Danger danger... High Voltage

Electric Six did a good job of the song... but I had some genuine fear building about the concept/execution of welding. High Voltage electricity / potential eye damage / molten metal - all very real 'land you in A&E' type things!

Think of the track day

I had to remind myself that unless I moved forward and got my head into welding then a track day this year was a distant reality and so I made the commitment and got the MightyMig150 ordered. It turned up promptly and was moved to the shed, I had no intention of diving straight in.

Over the weekend I watched a few more YouTube videos and then set about putting the welder together, loading the wire etc. Several cups of tea and once again re reading instructions before leaping ahead and I was ready to fire it up.

I'm scared momma!

Now lots of welders come with a nice handy grid so you can reference your sheet thickness and work out the starting point for your voltage and wire speed. Not so with the MightyMig but I did find an online calculator which got me close eventually. I will just build up my own reference sheet as I learn/play with it.

It is quite an eye opener to play with something that can melt a hole in box section like the proverbial 'knife through butter'. The first line sat on top of the metal like a sausage, the second created a hole and rather like Goldilocks porridge the 3rd wasn't too bad. I worked on for a while trying different speeds and voltages before having a crack at joining 2 pieces of 2mm plate.

I'd buy that for a dollar!

Well I am not going to win any welding competitions for a while but I will totally take a serviceable bead on my first proper attempt. I think another weekend of practice and I will be ready to start fabricating the box section for the seat and the electrics tray.