Here’s some more practice work from the welding bench. I just stuck a bunch of rods together, because I am still having massive trouble getting things to stick without either making cold, weak welds, or blowing obnoxiously big craters in things and overheating them. These welds are largely of the latter type. As evidence of just how crappy they are, you’ll note that there are several spots along the longest wires where it looks like there are missing “teeth.” Those places used to have short wires welded to them, but the minute I put pressure on them with my hands, they broke off. Doh.

This is not what we want, kids. This is not good. This does not make me the happiest guy on earth. However, it is all part of the learning process, and sooner or later I’ll figure this out.

Oh, and the wires are sitting on top of my brand new foot pedal control (you can switch the welder on and off with it instead of using what is, to me, a clumsy hand control). The pedal helped me get the welds started more easily, but I’m still melting everything like I have a Death Ray instead of fusing things nicely together.

More practice to come. I’ll get the hang of this yet.