Lidl's cheap welder

[Fab5Freddy]

Well, it is much quicker than hot riveting, but I don't know about a bridge in an afternoon.

I couldn't think of a huge metal thing that might involve welding at that moment...only a bridge came to mind. I guess bridges don't really get welded do they?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I couldn't think of a huge metal thing that might involve welding at that moment...only a bridge came to mind. I guess bridges don't really get welded do they?

Yes they do. Most large metal to metal joints up to around WWII were riveted, then arc welding really came in to it's own in production of ships, as a much faster way to produce them. Arc welding itself though was available long before, but there were issues with stress cracks, lack of sources of electric power, using batteries.

So any large lumps of metal which are hot riveted, you can be fairly sure it was built pre-WWII.

I chose to learn to weld on a contract I was on in Italy, on an heavy engineering job. They provided a guy to do it, but it was often more convenient to do it myself, than try to find him and wait for him to be free. Bit of a mistake really, because the Italians would then seek me out to do their welding You use the arc to cut through steel, as well as weld.

Back home, I fancied having welding facilities at home and spotted an arc welder, plus around 160 foot of heavy angle iron in a small ad in the local paper (remember those?), for £30, bought it, with an idea to put some shelves in my garage I had just built. I cut and welded four custom racks, which I still have.

 

[Fab5Freddy]

Yes they do. Most large metal to metal joints up to around WWII were riveted, then arc welding really came in to it's own in production of ships, as a much faster way to produce them. Arc welding itself though was available long before, but there were issues with stress cracks, lack of sources of electric power, using batteries.

So any large lumps of metal which are hot riveted, you can be fairly sure it was built pre-WWII.

I chose to learn to weld on a contract I was on in Italy, on an heavy engineering job. They provided a guy to do it, but it was often more convenient to do it myself, than try to find him and wait for him to be free. Bit of a mistake really, because the Italians would then seek me out to do their welding You use the arc to cut through steel, as well as weld.

Back home, I fancied having welding facilities at home and spotted an arc welder, plus around 160 foot of heavy angle iron in a small ad in the local paper (remember those?), for £30, bought it, with an idea to put some shelves in my garage I had just built. I cut and welded four custom racks, which I still have.

That's very interesting , thanks for reply.

Sadly those days of grabbing a deal like that in the local paper are long gone aren't they? Are you still working your way through that 160 foot?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

That's very interesting , thanks for reply.

Sadly those days of grabbing a deal like that in the local paper are long gone aren't they? Are you still working your way through that 160 foot?

Nah, most of it went to make the shelving