Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Welders, and Torches?

Barry's comment about running out of troche gas has me thinking on the welding gear.

What do you have? Son Jake has these.[img]http://[/img]

I don’t do any huge amount of welding/cutting, but when you need it, you need it. I use the largest oxy bottles you can get without the contract issues, forget the size. And for fuel, I use propane. All you need are propane tips for the torch, it does all I need to do. For welding I have an old AC arc welder and a 130 amp mig.

As I posted in the gooseneck hitch thread, I have a set of cutting torches that I haven't used in 25 years. They ran out of gas, and I kept waiting until I needed them before refilling, and just never did. I have a small MIG welder that I use for the small repairs. Anything big, and there are Mennonite welding shops within a mile that will do it for me cheaper than I can buy a good welder, or I'll drive 15 minutes, and my nephew will do it for free.

I admire your organizational skills.

Finally got around to taking some pics of my welding trailer...

If I need to, I can go mobile with it, as some things may not be handy to bring to the barn, if they need welding.



I keep supplies and leads in my gear box. Have a notch cut in the top of the box so the coiled up leads go in, and the box can be shut and locked if needed. Keeps everything clean too.



The trailer is 14', so I can load pipe or supplies. Roll the cutting torch on, and lay it down and strap it down.



Beats what I had before.

Very neat Barry. Not the lived in look we have.

That barn, I put up about 3 years ago.

Give it time...

I have a Miller 200 amp electric machine and Victor cutting torch.

Between dads shop and mine we have a Victor set down here and he has a Victor up there.

My big Victor torch is on my service truck and he has a Harris on his pickup.

I have a Lincoln tombstone ac/dc in my shop with a Lincoln 180 wire feed.

Dad has an Ideal Arc 300/300 in his shop.....thats a nice welder. I dont have the tig side set up yet, but near as I can tell it is a high frequency machine. I think!



Lincoln 225 on his truck and Ranger 305g on my truck.


A Hypertherm plasma floats around both places.

Been wanting a HTP 221 Invertig welder for a while......

Bach when I welded a lot more. I had a hankerin' for a welder like the Lincoln the school had when I was in high school. The old copper coils, and a crank dial. No fan needed. I'm sure it was an AC only however.

I have a set of Victor torches, a Miller arc welder and a little 110 V wire feed. MostIy I use the torches for shoeing the mules,forming shoes,applying borium ..Then the occasional fabrication of some thing I need around here.

I was surprises ,the last time I had the acetylene bottle filled it was $130.
I had a 25 year lease on the bottles and when I had them filled,they said they had given me the bottles, no more lease

Got a torch and a arc welder that I can't use anymore cause of a pacemaker. If I need a good weld I have to take it over to the neighbors.

If it plugs in Miller
If it's engine drive Lincoln
If it lights ...Victor...

Good school of thought...