Favorite/Most Useful Welding Tools?

[Outlawmws]

Love the spammer. Reminds me of the wrenches my dad used to use hanging iron. Do you guys keep all your welding tools in your main box, or do you keep one by the welder for just welding tools?

My welding bench is an old 3 drawer roller box with a side cabinet. all welding related tools go in the roller.

Good grounds always seem to be the biggest issue when I weld:

The top is a 1/2" steel plate, and my magnet ground is semi permanently attached to it.

On the right side is a fold-up extension top with a small vise (the top is no longer fordable with the diagonal brace for the vice...), grounded to the 1/2" plate, and I have a heavy ground wire with a small clamp attached to the same bolt grounding the vise.

This allows me to weld dang near anything without having to worry about a ground...

Main "must haves": 4-1/2" mini grinders; one with a wire wheel, one with a grinding disk, or those overlapping sanding/grinding disks, and one with one of those 60 grit purple sanding disks.

Oh, and the 4 plex box/extension cord hung off the back side of the roller to plug the power tools into...

 

[b-body-bob]

I use snack size sandwich baggies to cover my 90 (and other) degree magnets so they won't collect a ton of metal shavings; to clean, just hit it with a shop vac for a few seconds and move the magnet around in the baggie to free up more shavings. not welder safe, but they stay true when holding parts by being clean and smooth.

Easier way to clean them - hold the baggie open end up over a trash can, and just pull the magnet out the top and the shavings will fall right off. I keep a magnet in a baggie on my drill press to catch the mess there.

 

[Monte]

 

[GarageEnvy]

Damnit Monte, you done it again. Alright, where do I get one.....or 4.

 

[ncfh]

Yeah, those look nice. I'd be in for a few.

Oh and I just use shop air to blow off my magnetic junk, messy but effective.

 

[Shipfittin]

Dogs, Wedges and Saddles.

Most of mine are made out of 3/4" plate.

Spud wrenches are amazing tools and are a necessity when aligning large steel foundations for riveting or bolting. I think it's a tool that everyone should have in their garage, it's not something that just steel workers would ever use.

 

[Monte]

www.stronghandtools.com

http://www.stronghandtools.com/pdf_ctlg/10_magnets.pdf

 

[dr_clyde]

We have a set or two of those corner magnets in the shop. They are the cat's *** for sheet metal work.

I'm thinking of redesigning my currently unhappy welding cart to have a toolbox attached. I need it to fit my Dynasty 200 and my Invertec V300 Pro w/Wire feeder, 2 T size cylinders, and a watercooler. Anybody consider their cart a cool tool?

 

[Shipfittin]

Some of those magnets are amazing with the different designs that are out there. My only problem is I buy something like that and every time I go to use it it won't work for one reason or another. Like the pipe cap it'll be on something where the cap is larger and won't fit in there. I am really thinking of ordering a set of those though, they are sharp.

 

[Brad54]

Anybody consider their cart a cool tool?

Yeah. All I've got is a Lincoln 220v MIG machine... I use a vintage Craftsman roll-away for the cart... clamps, tools, etc. go in the top two drawers, gloves and leathers go in the third drawer, and the big open storage area below holds my helmet and an ancient "buddy helmet"--close the cover on the storage compartment, and the helmets stay dust-free.

I'm about to build a frame for it with real wheels/casters and bottle holders, and add a steel top to the top of the cabinet so I can have a small welding table when needed.

-Brad

 

[blue dog]

Damnit Monte, you done it again. Alright, where do I get one.....or 4.

x2/\

I love Monte most of the time because he contributes so much and it seems he has access to every tool ever made, but, on the other hand he cost's me a lot of money. I was totally happy with my weld magnets until now, after seeing the ones he posted, i have decided mine are just not worthy. Going away sad and more broke then when i got here.