What's up everyone? Welcome back to The Durbin Compound! If we're meeting for the first time,
my name is Devin Durbin. I'm here bringing you tools, tips, and tricks to make you more self-sufficient.
So today we're going over a welding setup, or my welding table set up.
I've had a lot of people ask questions about just how I do it. Let's get right down to it.
All right guys! So we'll go over a little tour here of the welding setup. So, this is basically
a culmination of a lot of different ideas and just things that I've pieced together over the years,
on what worked for me. So, let's start down here. Of course my stick welder--the Thunderbolt XL.
I got this on Craigslist for a $100 and I just replaced the leads-- electrode holder.
I put it on a cart here. This is just a metal dolly. Get my jacket off here. I put it on a metal cart
and just made it a little bit more mobile. And put some, you know, some hooks on here for my leads.
And it's overall been a great machine for me. So, I truly believe that some brands do stuff better
than others. I really, really believe in the Lincoln Tombstone, but this Thunderbolt has done me well.
I am just a hobbyist, so I don't use it all that much, but I used it to build this entire cart.
So, this cart is 2 X 2 steel tubing that I got from the scrapyard. You can see places like this
that were bent before and I literally just scabbed these in where I could. So, you know me being a hobbyist,
my welds aren't perfect, but you know, I'm getting there. My stick welding still needs a lot
of work. Obviously MIG you can pretty much well be a genius and not have to put a lot of effort into it.
So, going through here, of course got your fire extinguisher for safety. I usually have safety glasses
hung here if I'm grinding. I've put in a receptacle here, wired it to an extension cord,
so I can run this somewhere else in the shop and plug it in. And I can plug my grinders in straight here
on the cart. So, I really like that option. Now, in hindsight, I should have put the shelf a lot lower,
so I could stack more stuff on the shelf. But this basically keeps it organized. I have my seven inch
DEWALT grinder. I think the only company that does DEWALT grinder the best is, or a seven inch
grinder the best, is DEWALT. I have the smaller four and a half jobbies in here. I've got a DEWALTl and a Bosch,
And then I've got my hypotherm plasma cutter. It sits here on the shelf and then, you know I don't
have to remove it from the shelf. I literally just plug it in, and plug my air into the back of it,
and it's ready to rock and roll. I don't have to move that. Gloves, blanket--just in case, My metal cutting circular saw.
I believe Milwaukee does the best when it comes to, you know, metal cutting circular saw.
I've got my seven inch disks. And everything here on the side. I basically just took a piece of rebar
and welded it in at an angle, so that you can put your stuff on here and organize it.
Just basically spacing it out as I went. Really not that hard of a project. So, the tabletop I decided to do
extruded steel on this side for torch cutting. Of course, if I'm cutting with the torch I take this stuff
off the shelf. And so I have the ability to, you know, cut anything I want with the torch here.
And then this is kind of my welding table. So, this is raw steel. I think this is quarter-inch thick plate.
Also from the scrapyard. This project did not cost a lot of money. I literally just
torched it off and grinded it smooth. And then just welded it to the frame of the bench. So you can see
you know, I welded it in a couple different places. All the frame underneath is just angle iron.
And I cut it. I basically mitered it and then welded it in. But I kept this raw steel.
This is basically coated with oil. So you get it super hot with the torch, or the rosebud,
and then you wipe it with oil. You get it too hot and the oil will start on fire. But you know,
wipe it with oil and it keeps it sealed and keeps it from rusting, but you can still have your electrode.
I do a magnet clamp on here and then I can have my piece--whatever I'm working on.
I just got done doing the chain saw holder. I'll roll in a picture of that here. But when you set it
on this surface, it creates the, you know, the path of electricity, so that you can weld it any shape
or form and just have it sitting on here however you need it. You don't need to worry about where
your clamp is, what you're doing, and how its oriented. And it just is all that much more convenient.
So I love welding like that instead of, you know, the traditional old, clamp style.
Here's a clamp for you. You know, try to position the clamp, trying to get it sitting right. Then the wires
hanging on it. I just love to go with that setup. So then I have my C clamps here, just on you know,
regular rebar like I did before. Now the casters--the casters might be something that I revisit in the future.
These are plastic casters with rubberized, you know, coating around the outside.
They hold the weight pretty well. I used to have my arbor press on here. It was a Dake.
It weighed like 300 pounds and these casters took it fine. I had it laying up here and bolted to this.
But I figured I didn't use it enough, so I got rid of it. But the casters held that just fine.
So, these casters aren't bad. I would just like to go to maybe an air-filled pneumatic tire, something like that.
The Miller 180, or the Millermatic 180, for you Miller snobs, a setup that I really, really love.
I don't use the auto set on it. I prefer to do it the old-school way and, you know, adjust it myself.
This has been a pretty darn good welder to me--the first welder that I actually bought new
on a cheap cart that I've modified and made it work for how I wanted it. It just basically
needs to move around the shop and be able to be put into place beside my welding table.
Everything's mobile so that I can just roll it outside and I can work on it
outside the garage, or I can move it around in here. I just enjoy having everything mobile and you can
move this around. It doesn't take up a whole lot of space. For those of you that are wondering, this is
the Milwaukee, or sorry, not the Milwaukee...Man what was I thinking? This is a Boss helmet by Jackson,
fully electronic. I really love this helmet. It's a little heavy, but I really like it for a hobbyist.
I'm not really worried about the weight. I just want it to be effective. So, I love the options
on this for grinding and torch settings, stuff like that makes it really easy to set up those kind of things.
And then of course, I rock a Miller leather jacket I got a deal on. So, it's all a matter
of what I get deals on, and what I can do on the cheap, because in the end I'm just a hobbyist,
I'm not a professional. I don't weld all day and I'm certainly not a pipe fitter. My welds aren't
inspection ready. So this is my setup for, you know, around here where I need to get things done.
All right guys! I hope that you've gotten a general gist of things--of just how I operate. So if you've
got any questions, put them in the comments below. It's time to give me a thumbs up. Or a thumbs down.
Whatever you're into! And I guess if you subscribe to the channel, we'll see you in the next video.