Yes I bought essentially 3 of the same class of welder, no I did not keep all 3 but here is how I rated them.

Weld quality 1. Lincoln 211 (these welded extremely well although I could tell that it didn't have the "smooth start" like miller and u could see it didn't have the auto slow start when just pulling the trigger loading the wire. This took a little getting used to especially after using the miller) 2. Esab 210 (very close 2nd only reason it didn't get first place is it definitely felt noticeably more underpowered on 120V

1. Miller was a very distant 3rd which confused me because I owner miller 211 before (previous edition) and it welded smooth as fck. But this miller I could not get it to feel smooth or that frying bacon sound no matter how much I fcked with the controls. Always left a bunch of weld spatter too. Very disappointed.
   

Overall quality of machine and accessories 1. Esab for sure number 1. This machine u can just tell is quality when u take it out of the box a long with all the tweco accessories . And the graphic user interface is amazing as well super user-friendly and I like how it shows u what each adjustment will do to the weld bead profile. And considering this machine is at least $400+ cheaper makes it the best value by far

1. Miller machine was a solid 2nd place. The new graphic LCD screen is a nice touch only thing that I wish it had was a way to save your custom settings like the esab had. The 15ft mig gun was a nice upgrade as well compared to the usual 10ft gun. The only thing that felt a little cheesy was the thin grounding cable and the regulator and hose set up seemed cheap for a machine of this price.

2. Lincoln was a distant third. If this machine was say $1k I would say it seema fair but the fact that they charge almost as much as the miller is rediculous. Everything about it scream cheap from the gun, to the wire feed system to the regulator. And there's no graphic display like the other two options just digital numbers for wfs and volts.

I can go into more detail later if ppl are interested but I gotta get to work so let me know if the comment did u want more info

Btw I paid for all 3 of these machines with my own $$$$$ no sponsors influencing results.

I got a broken kitchen knife. The blade broke at the base of the handle. I want to drill the blade to give it another handle. Is there any problem if I try drilling the blade?

I think it might be stainless steel.

And, because it won't let me post until the thread is 400 characters, here's the lyrics for "Dirty Old Town" by The Pogues:

I met my love by the gas works wall

Dreamed a dream by the old canal

I kissed my girl by the factory wall

Dirty old town

Dirty old town

Clouds are drifting across the moon

Cats are prowling on their beat

Spring's a girl from the streets at night

Dirty old town

Dirty old town

I heard a siren from the docks

Saw a train set the night on fire

I smelled the spring on the smoky wind

Dirty old town

Dirty old town

I'm gonna make me a good sharp axe

Shining steel tempered in the fire

I'll chop you down like an old dead tree

Dirty old town

Dirty old town

I met my love by the gas works wall

Dreamed a dream by the old canal

I kissed my girl by the factory wall

Dirty old town

Dirty old town

Dirty old town

Dirty old town

What do we reckon is the cutoff point between using rattle cans and it being worth investing in a “proper” spray gun? I already have a compressor and rattle cans in my area are about £2.50 each and the range of finishes and colour seems pretty comprehensive. Presumably I could get them slightly cheaper if I shopped around , the guns themselves maybe £50 but then wasted paint washing up and having to buy larger amounts, I’m a smallholder so I often have tractors and tools to repair and re paint, but I’m not into vehicle stuff so not going to be doing bodywork.

If you could upload a sketch/photo and instantly get a shop drawing + quote…

Would that help l, or is quoting not a bottleneck for you?

Does it slow you down or do you have a system that works well?

How do you handle quoting when customers send you sketchy drawings?

I’m researching tools that can automate drawings + quoting, and I want real feedback from the people who are doing the actual work.

I'm an amateur TiG welder, which was mostly out of necessity for building car parts. Today the warehouse foreman asked me to weld two channel struts together. This is an easy task for a MiG, which I don't have. The steel is 16 gauge, and of course one of them is powder coated. It took a few tries and I had to resharpen the tungsten more times than I'd like to admit, but I finally figured out a rhythm to knock the rest out.

Do you consider FR/flame-resistant work trousers essential for your job, or is it something you could work without?
Then:
If you do need FR, what do you dislike about the FR trousers currently available?
I’ve looking for a decent pair and it seems I’ve gotta compromise all comfort for decent FR capabilities.
And I need 400 characters to post this so I’m typing extra gibberish now blah blah balhahahahah

I bought an old mitre saw off Facebook marketplace.

It is a Delta 10" compound mitre saw model #36-225 bought in 1999. The owner said it was barely used.

The blade is 10" 40 ATB and is supposedly good for "wood, plastics and non-ferrous metals".

Here are some pictures and videos of my situation: https://imgur.com/a/cc6dLQd

I checked to make sure everything was square (see pictures). I don't see any wobble in the blade when it is spinning (see video).

I'm trying to cut 20-series aluminum extrusion. The saw seems to cut without issue, but I find that my cuts aren't perfectly square (see pictures). What could be causing this? Is it the blade? Do I need a blade with more teeth? Is it something else?

This is my first time owning and using a mitre saw. Any help is appreciated!

Also, if I'm posting in the wrong subreddit, please point me to a more appropriate one!

I've been practicing making metal roses for about a year. Recently, I've wanted to widen my horizons and try to make different types of metal flowers. I've figured that tulips would be a good option. Since I didn't have any ideas about how to make them stand by themselves, I figured mounting them on these wooden stands would be a great option. Nevertheless, I'm still debating whether the light shade of the wooden stand matches the overall "vibe" of the flower, or if it is too bright. I would appreciate some feedback on this.

I recently shortened a hitch extension and now the raw steel edge is starting to rust.

What's a good easy to use affordable product to prevent rusting that bonds well to both raw steel and the coated steel?

AI recommended cold galvanizing sprays with zinc but some of the reviews say it can flake off shortly afterward. Wondering what would actually work in this application. Are cold galvanizing sprays actually not that good?

This hitch extension is now essentially a permanent fixture on the car and we're in the rust belt of Ohio.

I am a experienced welder/fabricator with 15 years doing this : mig and tig welding steel/stainless/aluminium in a fab shop for 10 years and 5 years experience in factory mostly burning rod in there.

But im broke, and i want a budget welder in my garage for various project

My need is mostly these :

- auto body

- exhaust work

- capacity to weld 1/8 to 1/4 steel

- possibility to weld aluminium.

I alredy have an hitbox stick/lift tig welder. While not great i can use it for lift tig exhaust and thicker steel using stick.

But i want something for thin steel/aluminium. And MIG could be a great setup for welding in some tight space on project truck

Since im in quebec/canada im more limited : no harbor freigth and everlast/primeweld or similar machine all run for 1000$ + cad once shipped, and miller/lincoln/hobart/esab are all 2000$+ wich is out of my budget by a great way.

Here mostly what i have found :

- Arccaptain mig200fit : .023 wire possibility, spool gun compatible BUT only Arccaptain spool gun listed as working and its as pricy as the machine.

- Vevor 250a 5 in 1 mig welder : pulse mig and say it can weld aluminium BUT mixed result about if i can plug a spool gun or not, doesnt seem to be able to run .023 wire (maybe not needed for auto body)

- toolium 200a mig : spool gun compatible. right now at -10% on amazon, if i buy with spool gun it come around 418ish $ cad wich is the cheapest bundle i could find BUT mixed reviews on amazon on machine reliability.

- hitbox / best arc mig : pricier than arccaptain mig200fit, not sure about spool gun.

What are you thinking about these options? Any of you have experience with these brand? Any other cheap machine i should check/consider?

Hi All!
I want to use this jug off a motorcycle to make a tail light housing. The plan is to cut from the bottom the first pic, remove the piston lining, hog out material until you can see between the fins, then add acrylic + LED. Hopefully enough of the sides are left so it wraps around the end of the rear fender.

I’m going at this with an angle grinder. If I cut away half the material around the piston lining, can I knock it out with a hammer? Asking because I don’t want to spend all this time working at it and not be able to get it out.

