutter at work even though I knew there couldn't be anything left in it. I started the first cut with the tank on the forktruck while I was standing behind the mast anyway. I will post pictures of my progress.Please let me know what I'm doing wrong as you view my pics.
Reply:No pics yet...Welcome to the forum!GravelThe difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference.