One of the first times I worked with stainless steel outside of the shop, I ran into a funny but common problem — the customer wanted to stick magnets on their stainless steel fridge, but nothing would hold. Most folks…
MIG welding aluminum without gas is one of those jobs that really tested my patience when I first tried it in the shop. Most of us are used to running MIG with shielding gas on mild steel or even TIG…
Figuring out how to calculate weld thickness can trip up even experienced welders. It’s one of those things that seems simple until you realize how much depends on getting it right — from metal thickness and joint prep to the…
One of the biggest surprises I ran into early in my fabrication journey was realizing not every hole in metal needs to be fixed with a welder in hand. There were times I didn’t have my MIG setup ready, or…
When I first got my Lincoln 140 MIG welder, I was excited — until I realized setting it up wasn’t as plug-and-play as I thought. Between figuring out the right wire feed speed, voltage settings, and choosing between solid wire…
Welding aluminum with flux core was one of those challenges that caught me off guard in the shop. I was used to running clean beads on stainless with TIG or dialing in MIG for thicker steel, but aluminum is a…
One of the first joints I learned to weld in the shop was the butt joint, and at the time I didn’t realize how important it would be in real-world fabrication. Whether you’re running MIG on mild steel, TIG on…
Brazing HVAC copper lines can feel high-pressure—one tiny leak costs time, refrigerant, and money. This guide focuses on heat balance, joint prep, nitrogen purging, and filler techniques that consistently produce clean, leak-free joints in real-world installs. Clean and prep the…
Running flux core welds can sometimes leave behind those frustrating worm tracks — little surface trails that make a bead look messy and weak. Many welders confuse it with poor arc control, but the real issue often comes down to…
I had to fix a leaking HVAC copper pipe on a jobsite without using traditional soldering—it threw me off at first. I’d spent years running beads with stick, MIG, and TIG on everything from stainless to mild steel, but brazing…