Post your first ever 'useful' welding job...

I finally got my 230v welder hooked up over the July 4th break and I immediately found several jobs requiring immediate attention. I've been trying to get a stuck aluminum head off of an X1/9 engine but the exhaust studs were bound and holding it on with the force of God. I threw some nuts on there, welded the stud to the nut, blam, got them all out, except one which sheared inside the head, but with only one stud holding on, I was able to separate the head enough to get a saws-all in there. I had tried everything prior to this, double nutting did nothing, no amount of penetrating oils or heat would free this thing, futile hours were spent, 10 minutes of welding, done. This was my first time using a MIG on something useful, the first ever job was stick welding some beads on some intercooler piping we made up for the XR4Ti to stop them from blowing off at 30psi...

First ever... useful weld would probably be fixing broken swaybar mounting tabs but this one was one of the first useful things that wasn't a repair of something broken:

Did my exhaust a while back. It got slapped by my driveshaft and survived. This was the first good weld I had done.

As soon as one holds, I will post it.

I guess I re-did the front of the cart before the truck's exhaust. Each side of the front axle was shortened giving it the excessive positive angle and negative camber.

My F250 broke them, but I built a set of angle iron ramps for my open trailer. And I could just reweld the pockets back on, but the whole ramp is "banana'd".

My first big project was building a welding table and then putting together a Locost chassis on top of it, of which, uncharacteristically, I have no digital photos.

My first documented project was a bit smaller, though I still had about 40 (!) hours into it. I extended the stock seat frame of my Honda Ruckus by three inches, which entailed building a jig, sectioning in two pieces of steel tubing and relocating all of the mounting brackets while keeping the whole thing square and true.

Lowering a Ruckus seat is easy. Stretching one, not so much...

Hmmm. About 30 years ago the boss said go weld together a canopy that we can put up on this job. So I did it. Using 3" square tube steel I fabricated a 45' long 6' wide canopy that was then picked up by a 18 wheeler and brought to the job. I had only played with Mig and Tyga couple times before this project. It was only much later did I realise just what I had done and that just how critical it was that those welds were proper (they were). Up till that point I never had any formal training. The training I got to weld that canopy consisted of a 15 min "this is how you do it" from the owner of the body shop next to us that rented space from us.

I don't think I have pictures of it, but I extended the seat mounting tabs on a pair of VW Golf front seats to mount in my wife's Rabbit. They did not hold, sadly. The first useful thing I did that held was to weld a new catalytic converter into my Roadmaster wagon when all the aftermarket direct fit ones were the wrong angle so they would hit the underside of the car. That was pretty satisfying.

How about first project this week - still in progress - headers for the MG

Boxed and side-plated the front lower control arms for the Javelin:

That were later destroyed in shipping when FedEx pushed them out of a plane.

In reply to oldtin:

I'm impressed, keep those pics coming!

In reply to Javelin:

That sucks

Rear axle brackets onto Locost rear axle a number of years ago

the first was my welding cart that I'm still using. (no pics handy) The second was a display case made of angle iron and plexiglass to prevent students from destroying a circulatory model. (the laser pointer on top lets kids "point" to vessels without poking, prodding and breaking them as students are apt to do.)

Welding up all the holes left from removing the trim on my 914. Uggy uggy welds, glad I do not have pics. Then I made a no-E36 M3 bracket for my neighbor's garage door opener.

In reply to oldtin:

What did you use for your mockup header tubes?

First useful weld: A sheet metal hood latch support on the Valiant had a piece of broken off, but still present. Thin metal. Had to use a chunk of copper to back it up. No pics, thank goodness, but it seems to be holding.

Second: Replacing a hinge rivet head on the recliner on my couch.

Ranger50 wrote: In reply to oldtin: What did you use for your mockup header tubes?

It's just some 1 1/2" drain hose from lowesdepot, The flange is jigsaw cut plywood and used a hole saw to make the round flange to attach the hose. Once I got the hose pretty much where I wanted it - wired it in place and filled it with great stuff rigid foam.

oldtin wrote: Once I got the hose pretty much where I wanted it - wired it in place and filled it with great stuff rigid foam.

Hey, that's pretty awesome!! Great idea.

dculberson wrote:

oldtin wrote: Once I got the hose pretty much where I wanted it - wired it in place and filled it with great stuff rigid foam.

Hey, that's pretty awesome!! Great idea.

+2, added to playbook, filed under 'Other ways to accidentally get Great Stuff on your hootis'.

I built a Stainless Steel Air Intake tube for my 1995 Mercury Tracer LTS as the stock rubber one had cracked and the dealer wanted crazy money for it. I worked as a parts driver for an SS shop so I came in early everyday and I taught myself how to Tig weld, purge weld and mirror polish SS with that intake tube. Then I built a strut bar and showed the parts to a guy I knew at a fab shop I delievered to and the car ended up serving as my resume and got me a job at a welding shop. I still work with the guy to this day!(was 14 years ago)

When I was 12 I worked in a fab shop sweeping up and painting propane tanks, they showed my brother and I how to weld while they were enjoying a PBR and we made some decent pegs for our bikes out of some scrap bar; it doubled the weight of our old mongoose race bikes but who cares right?

kind of a crappy pic, but i borrowed my cousin's brand new Miller/Mac Tools 120 volt welder to weld the Hedman X pipe into the Flowmaster exhaust on my Nova while i was restificating it back in the winter of '02/'03..

more recently, i used that same welder (which i now own) to make a temporary Y pipe for my 86 Camaro.. who can tell me how many exhaust turndown tips i used in the fabrication of this work of art?

i've done a few other things with it, but it seems that exhaust is the most useful thing i make with it..

About 30 years ago my Dad and I built a tractor mounted log splitter out of a piece of 10" I beam and a jack cylinder off a boom truck. It was welded with a 50yo Lincoln stick machine and 7013 rods. I learned how to weld building that thing and he let me weld all of it. To this day my uncle still uses it so I guess it was pretty useful, though I'm pretty certain it's been repaired a time or two. Digital cameras weren't invented yet, so no pictures of the build. I'll try to remember to snap a shot the next time I'm down that way.

For me it was gas-welding repair panels on my '67 Alfa. That was, oh, about 25 years ago.