The welding is gas. Why you ask.? Because it appeared that my welding helmet was still not functioning properly. So I did all the welding with oxy/acetylene, which can be done with simple welding goggles. The welds are kind of ugly. They are strong, just ugly.
I finally managed to talk to somebody at the distributor for my helmet. It would have been "manufacturer" in the old days, but this helmet, as practically everything else, is made in China. I explained the problem and what I had done to try and fix it. They figured, given what I had done, that the helmet should work just fine provided I was welding at anything above 40 amps. 40 amps? This is aircraft welding. I am rarely above 30 amps!
The upshot...my helmet is working just fine, it is simply the wrong helmet. What I really need is a helmet that will work down to about 5 amps, or maybe even less. You guessed it. The 5-amp helmets are generally the top-of-the-line helmets. The folks who make my helmet don't even offer one. They recommended that I look at a Miller helmet. Take the $80 I spent on my current helmet and multiply that by about 3.75.
Though I haven't actually run the numbers, I am beginning to get the feeling that I have spent more money on learning things than actually fabricating parts for the airplane.
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