And so it begins................. again.........

[MarkBall2]

My son is here going to college learning welding. He really enjoys it & is pretty good at it. He's done one year & working on his second year.

One of the things that happened was we found a virtually new PowerMig 180 for "inexpensive" from a guy that had must moved here from Montana. My son welded a few little $20.00-$40.00 jobs & really wanted to have the welder make him some money.

Fast forward to 2 weekends ago, he got referred by his welding instructor to go fix some gates/fences for a local guy. Went to look at the project, WHAT A MESS!!!

All oilfield pipe & sucker rod, welds that looked like bubble gum & the sucker rod tied to the posts with baling twine.

Son & I said "we need an engine drive to fix this"................

Last Saturday found an engine drive, drove to California to pick it up. Brought it home, added battery, spark plug, spark plug boot & gas, fired up & it welded just fine.

Son says "Dad can I use your truck to haul this thing"?

Dad says "Nope, you have a welder, build yourself a trailer & pull it with your Jeep".

Son says yesterday "Dad, come help me with this trailer build. I need to go pick up steel & we can build it on the ground".

Dad says "Are you crazy, building a trailer on the ground???? We have the perfect sized welding table, we can build it there".

(thinks dad got suckered into something again)

Well, we have a rolling trailer for the engine drive. Maybe in this next month we will have it finished. Until then "Son, I guess you can use the truck until you earn enough money to finish the trailer".


1. How it looked this morning
2. Different view of this morning
3. Added a hoop to control Oxy/Ace cylinders, maybe a propane bottle.
4. Another view of the hoop.

Overall, it's 9 foot long including the tongue, 6 foot deck. We are going to put tongue & groove wood deck, bracing under the deck to mount the engine drive sideways slightly in front of the axle. We are shooting for about a 15% tongue weight, but I'll measure that prior to permanently attaching the engine drive.

[digr]

Thats looken great!!! Who is doing the fitten you or the son? nice job

[MarkBall2]

Both of us. We stuck to a single tape measure when we were laying out where things went & where to cut. Even though both tapes measured the same.

We flipped the springs to on top of the axle, rather than under slung. Left the drop axle, dropped. I saw some crowning in the center, so I didn't flip it over to have a raised axle. Too much leverage I was thinking.

We did have a few disagreements, but before anything was cut or welded, there were at least 6-10 measurements.

[MarkBall2]

This one..............

Lincoln WeldanPower 225 CC only. Wish it was a CC/CV, but this works great. Came with 50' ground & 50' stinger 3/0 cables.

[LKeithR]

Originally Posted by MarkBall2

...Lincoln WeldanPower 225 CC only. Wish it was a CC/CV, but this works great...

It may not be the "dream" welder but it's a solid workhorse--a good place to start. From the sound of things it won't be long before the kid has made enough money to move up to a more versatile machine...

[SmokinDodge]

Good damn deal. The world is gonna need young men that can build.

Looks like y'all are off to a fine start with a good machine. Are you using the engine drive to build the trailer? Might cut down the learning curve in field.

Sent from my ipotato

[MarkBall2]

Not using the engine drive for the trailer build, we are using his PowerMig 180.

It was either that or my Hobart.............. He did build his welding cart with my Hobart (for a Lincoln welder, LOL).

[MarkBall2]

Dang, I just realized........................

Willy the lathe came from California.

Miner the mill came from California.

Engine drive came from California.


Is there a pattern developing?

[Ironman]

Mark, you need to make a taller doorway for your shop. You sure hit your head on this one.....nice play by your son

And he has caught the toolitis disease, too.

[allessence]

Nice build.. You son is lucky to have a supportive Dad like you..