I'm baaaaaaack...

What a fun winter/spring... Life never ceases to toss a surprise your way when you least need it, right? Anyhow, back, all is right with my world, and I have an e-mail sitting in my box confirming my purchase of a new TIG! Now I just have to find a place to get a bottle at a reasonable cost.

Got a list a mile long of projects waiting, rebuilding a 40' reefer, all aluminum, gas tank, fenders and maybe some frame work on a new HD project bike I picked up, a new line of products I can't quite talk about yet, mostly in stainless, brass and bronze. Going to be an interesting summer.

Timing worked out great, booked for an appointment for some knuckle tattoos on Tuesday, should be healed in time for me to unpack and fire up the welder. No worries on no bottle, the first thing I have is some heavy steel pieces I can stick together, need to make a set of posts to form the fenders on.

Hope everyone had a better few months than I did, see y'all in the rest of the threads

Trip

Yo, Trip! Welcome back! What TIG machine did you decide on? Sounds like you've been busy, sounds like you're gonna be busy. Glad to hear everything is going well!

Welcome back Trip. I always say there is room for anything to get better and just keep saying that (while you were going, I went though some pretty bad stuff). So I know.. Work for me.

Did you get with Oleg. He get you good deal. 200DX? LX?

What are you doing on the knuckles?

Thanks Dave, Mike, glad to be back. Not to go into details publicly, but let's say... lawyers aren't cheap.

I called in to see what was available and caught up with him, talked about the PM and ship dates and whatnot and decided on a 200DX. I took a serious look at everything I have going on in the near future project-wise and decided that model would fit the bill for capability and budget.

I traded my truck for an '84 Ironhead Sporty, I'll post some pics and details in the project section. I'm hand forming fenders and a gas tank from some 16ga 55 gallon drums I got a hold of. I was debating on skinning a tank, adding parts to it, with my MIG, but decided I'd really rather build it from almost scratch. I'm still likely going to have the neck done, have a friend of a friend that's been doing them for 50 years or so, and with a 22" over front end, it needs to be done right the first time.

This ate up just about my whole budget, so it may be a little while before I can grab a tank and consumables, but I have some things to do that my MIG would struggle with, but an arc welder would take care of, so a pack of 7018's will be the first thing burned through with the welder when it comes in (some 15/16" CRS but welded to some 3" diameter bar)

Regarding the knuckles, it's been something I've tossed around for years, had a few ideas. I've consistently had a pin, patch, buckle, cap, etc. with D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. on it for the last several decades. Hmmm, 8 letters, 8 knuckles... I said about 6 months ago if I got free and clear of my 'issue' I was going to run with it. My friend/artist/biz partner offered to do them once I was clear. We were going to do them Thurs/Fri, but I decided to wait till after the weekend so I didn't waste three days in the shop. I figure by the time the welder ships, I get the power run and get some time, I'll be healed enough to get welding :) Good timing all around.

Yeah, I know lots of folks are against ink in general, I'm a collector and work with the industry (not an artist, but I do design work, computer work, equipment design and repair, etc.) As they can be easily covered with bandaids or makeup for the rare business meeting (I haven't had a face to face meeting in my professional career in the last 10 years...) I figure what the hell :)

Sorry to hear about the cash flow. Hope Oleg made up for the lawyers a little. Best of luck on the truck and sure you will be on you feet in no time. economy seems to be a little better on the welding side.

Well, financially (other than expenses) it's been an interesting year. My 9-5 is going strong. I left one contracted position and picked up what appears to be a better one. The expenses and the downturn last year (how fun is it losing a 45k/year contract? NONE AT ALL) have me still trying to catch up.

I was sitting at the bar the other night talking to a friend about a weld school commercial. If it wasn't for my disability rating, I'd seriously consider going back to it. Unfortunately, last I talked to anyone, no one wanted to hire me because of my physical condition. My new Everlast should allow me to get a couple products up and running for a business I'm trying to start, as well as some job shop type work.

Well that was cool, halfway through my post, my neighbor showed up. He asked if I could design and build a laptop mount for his Peterbilt. Said he'd buy me a bottle and first fill in trade (I told him I had the steel for it). Then I just need to get up to speed on AL as well and redo his reefer trailer.

Ok, so I'm not asking the neighbor to buy the bottle, though I'll let him chip in...

I DID get the helmet issue addressed... couple bucks a piece from weldfabulous got me an 11, 12, and 13 shade for my flip front helmet. Have a few ideas to address convenience, I have a handful of high output LED's, may wire up a light for the front of it to illuminate the weld area and strap a switch to the foot pedal to cut it off when I start welding or something... or I'll just do it the old way like I did in the Navy (weren't allowed auto-darks)