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Starz
Sep 7, 2003

I guess I should have said....

I am using arc. Starting on 1/4" plate with 6013.

I think I would be more comfortable with a #10 shade, but I feel like I am teaching myself in this class and the extra little bit of seeing what I am doing helps me.

I am trying to let go of how I learned to weld years ago from my dad. It was all fast and dirty welds to get the job done. I am making a lot cleaner beads that I used to already, but I have a long way to go.

For that last couple of sessions I have been playing around with how I draw my bead. I have been performing the best with a back and forth motion.

Soon I am going to be talking to a friend of mine that I blacksmith with to give a little bit of private tutoring. He welded for years as a living and I think he would make a good resource. But any further tips or tricks would be helpful.

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Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

Back and forth along the line of the bead, or perpendicular to it? If you're just doing regular stick welding in the flat position you should be tilting the electrode about 5-10 degrees in the direction of travel and moving slowly forwards, never going back. If you're right-handed, that means holding the electrode in the right hand, tilting it 10 degrees to the right, starting on the left of the joint and moving smoothly rightwards. Sweeping up and down to widen the joint ("weaving") is not needed if you're just starting to practice and working with thin material. Take one of your sheets of 1/4" plate, cut it to about 5"x7" and just cover the entire surface with overlapping beads to practice. You should be focusing on smooth movement and keeping a steady arc length.

Miller actually has a lot of helpful information on their site: http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/articles/smaw-stick-arc-welding-tips-techniques/

Vim Fuego
Jun 1, 2000


Ultra Carp
I just scored a Lincoln tombstone ac/dc welder for $125.00 from an elderly gentleman who is beginning to clear out his shop. He's got an amazing collection of tools including a south bend lathe that he bought from the company he used to work for, and also a mill! I'm definitely interested in buying the lathe if I've got the money when he sells it. I'm going to figure out if the mill will even fit in my house for when he decides to sell it.

Anyway, he's got a vintage craftsman horizontal bandsaw he wants to sell as well. I believe it's a 6 inch saw. I'm sure it was immaculately maintained. He said he'd want $125.00 for it. Good buy? I'm inclined to think so as my next project will be building a welding table and the instructions on the miller website recommend one. On the other hand, I did just buy a chop saw, but it's new and nowhere near as cool or well made as the older stuff seems to be. Any real reason not to get the saw?

AbsentMindedWelder
Mar 26, 2003

It must be the fumes.

Starz posted:

If I can master welding, I would be fine making a career out of it, but I don't know if my unsteady hand will allow for it.

Don't let being unsteady bother you. I got news for you, everyone is unsteady. It's all about learning to work around this problem. Shooting a handgun is very similar. I don't care who you are, it's impossible to hold that handgun perfectly still. Welding is the same way. Keep practicing, you'll be fine.

Brekelefuw
Dec 16, 2003
I Like Trumpets
Hey Ambrose:

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-tools-hand-tools-FOR-SALE-AT-MILTON-STEAM-ERA-W0QQAdIdZ518363825

Ambrose Burnside
Aug 30, 2007

pensive
Hnnnnngghhh. Shame I just bought a book on hydraulic die-forming, and Princess Auto's got their 20-ton shop press almost half-price for the next week or so...

fps_bill
Apr 6, 2012

Ugh it never fails to amaze me the poo poo the guys on daylight lay down and call good. I swear nobody takes pride in their work anymore.

I'll upload a few pics and tell the story when I get home. Not awesome pipe welds like other people post but still.

fps_bill
Apr 6, 2012

Ok So I get to work today and daylight left 1 frame in the positioner, 1 in the robot welded, and 2 or 3 tacked up on the floor. Me being the robot operator that I am I immediately start prepping frames and getting stuff run through the robot. Meanwhile the "finish welder" (we'll call him Bob) grabs the one that was in the robot welded and starts wrapping corners and welding stuff the robot can't reach. Bob is a guy who honestly isn't that great of a welder and generally likes to gently caress off, bitch, and moan a lot. Oh yea he's HORRIBLE at reworking things.

Anyway the night goes on and Bob keeps skipping over the one that was sitting in the positioner when we got there. My supervisor comes over and asks whats up with it and said that Bob said it's pretty pigged up and that he "aint loving doing it". My supervisor and I go over and check it out and find this.



