Must Have Tools for Welders
David runs through his must have tools when working on a project. He finds these tools really set him up for smooth and successful projects. If David missed a tool you think should be added, comment below
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I’m David with General Air. Now, when I’m setting up my shop at home, aside from the welder and the fabrication table, what other tools do I need in order to make my project successful? Today we’re going to look at those. The angle grinder – definitely the welder’s best friend. When it comes to massaging a part back together or to get those angles just perfect or cutting something apart to make a piece, the angle grinder is where it’s at. Now I’ve got two different flavors here, I’ve got a corded variety and this one’s made by Fine, and I have a cordless variety and this one is a DeWalt. Now what really makes the different in the angle grinder is the abrasive, or the wheel. And I have cut off wheels and I have wire wheels I have thick 1/4-inch wheels, 1/8-inch wheels, and flat discs. You may ask, well do you need all of those? Absolutely! Because each one serves an important purpose, but a quality abrasive will make the job of grinding much easier and you’ll end up with a better product at the end of the day. Alright, let’s break down each one of these wheels and what they do. We have the wire wheel here and it comes in two different flavors, you’ve got a carbon steel version and a stainless-steel version. So of course, if you’ve got stainless steel material or aluminum, you’d want to choose the stainless version. Now primarily what they’re for is just cleaning off your weld, if you’re welding with stick or if you’re welding with flux core, something that leaves a coating on top of the weld, this is going to take that coating off rapidly. Another thing that it’s great for is taking off mill scale on your plate or your part before you weld it. We know that like, mill scale that it’s on steel can give you a lack of fusion or a dirty looking weld. Now this is definitely the fastest way to get that coating off. Now ¼-inch wheels and 1/8-inch wheels, they do the same thing, they’re basically grinding wheels, but I like the 1/8-inch wheel this one is pretty worn down as you can see I really like it, but I like the 1/8-inch wheel because it’s nice and nimble. We can still grind on that surface and that surface without much headache. Now the ¼-inch wheel, this is your big mistake wheel if you got to just hog out a weld I can take my ¼-inch wheel and really get that down. This however, is definitely my favorite type of wheel and it’s called a flap wheel. And these will take weld off and they’ll also buff material so I can grind a whole weld down and then I can also finish it with all the same wheel. Certainly a lot more expensive that the hard wheels, but a great choice for if you just wanted to leave one wheel on your grinder. As you can see, I’ll load it on this grinder I have the same type of wheel, the flap wheel, but this one is designed for aluminum. Same attributes there, you can take welds off, you could also buff up your part. And then we have the classic cutoff wheel, the only thing we can’t do with a cutoff wheel is we can’t come from the bottom or the top if you’re trying to grind stuff, it is really only made for cutting. But certainly, there you can see the scenarios that you would need to cut a piece or two to reshape a piece or something like that. So that’s what each individual wheels do, and I’ve got brand that I like, I really like Walter, I really like 3M, but like I said quality abrasives will go a long way in your project. Next up, let’s look at saws. Now of course there’s no better way to get your raw material cut to length and ready to weld than a saw. On my right here I have a chop saw, on the left I have a bandsaw, let’s look at the benefits of both. This is a chop saw and you’ve probably seen these before with an abrasive blade on them which more looks like a cutoff wheel. But this is a bi-metal blade. The abrasive blades spin a lot faster and put a lot more heat into your part, whereas these bi-metal blades, they spin slower and they cut quite a lot cleaner. Now the downside of the chop saw is the width of the blade. You always have to compensate for the curve or how much it’s going to cut off in excess, so it makes measuring a little bit trickier. Another benefit though of the chop saw is that you can get one for less than $600. This is a band saw. Now of course it’s a saw at the end of the end so it just cuts the material just like the chop saw. But the benefits of a band saw is certainly in the precision of the cut since you have a much thinner blade than you would on the chop....