I talked to the good folks over at Eastwood and placed my order for the Eastwood TIG200 AC/DC welder, the Eastwood Tungsten Grinder because I knew that if fouling the tungsten is a problem for beginners I would be needing either this or a grinding wheel, but with it’s rod mitering slots and double sided diamond grinding wheel, the grinder would take having pointy tungsten out of the learning process. I also ordered the Eastwood Panoramic Welding Helmet. Probably too much helmet for what I need but not very expensive, so I went for it.
Tag: tig 200
5 TIG Welder Upgrades You Can Afford
The nice thing about the influx of guys and gals with TIG welders at home is that we are able to fill out or line of TIG accessories. This allows you to customize your welder to fit your needs (and budget). Once you get the process down you can quickly learn what add-ons will help you make a nicer weld. We’ve quizzed Eastwood employees and customers to find what the top TIG welder accessories are. Read below to learn more about each of them.
When do you save a panel or throw it away? Repairing a Rusty Trunk Lid
When your fabrication and welding skills start to progress you’ll get to a point where not much scares you as far as repair goes. Whether it’s rust or just old body damage anything can be fixed with enough time and skills. Over the past few years I’ve started to get myself to that point where I often have to approach a rusty panel with the question “Is it worth my time to fix it?”. The answer can differ for many reasons. Is the panel easily available aftermarket or good used? How expensive are the panels? How soon do I need it versus how long it takes to get a replacement part?
Fitting a bench Seat into a Channeled Hot Rod
Channeling an early 30’s car looks the cat’s meow but it creates ALL sorts of problems with actually making the car drivable inside. Every step of this project I’ve had to take a step back and figure out how to fit everything into the car with the decreased room inside. Because the transmission and driveshaft tunnel protrude up above the floor now I couldn’t just put the seat up on top of the tunnel or I’d have my head up out of the roof. I needed to get the driver and passengers butts as close to the floor as possible.
How to fabricate and install Heavy Duty Threaded Inserts
Recently when channeling my Ford Model A I wanted to use Grade 8 fasteners for all of the body mounts instead of just tapping threads into the frame or inserting rivnuts that could fail over time. First of all the 1/4″ wall of the tubing wasn’t really thick enough to […]
How to Make A Free Tuck Shrinking Fork
You may not realize it, but many of our Eastwood tools are dreamt up and prototyped the same way you build things at home. We have a problem or see a need for a tool to help do a job right and we build something ourselves. I recently needed to shrink the edge of a panel that was on a vehicle and I couldn’t get a shrinker stretcher on it to shrink. An alternative method is to “Tuck-Shrink” the area and use a hammer and dolly to shrink the metal into itself. I decided to make my own homemade tuck shrink tool from some old tools for free I had laying around and show you the process.
How to Channel A Ford Model A
Back in the late 1940’s-1960’s it was pretty easy to distinguish if a hot rod in a magazine was built on the east coast or on the west. One of the big differences is how the profile and stance of the car differed. An “east coast hot rod” was easily identifiable by its low ride height and body channeled pretty hard over the chassis without chopping or lowering the roof. It seems as the years went on guys were channeling and lowering their cars more and more until there was almost no ground clearance and no headroom from the raised floor.
C-10 / C-20 Trailing Arm, Coil Spring Perch Rebuild
The rusty trailing arms on my 1963 C-20 were about as bad as they come, so much so I could reach my hand through some of the rust holes. About a year ago I stenciled out 3/16″ plate and welded them on both sides of the arms in order to regain structural rigidity so I could drive it safely. As you’ll see in later pictures I have yet to weld in one of the plates but it is already cut and will be welded in soon.
How to Build Simple Engine Mounts for a Hot Rod
To me building a hot rod or custom car is all about building with what you’ve got, using some ingenuity, and making things from scratch. Sure you can point and click with your mouse and buy a “hot rod in a box” from online vendors, but I think that those cars lose the soul that makes a hot rod so dang cool. Recently I built a chassis for a 1930 Ford Model A coupe I’m putting together and I needed to make some simple motor mounts to attach the Flathead to the chassis. I know you can buy some, but where’s the fun in that?! I decided to show a simple way to make some mounts from scratch.