I'm pretty sure the operator on daylight(who can't weld either) decided to weld over a robot weld for who knows what reason and the slop pictured above is the end result. I jokingly said to tell Bob to suck it up and fix it. My supervisor looked at me and said you and I both know Bob can't fix that It'll look worse than it does now after he gets done with it. He then asks me if I can fix it. poo poo yea I can fix it, lemme get this frame prepped and running then I'll get right on it.

So I get my poo poo, some carbon arc rods, a needle gun and a 3" air grinder and went to town. I gouged out the crap that daylight left then put a zip tie on the grinder trigger and went to town once again. I really really wish I were more surgical with a carbon arc, would have saved me a little bit of grinding.


almost like it never happened.

All that was left to do was weld it up. Which I did!





Other than the undercut on the corner I'm really happy with how it turned out. My supervisor came down and checked it out and asked if I took pictures so he can show daylight and be like WTF is this poo poo?

e: You can't tell from the pics but there's like 6-8" between the plate I was working on and another plate, made me fall in love with my grinding shield.

fps_bill fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Aug 30, 2013

ArtistCeleste
Mar 29, 2004

Do you not?
[quote="fps_bill" post="418938776"]


That weld is artful. Beautiful.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


I had no idea you could weld with a caulking gun.

Hypnolobster
Apr 12, 2007

What this sausage party needs is a big dollop of ketchup! Too bad I didn't make any. :(

Nice job, I hate rework with a passion. Carbon arc is a wonderful thing but it's not exactly fun.


Spray arc, or just straight dragging short circuit?

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
That is some beautiful welding there. Cleaner than mine for sure.

halonx
May 4, 2005

Very nice weld. Want to come over and weld up my tire hammer?

hayden.
Sep 11, 2007

here's a goat on a pig or something
I currently live in the Portland, OR area and really enjoy it. I haven't been here long and for various reasons will have to move away within a year or two. I wanted to make a memento of my time spent here by smelting iron from local resources and smithing it into something cool. I could probably just buy a lot of the materials that claim to be from the region but part of the experience is going to be getting as much of it as I can myself.

My first thought was to find some iron ore. I did some research on where you find iron ore and how to identify it, but it isn't super clear. Bog ore (found in bogs) seems like the most common way to do it without mining into the ground, but the Pacific Northwest is not a very boggy area. I searched for any possibly local mines that would have public access and came across a local one called Prosser Mine.



It's nestled in what is now a wealthier suburb on a walking trail. They actually have a lot of cool information online about the mine and its history:

http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/parksrec/webpage/12126/1a_prosserironmine.pdf

http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/parksrec/webpage/12126/1b_prosser_intothebowels.pdf

This information says that this is technically bog ore since that's how it was originally formed. As I've been doing research on local ore sources I've been continually impressed on how much is accessible on the internet about something so obscure. Naturally there are images online of the actual opening to the mine. Awesome! There's also a shot of the nice house that resides directly on top of the mine.







Unfortunately, as you can see, it looks like they've closed the entrance to the mine with concrete to keep people out. It's about this time I realize that abandoned mines are probably pretty dangerous, and after some research, realize that it's a bad idea to go into them. I'll probably still go over there since it's close by and take some photos of the exterior anyway.

Here's an image of the mine layout underground, as shown in the above PDFs. Would have been awesome to explore this.



At this point I learned about "black sand" which contains magnetite, which is another common resource for smelting into iron. It actually sounds a bit easier to work with too, since actual ore (found in rocks) has to be roasted and crushed into small chunks. Magnetite can just be poured in.

The problem is, I have no idea where to find black sand. I looked online and it's apparently a common thing to look for with gold panners because the places in streams and beaches where heavier sediment accumulates (the heavy iron containing magnetite) is also where you find gold. I asked a local gold panner in an email what his advice was on finding black sand in the Portland area, and was disappointed to learn I would really have to drive down to the very southern part of Oregon to get it in any real quantity.

I went to Google maps, where I've spent a ton of time looking for possible black sand, and looked in the areas he suggested. Here's what the sand looks like due west of Portland, pretty far north:



Here's what it looks like farther south where it was suggested I look:



It's a pretty big difference in color. The darker color is definitely a good indicator that there's possibly black sand there. I'm afraid it might just be really dirt-heavy or the imaging was taken in different lighting conditions or weather and it isn't really that dark. I found an eBay listing black sand from this location though, so I have a good feeling about it.

