"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote

At the risk of sounding like anthony, though, I don't figure anyone s
going to go out and get a stick welder and some conduit and mkae an
airplane out of it on my sayso.

Doubtful, I would say, also. Perhaps we could get anthony to make a
conduit airplane. If it had fatal result, oh well. Some sacrifices must be
made for the

If anyone can weld thinwall conduit with a stick welder, and not burn it
through, I would like to see it.

Stick welders are fine on 1/4" farm equipment, but are mostly useless on
most other thing. Your mileage will vary.

My favorite welder is a good mig unit with gas shielding. I'm convinced a
monkey could make a good weld, once someone shows you how to set the heat
and feed rate. It does take a little practice to get that sorted, though.

I've always heard that the problems with mig is cold weld starts not
penetrating, and the need for normalizing the weld and the area right around
the weld.

The cold start can be cured by going all the way around in one whack, or at
the most two, and go back over the first 1/8th inch to get the penetration
for that first bit right, and the normalizing can be done with a little heat
from a torch, after the welding is done. That is my take on it, anyway. I
know there are a lot of opinions, and much can be debated on the subject,
but all in all, that seems like the basic jist of it, I think.

Still, even with all the above said, I like gas welding, and would probably
use it if I was going to build a tube and fabric plane, because it is such a
proven technique for building airplanes. I have played with it enough to
get fairly good and consistent results, but then I don't do it for a while,
and lose most of it again.

I agree about the idea of gas welding being an art, mostly. Yes, there are
certain facts that have to be followed for the art to have a chance of
working, like the setting of the flame, for one. From there, it becomes
art.

The thing someone said once that make sense for all welding (but especially
gas) is the need to "control the molten puddle". I would say all of my
welding improved 50%, once I heard that, and understood it.

I want to build with wood, being a carpenter and cabinet maker. I have the
tools and the shop for it, and enjoy it too much, to consider anything else.
I realize there still be some metal to melt together, for about any
airplane, though.

So, with flying on the job, and whacking loons, how much time do you get for
building? g Do you already have a shop set up?
--
Jim in NC