Thread: Fireplace project (novice) adv needed..

Well finally got a reasonable chunk of time in between the rain and finished 95%. All I have left to do is weld the rod to the vent cover though I need to buy a steel handle (original was brass). Then all that is left is to paint it with some heat proof paint so it won't rust out as quick again.. Still learning but the welds are good enough for what I want..

Some pics below.

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Observations to date...
1) Thank god I bought a machine that could do both mig and arc. I started off with arc and can do a reasonable weld but let me just say that arc welding is not the right tool for 2mm steel welding. The mig took care of this exceptionally well. I equate using an arc welding for the job like using a sledge hammer to drive in a screw nicely into some wood. Sure you can probably do it but...

2) I used gasless mig and it was pretty decent after I gave it some decent wire. I started off with liquid arc and that thing was utter ####. It would jam all over the place. It was slightly harder than regular solder so what I reckon was that after a bit of temp entered the work the wire would just melt already coming out of the nozzle and once I stopped would clog it once it cooled. I wasted more in jams than I ended up welding. I switched to kiswell wire and it was night and day. I actually did some welding and no jams.

3) Gasless mig wire flux is a hell of alot easier to clean than arc rod flux. With gassless mig wire all you need is a wire brush and a couple strokes and it's clean. The job gets done much much faster.That in itself is reason enough to use it even if it doesn't produce the same smooth weld as gas mig.

My take on it is I would buy a mig machine (even gasless which I didn't find too bad once some decent wire is used) over an arc machine any day of the week. As far as I can see the mig would be much more versatile for an average person at home. Arc is ok once you start doing 3+mm steel at a minimum but even then a decent mig machine will do that too.

Anyway those are some observations from experiences in this project as an amatuer.