What I really wanted, though, was magnetite from the northwest part of the state where I live and have spent so much time. It would also be nice to not have to drive 6+ hours each way. I sent an email to the head of the geology department at Portland State University asking him if he might know where to find magnetite in the area. He responded surprisingly quick and told me there is a lot of magentite in the sand in the Clatsop Plains, and that waiting until after a winter storm will help it collect on the beach for easier gathering.

I did some searching on the Clatsop Plains area, but it includes a lot of land so I was trying to narrow it down. I found a geological survey published in 1905 available online that specifically discusses the mineral content of the sand in this area, including the concentration of magentite. You can view the relevant part here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=bB...gnetite&f=false

Here's the most relevant part:



Armed with this sort of vague description of where to look, I again went to Google maps to see if I can figure out which areas they were discussing. It took a while since I was unfamiliar with the area, but I labeled here the order of the areas in which the passage above discusses them:



Here's the sand described in section 1:



Here's the sand from section 2:



and finally the sand from the last section:



True to the description, section one looks a little dark, section two possibly less so, and section three looks very dark. This is promising news! The especially dark spots in the last section in the water look especially promising, but I'm not sure how deep the water is there and if I'd be able to access it. I'm also afraid that maybe the dark color is just because it's wet. Hard to say.

I continued my search online for more information and found a monthly circulation published by the State of Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries from July, 1963. You can see it here, the relevant parts on pages 18 and 19 (might have to use external PDF viewer, my browser one didn't work):

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/2723/?sequence=1

Here's the relavent quote:

quote:

BEACH SANDS ATTRACT BUNKER HILL
The Bunker Hill Co., Kellogg, Idaho, has recently filed applications for mining
leases with the Clatsop County Court and the State Land Board covering approximately
3,000 acres of iron-bearing sands in the Clatsop Spit area in Clatsop County.
In its application Bunker, one of the largest mining and smelting companies in the
country, indicated that extensive exploration would necessarily precede any mining
or plant construction. The company also stated that new metallurgical methods
might be employed to recover the very low percentages of iron-bearing minerals
from the sands.
Bunker Hill became interested recently in the Clatsop Spit sands after Pacific
Power & Light Co. brought the deposit to its attention. The black sands of the
Oregon beaches and the estuary of the lower Columbia River have been the subject
of numerous investigations and reports over the years. In 1941 the department
drilled 13 holes near Hammond, about 10 miles northwest of Astoria. A deposit of
black sand measuring approximately 500 by 800 feet and at least 3 feet deep was
sampled. The deposit contained about 40 percent magnetite, an iron oxide mineral
which has the unusual property of being magnetic. Results of the department's
work are published in Bulletin 14-D, "Oregon Metal Mines Handbook."

It also has a nifty map showing iron containing sands:



I also, amazingly, found the bulletin it mentioned in the passage above from the "Oregon Metal Mines Handbook". You can see it here, the relavent page being 31:

http://www.jeffersonminingdistrict.com/mining/OregonMetalMinesHandbook-NW.pdf


Here's a screenshot of it, it's from the 1940s I believe:



(As an interesting aside, this document also discusses the Prosser mine, even though it wasn't named that at the time. I know this because it was discussing a mine in that same area that was between a golf course and a horse riding academy, both of which are still there today. I thought that was cool)

It says it found samples in the Hammond area (which is actually no longer a town, but is still labeled on Google maps if you zoom at just the right level) containing about 40% magentite. It says the samples were taken at "NW1/4 sec. 9, T. 8 N., R. 10 W." I had no idea what this meant, but after some brief Wikipedia reading on surveying and looking at the map included on page 10:



I gathered that it meant column 10, row 8 in that grid (the one directly to the left of the Astoria label at the top). Section 9 means a specific section within that small square - apparently this is a surveying thing, you can see the order here:



This means section nine is pretty much the top left corner, and the description says it's the northwest corner of section 9. It turns out there's actually neat download you can use with Google Earth that labels these sections for you. Here's an image of it:



The description also says samples were take from the SW corner of section 5. The points in section 5 and section 9 are actually touching so they just mean that whole area on the coast. If you look at the sand there in Google maps, it looks promising:



and a little farther north, like a quarter mile tops:




My plan for tomorrow (Saturday) is to drive over here with my very powerful magnet and try to find some magnetite! I have no idea how difficult collecting it will be, I don't really have any plans aside from my magnet and some trash bags for storing the sand. I suspect I will have to make another trip in the future to collect more anyway, so I'm considering this a surveying trip.


