Where to go for a small welding job

[Barncat]

My advice to the OP would be to grind or wire wheel to clean metal the area to be welded, grind any zinc coating off the nuts, and have it clamped in position ready to weld, so when they see it, they know it will actually only take 5 minutes, most of which will be getting out and putting away the welder. Just before lunch time show up with a box of donuts or a bucket of KFC and a $20 bill in hand.

 

[C-Bag]

I learned that same approach from my dad. He was a master at making folks feel good about helping.



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My dad felt it was his mission to help everybody who asked. Later in life when he retired he ended up being the handyman for the mobile home park and was busy all the time. He ended up being the guy the widows gave the husbands tools to when they passed. He has 5 of everything. I'm the guy on my block who does the small welding jobs for everybody. Because I'm out in my garage everyday they know I'll take care of them if I'm not swamped. The only person I turned down was one who needed a muffler welded. I don't weld under cars, even my own.

 

[matthewsx]

Yes, thanks for hanging in there with us.

I probably reacted to your original post a bit strongly, but as I explained it hurts when you're running an honest business and folks don't even bother to ask why you have a policy they disagree with. It sounds like you were able to get that question answered and hopefully get your part welded up.

One of the things I really love about this community is even when people disagree on something they usually take the time to explain their position in a constructive way. We could all use more of that


Cheers,

John

 

[JPMacG]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I really do appreciate it.

I ended up going to my friend's welding shop. He is super busy - not taking on new work for several months - but said he would fit my job in when he had a chance. I gave him a $100 tip as now I appreciate him more than ever.

 

[cathead]

I try to hone in as many skills as possible. That way I can be pretty much immune to service that can be expensice, but then It's
just a hobby shop for me and I'm retired.

 

[JPMacG]

I do lots of soldering and have done some torch brazing but I have very little need for welding. I can count the number of times I have wanted something welded on one hand. Years ago I would just walk into a shop, tell them what I wanted and they would be happy to have the business. But the world is changing -now shops are looking for ongoing production work and don't want the walk-ins. I suppose hobby welding is in my future.

 

[great white]

Glad you got it done.

I'll add a little something to the thread:

if you do plan on buying a welder for future projects, it's not going to be cheap. You can buy the smallest, cheapest, flux core wire feed machine and probably come out around the 100-200 mark. But that machine is going to be....well, just awful. And an "awful" machine just makes it that much harder to learn the process and your "outputs" never get to where you want it to be...quality wise that is.

Sometimes you can get lucky and find a good used machine going at a decent price, but that's always a "wait and see" game. Not great if you need something done right now.

You want, as a minimum, a MIG welder. Home depot sells a decent Lincoln 185 (what I have) for around 600 cdn when it's on sale. This will handle most home shop needs and is a pretty easy machine/process to use/learn. But you will need a bottle of 75/25 mix. The prices on that vary depending on where you buy it from. I had to buy my bottle, which was 500 bucks. Then 90 bucks for the fill. You can rent bottles here, but you need to pay a 500 deposit and then a monthly fee, all on top of the price of the gas.

Then you need consumables (wire, tips, etc) and protective gear (helmet, coat, gloves, etc).

You can get machines that run on 110 power, but they'realways pretty limited by the 15 amp circuit most home circuits run on. This limits the welder. I prefer 220 machines, but I have a 35Amp 220 plug in my garage. I specifically had it installed when we built the house because I knew I wanted 220 for welding. If you don't have one in the garage you need to have one run to use 220 power, unless you want to make a loooong extension cord to steal the oven or dryer 220 plug.

You're easily over a grand just to get a decent rig up and running and then you have to learn how to use it well.

100 bucks was not that bad a deal if all you had to do was a couple nuts and don't think you will need to weld much in the future.

What do I do when I need to get some welding done?

I've got a Lincoln 180 MIG, an Everlast 250Ex TIG/stick machine and a 50 amp manual plasma cutter. Somewhere around 5-6 grand in gear and bits, which is actually pretty cheap for the capabilities it gives me. But I work on my own cars (as well as freinds stuff) and such so they've paid for themselves a couple times over. Same as my old Atlas TH42 has paid for itself in getting my hobby projects done. I don't even want to think about how much I have sunk into that rig and tooling......

 

[extropic]

I want to have four 3/4-10 steel nuts welded to the top of a 2 foot long 5" steel C channel. The local welding shop has a minimum charge of 1 hour, and that would be $70. I believe that the job should take 10 minutes.

I am looking for suggestions on how to find a shop that won't rip me off. I don't want to get into welding myself - I don't have time for another hobby.

I'm coming late to this thread and see that the OP has already solved his problem, but . . .

Long story short, if you need a small job welded, have it ready-to-weld and look for automotive, off-road, 4x4 type places that don't seem crazy busy.

Recently I had the same problem as the OP. I was visiting a friend (700+ miles from home), in rural Northern California gold country and needed a small welding job done. I Googled, with few results, and ended up at a pretty fancy place. Displays of antique and re-pop hardware everywhere, a photo gallery of big $$$$$ gate/fence projects and the like. Very artistic.

So you know what I mean by "small job", I used an angle grinder (5/8-11 spindle) as a lathe. I screwed a 5/8-11 nut onto the spindle and used a grinding disc (in another angle grinder) to cut the hex points off, 3/16 long, to create a pilot diameter so the nut would self-register into a 15/16 ID x 3-1/4 OD large flat washer. I made 6 sets. All I needed the welder to do was place a heavy tack on every other flat (3 tacks per washer/nut set). Eighteen heavy tacks. I call that a small job.

The shop had a $40 minimum, which I paid because time was important and I didn't know the area. The $40 was way too much (felt like a rip-off) but they were long past trying win goodwill by doing favors for small job walk-ins.

As luck would have it, a few days later, I needed another small job welded. I went to a different weld shop this time (much less fancy) but the doors were locked. No doubt they were out on-site installing a big $$$$$ gate/fence project. Now what do I do?

Across the street, I saw a strip of small shops and some were automotive related. I thought, "I'll ask somebody over there where I should go". I know.

The last shop in the row was an off-road 4x4 type place. The boss was in. I showed him what I needed. He said he'd do it while I waited. When he finished I asked "how much?" and he waved me off. I gave him $20 for the coffee pool and asked "Can I come back if something else comes up?".
He said "Sure". I ended up going back at least three more times over the following weeks, always contributing to the coffee pool, and everybody was happy.