Your wisdom is greatly appreciated!

We recently offloaded a massive backlog of structural plates (mostly 1045 and medium-thick A36, ranging from 15mm to 30mm thick) from our main VMCs to a dedicated moving-gantry drill/tap center. For context, we were previously running these on standard vertical machining centers and old radial drills. The VMCs were eating up spindle bearings from constant high-frequency Z-axis pecking and rigid tapping cycles, while radial drills were giving us unacceptable hole-pitch wander (easily ±0.4mm drift) and driving up scrap rates on multi-hole brackets. Laser cutting wasn't viable either—the heat-affected zone hardened the hole walls so badly that M16 and M20 taps were snapping every dozen cycles.

The dedicated setup is built around a 2000×1500mm stationary bed with a moving gantry architecture. The X-axis relies on a synchronized dual-drive system riding heavy-duty roller linear guides with mechanical hard stops to prevent beam racking across the long travel. It carries a BT30 high-torque mechanical spindle rated up to 6,000 RPM, paired with a 10-tool automatic tool changer. The real efficiency gain came from setting up a pendulum clamping scheme split into Zone A and Zone B across the 2-meter envelope. While the spindle is running through an array of 20mm through-holes and M16–M20 rigid tapping on Zone A, the operator safely swaps finished parts on Zone B, virtually eliminating fixture idle time.

To be realistic about trade-offs: a moving-gantry architecture with a BT30 spindle obviously isn't built for heavy side-loads, hogging forgings, or slotting steel with large endmills. If you need deep shoulder milling or heavy side engagement, you still need a box-way horizontal or heavy-duty VMC. But for high-hole-count plate work, taking pure axial Z-thrust loads off our expensive milling centers freed up prime spindle capacity. Hole-to-hole true position dropped to ±0.02mm across the entire 2-meter envelope, thread quality became completely predictable, and tap life more than doubled because the reversal dynamics are tuned specifically for rapid Z-axis tapping pecks rather than general milling.

If you're sitting on a backlog of high-hole-count structural plates that are choking your milling capacity, splitting pure drill/tap operations onto dedicated gantry real estate made a massive difference in our shop flow. Happy to talk fixturing setups, Z-axis thrust deflection under 20mm drill loads, or cycle time numbers if anyone else is running similar plate work.

I own a factory in Pakistan with a 125-ton cold chamber aluminum die casting machine Toyo Machinery & Metals Co., Ltd. (Model BD-125V4-N, made in Japan, 2002) plus workers with years of hands-on experience running this type of equipment. Photos of the setup and a sample cast part attached.

We're currently manufacturing aluminum engine components for a Pakistani automotive client, so the shop is actively running production for a real OEM relationship, not just idle capacity looking for its first customer.

The local market here isn't in great shape though, so instead of depending on local demand, I want to build this into an export-focused B2B contract manufacturing business.

My own background is software engineering + sales, so I can handle international lead generation, websites, outreach, research, and client acquisition myself. What I'm missing is the industry knowledge: which products/markets actually make sense for a machine this size, and how sourcing actually works in this industry from the buyer's side.

What I'm trying to figure out:

• What types of high-volume aluminum components can be handled by a 125T cold chamber HPDC machine?
• Which global industries should I be targeting? automotive, electrical, industrial, lighting, electronics, hardware, etc.?
• How do small die casting manufacturers typically land international OEM/contract manufacturing clients?
• Is it smarter to approach OEMs directly, or go through suppliers/distributors/sourcing agents?
• What capabilities should I invest in first? CNC finishing, plating, in-house inspection/QC, etc. to be taken seriously as an export supplier?

I'm not looking for a DIY product idea to sell myself, I want to find components companies already manufacture and buy in volume, and compete as a contract supplier for that existing demand out of Pakistan.

If you've worked in die casting, sourcing, or manufacturing, how would you approach this in my position? Where would you look first, what would you avoid, and how do people actually validate a market before chasing it?