Anyway, I know this was very long and probably pretty boring for most of you. I thought it was interesting how much information was available online about something really obscure that probably no one in their right mind cares at all about. With any luck I'll find a good source and will be able to smelt it into iron within a few months. I'll update with photos of searching for the sand if anyone cares.

hayden. fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Aug 31, 2013

rotor
Jun 11, 2001

classic case of pineapple derangement syndrome
that's actually pretty cool and i hope u find some iron, bro

Uncle Enzo
Apr 28, 2008

I always wanted to be a Wizard

hayden. posted:

I currently live in the Portland, OR area and really enjoy it. I haven't been here long and for various reasons will have to move away within a year or two. I wanted to make a memento of my time spent here by smelting iron from local resources and smithing it into something cool. I could probably just buy a lot of the materials that claim to be from the region but part of the experience is going to be getting as much of it as I can myself.

My first thought was to find some iron ore. I did some research on where you find iron ore and how to identify it, but it isn't super clear. Bog ore (found in bogs) seems like the most common way to do it without mining into the ground, but the Pacific Northwest is not a very boggy area. I searched for any possibly local mines that would have public access and came across a local one called Prosser Mine.

My plan for tomorrow (Saturday) is to drive over here with my very powerful magnet and try to find some magnetite! I have no idea how difficult collecting it will be, I don't really have any plans aside from my magnet and some trash bags for storing the sand. I suspect I will have to make another trip in the future to collect more anyway, so I'm considering this a surveying trip.


Anyway, I know this was very long and probably pretty boring for most of you. I thought it was interesting how much information was available online about something really obscure that probably no one in their right mind cares at all about. With any luck I'll find a good source and will be able to smelt it into iron within a few months. I'll update with photos of searching for the sand if anyone cares.

That's a legit job of Geological research, I've got to say. (Geology grad student here). There are tons of old surveys and old reports available online, and the majority of them are quite readable too. Old scientific papers, not so much, but the surveys and USGS reports are pretty easy to understand once you get used to any odd terminology they might use.

When you're looking for hematite sand, also keep your eyes open for rust streaks. You might also try digging down a couple of feet in the sand and seeing if there are any layers that are darker or more responsive to the magnet. If you find some that seems like it has more iron in it, take as much as you feel comfortable/able to. You can build yourself a sluice box pretty easily, they can be as simple as a couple pieces of wood nailed together to make an open-ended box with some ladder-rung type pieces in it to catch the denser material. Separating the black sand from the silica sand should be pretty easy, there's a huge density difference between the two. Should be straightforward to nail something together with a garden hose running through it so that the water washes the silica sand away but leaves the metallic sand.

For better instructions and pictures you might look at the amateur goldhound or placer mining community, they've got all kinds of help on how to build and work with sluice boxes/washplants. Good luck prospecting!

fps_bill
Apr 6, 2012

Thanks guys. Not trying to sound like a hard on or anything but I have laid better welds before. When I used to weld ultra axles I'd lay down some really really nice stuff, this was done on a machine that I haven't really run that much so I didn't have it tweaked just right. I was just really happy with how it turned out after the slop that was there.


Hypnolobster posted:

Nice job, I hate rework with a passion. Carbon arc is a wonderful thing but it's not exactly fun.


Spray arc, or just straight dragging short circuit?

Honestly I don't mind rework. It's something different to break up the monotony of filling gaps with stringers and down beads so the robot can weld it. For some odd reason I actually enjoy carbon arcing. Pretty much every chance to do it I take, I just wish I could gouge like this


And yes spray arc pushed with a little motion in the ocean. .045 metal core at 27.7V and about 450ipm wire speed, not sure what my amperage is I've never had anyone watch the panel. That's my go to setting for any machine in the shop. I have yet to find one that won't run at that, some run better than others though.

shovelbum
Oct 21, 2010

Fun Shoe
Got a little Millermatic 140 on the way. All the tools and accessories and spares I picked up for it are already here and the waiting is killing me. We do some welding at my school but it's almost all stick because that's what we see in industry, I am excited to play with flux core and MIG again.

