Whatever way you go let me welcome you to the wonder world of making things with steel.
I'm forever and again finding myself lost in fun with the molten stuff.
Just the other day I was looking at making a weld and trying to figure out the quickest and easiest way to do that particular weld. At hand I had my Henrob torch so I used it. Now I've not used it before for steel welding steel. I've brazed with it and I've glued some aluminum together with it but I hadn't done steel.
It took a minute to get the feathered flame right and then it was off into gaga land. There's just something about watching the steel go from black to flat red to red red to orangish red to orange. And then you see the surface liquify and you're feeding in a little filler rod and wondering why oh why did they ever get away from doing it this way.
So for the last week I've played with that Henrob a bit and am slightly more than impressed with it.
It don't matter what you use, forge, propane and oxy, acetylene and oxy, mig, tig, stick straight, stick reverse, a/c or d/c it's all about taking two or more and making into one.
If you're one of these freaks that will hold a piece of wood and feel it's warmth then you're a weldor looking for a place to happen.
I knew it all at twenty eight, smartest I've ever been before or since. I had a company with sixteen people and ran from before daylight until long after dark. And I'd hired me an older wrought iron fabricator and his seventeen year old son to do a job.
I almost had a heart attack when I saw the seventeen year old grab a nine inch grinder and start to clean up a mig weld on on inch tubing. I stopped him and pointed out that we had some of the grinders with grinding discs and some with sanding discs. What he was going to do would be a disaster with a grinding disc so he'd had oughta better use a sander.
He looked at me like I had a bugger about the size of Florida roach right between the eyes, shook his head, and sent me to school. He took that nine inch grinder and proceeded to take down the weld and then polish it out prettier than a bug in a rug.
When he was done I was choking on crow which we all know is the toughtest bird to chew, especially raw. He then pointed out one of the best lessons I ever learned from anyone esle. He guided my eyes and hands over the steel and led me into that corner of the world where you understand that steel, like wood, has grain. And if you work with it things are easier and better.
Now I know a lot of weldors that don't have a clue what I just talked about. I guess they're the lucky ones. But again, maybe they ain't.