Welding:
People that have welded stuff before are in great advantage when it comes to this project. If you have never welded then you should buy a book on welding. They have some in Home Depot or try www.bn.com. I am not going to go in to too many details on how to weld, just an overview. I would also advise you to take a class in your local community college on welding. Welding is very dangerous, you are working with hot steel and high electrical power and improper use can get you third degree burns in seconds. Or even turn you into a large charcoal. I would also like to note that I did not have any previous knowledge of welding before of this project and was able to learn to use MIG in few days.

You need to choose which type of welder you are planning to use. There are four types, ARC, MIG, TIG, gas.

ARC (stick): Since this is one of the older type of welders, they are quite cheap. ARC welders can be bought for about $100 in many places. They work great, but their welds are not so clean. It might take some time to get used to working with ARC welder. You need to learn to move your hand away from yourself and down all at same time. It takes time to get used to it. An important thing to watch out when buying it is if it 110V or 220V, and its duty cycle.

MIG: These are very popular ones. MIG welders are divided in two. One type is “inner gas” welders, they are cheaper, easier to learn because of their simplicity, but can only weld some types of steel. Most of these run on 120V so you can just plug it into your house outlet. There is no cycle time like in ARC so it can also make your job go faster. Most of these can weld up to 1/ 4 inc steel (plenty for this and many other projects). ”Inner gas” welders can be converted to gas version by buying some adapters.

The other type, is one with Gas tank attached to it. It can weld almost any type of steal, plus it makes cleaner and nicer welds then all other listed before.

I am using inner gas welder made by Lincoln called “Weld Pack 100”. It works great and it can weld up to ¼” steel. It took me only a day to learn how to weld, so it is the easiest one to learn. Just look at bubble behind a spark, and make sure it is big enough. Also pay attention to heat and speed settings. They start at $300.

Best way to start is to practice, welding cart is very useful and great way to start

TIG: TIG is the strongest welder that you can get. It is used for airplane construction. As you can imagine they are not cheap. They start at $800 and run on 240V. For a project like this they are simply overkill.

GASS: This is oldest way to weld. It works great, but it will take you a lot of time to learn how to use it. Problem is knowing when metal reaches a perfect temperature: too low will not weld strong enough, and too hot will crystallize steel and make it week. One big plus is that it can be used for cutting steal as well. They start at $100 and are portable.

If you are new to welding, like me, you could build a rolling tool box to get used to the welder itself. This is a great practice, and perfect place to store a welder, a fire extinguisher and other tools. I advise you to build one like mine. [picture]

MOST IMPORTANT: you need to wear proper welding protection clothing. This dramatically depends on type of welder that you are going to use. For most of the time, you will need long pants, long sleeves shirt, hat, ear and eyes protection, welding gloves and most importantly welding helmet. You need to buy a good welding helmet ($50-100) the UV light produced by welder will make you blind in no time. And your face will be burned by UV-lights produced by welder. These skin burns can cause cancer. Also need a well ventilated area, on concrete and dry floor. And most importantly need to find a place were you will feel comfortable working like table, chair, lights, fan (can get hot), and etc.

Links to other related pages:

Lincoln Electric welding tips in infol
books