Xenothral
Aug 1, 2013

No one's left... Everything's gone...! Zebes is burning!

So I've been making chainmaille for a little while now (Mostly just bracelets and stuff, I have pictures of a watch I made somewhere, I'll upload those once I find them), and I think I'm ready to start making a shirt. My only hope with this project is that I actually finish it instead of getting half-way through and lose the drive to finish.

hayden.
Sep 11, 2007

here's a goat on a pig or something
I'll post a longer update this weekend, but in short: success in finding magnetite!



(this is just a small amount I managed to filter tonight while exhausted from so much driving today)

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

hayden. posted:

I'll post a longer update this weekend, but in short: success in finding magnetite!



(this is just a small amount I managed to filter tonight while exhausted from so much driving today)

Wonderful!

You probably know about this site http://www.warehamforge.ca/ENCAMPMENT/smelting.html but just in case you don't, you should definitely check it out. It's a pretty lovely site, but it contains tons of useful information about smelting.

hayden.
Sep 11, 2007

here's a goat on a pig or something
The first place we went was here:





This area has those really nice dark spots and dark sands on the satellite imagery ([http://i.imgur.com/j4iy8e6.jpg from previous post). As we walked around we realized that it seemed pretty likely that the really dark spots in the water were actually just seaweed type plants. They were everywhere in large number. That area of water would have been too deep to easily gather sand from anyway.

Luckily, the beach sands looked good!





See those darker spots of sand? That's the magnetite clumping together behind ridges where the lighter blonde sand gets washed away and the heavier magnetite stays.

Here's the dry sand, where I was collecting the stuff I wanted:



If you click for a bigger image and zoom in you can see that it looks like it's speckled with black dots - that's the magnetite. I could actually see bands of blacker sand in areas of the beach where the high tide pushed all the magnetite together (not shown in the photos).

As we ventured father west to get more into the area we saw with dark spots on the satellite view, the sand really just turned to mud and there was zero magnetite in the mud:





The next stop we made was the beach I found by using those surveying methods:





There were some birds chillin



Anyway, this beach was obviously much smaller but it also contained plenty of magnetite. The downside is the sand had a TON of bugs and TON of dog poo poo. The sand was also wet after only an inch or two down which made gathering it much more of a chore. I panned for gold with the blacker sand just for the hell of it and as expected saw nothing. My girlfriend did some metal detecting and found lots of rusty old nails.

Here's a video of me using the slower method I had to use on this beach for collecting. At the first beach I filled a dust pan with sand, held the magnet to the bottom of it, and turned the pan over. Everything fell out except the magnetite and some sand that was captured under the magnetite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4CwxfvCDHI

Shield your eyes to not be blinded by my paleness. Sorry for the aspect ratio.

I brought back about 20 pounds of sand from each location and I'll test them both to see which contains a higher percentage of magnetite. The process of separating is really slow - it's going to take many many hours. I don't know what I'm going to do if my first smelting attempt fails and I lose all my magnetite because gather and sorting this all again would suck.

Here's the gradual filtering process:



I'll post again breaking down the magnetite concentrations from the two areas, and hopefully my progress on making a furnace and smelting this down.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Purchasing a pickup-tool with release will probably feel like cheating: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Buffalo-Tools-30-in-Magnetic-Sweeper-Pickup-Tool-MPSWEEP/100660513#.UiOHgYrH-XE

hayden.
Sep 11, 2007

here's a goat on a pig or something
The problem is that those wheels wouldn't really keep it from touching the sand, and as soon as the magnet hits the sand it picks up a ton of regular sand along with the magnetite. The magnetite forms a sort of outer bubble holding in the blonde sand there's no easy way to really shake loose the blonde sand without losing a ton of the magnetite in it as well. Really what you have to do is hold the magnet just above the sand and let the magnetite jump out to the magnet. You need a pretty strong magnet (mine has a 145 pound pull) to do this well, and I imagine it's just a crappy magnet in that tool you linked.

