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11/24/01 -- Welcome to another page in my long saga to restore this very special (at least 
to me) automobile. I procrastinated on purchasing a welder for as long as I could possibly get away with it, but in order to finish up the bodywork, it was finally necessary to bite the bullet and get one. And then, learn how to use the dang thing.
After consulting with pros on the Totally Triumph Network (TTN) forums, (are you a member yet?) I settled on a Hobart Handler 175. I was fortunate to find a good sale that included a cart for about $100 less than the usual going rate for the welder alone. This is a 230 volt rig that draws 20 amps at the plug. I opted to go 230 versus 115 volt for the simple reason that others said it would make welding easier. And I'm all for "easier". I also picked up the necessary accessories. I found an auto-dimming helmet on sale at Harbor Freight for $79 (#10 shading automatically activated by the arc), leather welding gloves, etc. After using this thing for awhile, I can see that there's one more tool I'm going to want -- a special pair of welding pliers for cleaning spatter off the tip of the welding gun.
After getting the juice installed in the garage by an electrician, I decided to skip the flux core wire that comes with the welder and stopped by my nearest welding supply store to buy a tank of gas for shielding (hence the name, Metal Inert Gas). I figured what's the point in spending the money on a MIG welder if you're not going to use gas!! The guy at the store recommended an Argon/cO2 mixture and .030 wire. After fiddling around with the welder for a couple of weeks, I think that .030 is fine for most welding applications but I'm not too sure about Spitfire sheetmetal at the moment. I may wind up going back for a reel of .023 gauge.
The biggest trick for me so far is in figuring out the best wire feed speed and voltage setting for the metal that's being welded. Learning how to weld a nice bead takes some real practice but I think I'm getting the hang of it. The pictures below represent my first and maybe twentieth weld. I'm sure you can see the big difference that just a couple of weeks and several welds have made.
If I can learn to weld at age 41, anyone can do it. I've discovered that I'm enjoying welding a great deal. One of the biggest challenges for me was to learn to hold the gun at a consistent distance from the weld. Doing so has helped me avoid fouling the latest tip to the welding gun that's in place. I trashed the first two by holding the nozzle too close to the arc and spatter closed up the tip. For instance, I found that a wire speed setting of about 25, the voltage set to 3 and the gas setting to 25 seemed to work best for me on the 3/16th square tube stock shown at the above right. Between some helpful advice from John Davies on the TTN forum and reading the manual that came with the welder (which shows several illustrations of various weld results and what led to those results), I'm feeling much more comfortable in my welding and have much greater confidence in the strength of my most recent welds.
Presently, I'm welding up components for my body tub rotisserie. Later, it will be body panels as I convert my donor tub to right hand drive to match the car I'm restoring. I'm thinking of transplanting the entire engine shelf if I can manage the task. Removing the old ones for the swap is going to be the real trick, of course. I think that I've pretty much decided to buy some spot weld remover bits and remove the few remaining panels that are good on Mrs. Jones, sandblast them, prime them and store them for now.
For an excellent "primer" on MIG welding, be sure to check out this post on the TTN by Calum Douglas. It helped me tremendously.
To be continued...
Please. Always wear your seatbelt while driving -- and that goes double for your children if you have any.
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