Hello from the Tampa, FL area
Hey all.
I am big into the race scene and have a turbo car. Up until now I have either 1) had someone else do 100% of the work I needed, 2) just had them fabricate the pieces and I weld them at a customer's shop, 3) I fabricate at a customer's shop and have someone weld them for me, or 4) I fabricate at customer's shop and then I weld it.
I like to do as much of my own work as possible and decided that getting a TIG welder and other tools necessary to fabricate in my garage is now the way to go. It was becoming a hassle in order to do this because everything I was making was either for my vehicles or a friend's vehicle. Making a down pipe with the car not present is a royal PITA. It is highly prone to mistakes and takes way to long.
I have decided that a PT-200DX, Power I-MIG 205, and a PP-60 are in the future for the garage as far as welding machines go.
Fabricating wise I will be getting a Femi NG-120XL band saw, bench mount drill press, hand bead roller, and some other various things I will need to build headers, turbo manifolds, charge piping, intake manifolds, exhausts, etc. If I need to shear any big pieces of material I will just take that to a customer of mine and do it there. The first thing I am getting will be the 200DX because I have a project to do on my car and it needs to be TIG welded together like yesterday.
For those wondering if I am a fabricator by trade the answer is no. The car/fab stuff is my hobby and I own an IT consulting company that focuses on server/network administration, VoIP telephony, and security.
I look forward to making some new welding friends here in the future.