This is why I wound up just bagging a bunch of sand to sort at home. I had limited daylight to burn at the beach and trying to filter down to just magnetite is going to take hours. What I did in the video I was just showing for demonstration purposes.

hayden. fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Sep 1, 2013

Brekelefuw
Dec 16, 2003
I Like Trumpets
Buy a base for a dial indicator you would use to machine stuff. Those have very strong magnets, and have a quick release.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Brekelefuw posted:

Buy a base for a dial indicator you would use to machine stuff. Those have very strong magnets, and have a quick release.

That or just accept that you'll pick up a bit of silica along with your magnetite. A length of 4" PVC drain-pipe dressed on the outside with cheap Chinese "rare earth magnets" will let gravity solve that problem quickly. Just funnel a few buckets of quartz-contaminated magnetite through it, remove the magnets and dump your magnetite in a bowl.

hayden.
Sep 11, 2007

here's a goat on a pig or something
I'm already like a quarter of the way through my sand already doing it by hand and it's not that bad. So far I would guess I'm getting like 15-20% magnetite and 80-85% "other". By volume, anyway.

Edit: first batch done. 11.7 pounds of sand yielded 2.5 pounds of magnetite. 21% by weight, though granted the magnetite I have now is (completely guessing here) probably only like 90-95% pure.


hayden. fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Sep 2, 2013

ductonius
Apr 9, 2007
I heard there's a cream for that...

hayden. posted:

The problem is that those wheels wouldn't really keep it from touching the sand, and as soon as the magnet hits the sand it picks up a ton of regular sand along with the magnetite.

Buy the sweeper magnet, replace wheels with skids. A couple of pieces of 2x6 stood on edge will probably work. Bring a cordless drill along to the beach to adjust the height as needed.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Iron ore has a lot of silica in it too. You actually need flux in the smelter for the iron to migrate through anyway, so I'd say that even if you only have 15% magnetite in your sand, that's probably good enough. Just collect a lot of it.

Ambrose Burnside
Aug 30, 2007

pensive
Just got an order of metal crap in. Some titanium/nickel silver/jeweller's brass sheet, a book on hydraulic die-forming and blanking, hard solders colour-matched to copper and brass, a pound of ceramic-reinforced thermoplastic for stonesetting + working on finicky things, and the cutest lil anvil you've ever seen. Idk what I wanna get into first!!

Brekelefuw
Dec 16, 2003
I Like Trumpets
Where did you order that stuff? Especially the coloured solder.



http://imgur.com/gallery/mTkrV

Saw this on Imgur. Neat metal engraving series.

Brekelefuw fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Sep 2, 2013

Ambrose Burnside
Aug 30, 2007

pensive
Rio Grande, family was vacationing in the US so I ordered stuff to their hotel to save on shipping/duty. The metal was pretty overpriced and in small 6x12" sections buuuut it comes evenly-annealed, nice n flat, which is a blessing for the layout stage of repousse et al and something I'm not so great at with just a hand-torch. I'm either gonna repousse something outta the nickel silver or saw one of these amber nuggets I have in half and use the chasing tools to try setting it in a big chunky pewter ring, gonna have to see what I feel like later.

iForge
Oct 28, 2010

Apple's new "iBlacksmith Suite: Professional Edition" features the iForge, iAnvil, and the iHammer.
Professional welders -- What boots do you wear?

I am changing careers and will be starting an apprenticeship with my local Plumber + Pipefitter Union. I will most likely spend the rest of my career welding in the nearby refineries and power plants. My aim is to become a fitter, but I don't know exactly where they will be placing me just yet. They have to be steel toed, oil resistant, comfortable, and made of leather. I currently wear these Carolina boots but they are not steel toe so I won't be able to use them for my new job. My only complaint about them is that the insoles were not removable, so when they started to lose their padding, new inserts I put in there made for a tight fit. I wear a U.S. size 16 boot, so that limits my selection quite a bit. I have a Red Wing store nearby that I will be checking out on Saturday. What do you wear?

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
I'm not a pro welder, but I wear (for now) 8" Carolina loggers boots, steel toe, and beat the poo poo out of my boots more than most people ever will.

