I took the weekend off from barn building to do a bit of socializing, and also so that I could learn how to weld. I found a shop in San Jose which is open on Saturdays, and I got myself all set up with a Millermatic 140 MIG welder.

I had my friend Wendy show me the ropes so to speak. She trained as a welder years and years ago before going into mechanical engineering, and she’s much better at it than I am. But even though my welds aren’t very pretty they do stand up just fine to a few good solid smacks with a hammer so I think they will suffice for my immediate purposes.

My first welding project

The motivation behind the strange wheeled item you see here is that I now have four 200-pound beams ready and waiting to be installed in the barn. I think I have worked out how to get them into place by myself, but I don’t have any way to move them around the job site. I built this two-wheeled dolly so that I can prop up one end of a beam, put the dolly in the center, and then trundle the whole affair around sort of like a wheelbarrow. I think it will work pretty well.

Now, does anyone know where I can get a bunch of cheap steel scraps to practice welding on? 🙂