Impressed with everything except the sole, I'm rather disappointed by that. The right heel is cracking/splitting/falling apart at the rearmost edge and I've had these drat things for like 3 months now, if that.

Ambrose Burnside
Aug 30, 2007

pensive
Stonesetting update: I am not a stonesetter and it is more difficult than it looks, something I forget despite that being the reality of "every single metalworking thing ever"

(or rather, amber is way, way too brittle to set in a pewter ring which is going to bend and flex a comparative lot, and making an accurate socket with chasing tools to set an irregular, uniquely-shaped stone that actually fits snugly is really hard)

e: BUT!! Thermoplastics are really cool and convenient and I'm already burning through my pound tying up lumps of expensive white putty in the roles of vice + plier soft-jaws and weirdo chasing mediums

Danger Dog
Sep 19, 2011

by Hand Knit

iForge posted:

Professional welders -- What boots do you wear?

I am changing careers and will be starting an apprenticeship with my local Plumber + Pipefitter Union. I will most likely spend the rest of my career welding in the nearby refineries and power plants. My aim is to become a fitter, but I don't know exactly where they will be placing me just yet. They have to be steel toed, oil resistant, comfortable, and made of leather. I currently wear these Carolina boots but they are not steel toe so I won't be able to use them for my new job. My only complaint about them is that the insoles were not removable, so when they started to lose their padding, new inserts I put in there made for a tight fit. I wear a U.S. size 16 boot, so that limits my selection quite a bit. I have a Red Wing store nearby that I will be checking out on Saturday. What do you wear?

Not a professional welder here, but a machinist who does a little welding when neatness doesn't count. I love my 8" steel-toed Red Wings. The salesperson at my local Red Wings store is also willing to negotiate -- she ended up knocking 30% off the sticker price when I haggled over my last pair.

One Legged Ninja
Sep 19, 2007
Feared by shoe salesmen. Defeated by chest-high walls.
Fun Shoe

Danger Dog posted:

I love my 8" steel-toed Red Wings.

+1

I wear my Red Wings every day, all day. I'm breaking a new pair in this week. I'm not a professional welder, but I've welded quite a bit in them, and I can't say there's anything particularly bad about them. I've had both the 2408 (uninsulated), and the 2414 (waterproof, insulated) styles, and if you don't plan on being outside a lot in cold weather, go for the uninsulated models. They're the only brand of boots I've ever worn that didn't make my legs hurt by the end of the day.

fps_bill
Apr 6, 2012

I wear 8" Red Wing logger boots. The next pair I get is going to be a lower cut boot without the massive loving heel these things have.

The first pair of boots e bought were Carolina's and they sucked. They were comfortable but fell apart way to quickly. It's been wings ever since.

Hypnolobster
Apr 12, 2007

What this sausage party needs is a big dollop of ketchup! Too bad I didn't make any. :(

I've been wearing a pair of Red Wing 2414's every day for 2 years now (doing probably 4-8 hours of welding a week), and my previous pair of boots were some clearance discontinued factory sole boots that lasted 7 years of true daily use. The current 2414's are surviving full time trailwork (think 40 hours a week in the woods with sharp tools and lots of rock work and big timber)
The 2414's are really really expensive, but they're steel toe, rated to do anything and sort of semi-insulated (I wear good merino wool socks and wear them all summer without any issues). The 2412's are the real true insulated version of the two. All the USA made Red Wings are awesome.


Regardless of what you get, you really must absolutely buy something like Obenauf's LP and rub the poo poo in the boots every 2-4 weeks. Letting the leather dry out is the difference between boots that last a year and boots that last 10 or 20 years. If they're quality boots and the company of origin will resole them, they can last a VERY long time if the leather doesn't dry out and check/tear.

Hypnolobster fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Sep 6, 2013

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Xenothral
Aug 1, 2013

No one's left... Everything's gone...! Zebes is burning!

Disappointingly, I'm only able to find these two pictures of the chainmaille watch I made, so no build log or explanation of how mailling works just yet, but here are the pictures! (They are very large)





What I've been meaning to do with the buckles is stitch them in with fishing line rather than the stuff I used so I can melt the knots together after I tie it off, this waxy string likes to untie itself a whole lot and I have to retighten it every time I take it off.

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