I picked up a welder the other day at, of all places, Harbor Freight. Being a tool snob I refused to purchase less than brand named tools with the goal being to acquire the top named brands in all my tool purchases. Why? I'm good with a wrench. Real good. I love mechanical stuff. It's what has always made me go.

When I was 14ish, my dad and I went to tearing down a 1967 Pontiac Lemans in line 6 with overhead cam. Somebody had sought revenge on the sister, who probably deserved it, by dumping copious amounts of sugar down the oil fill port of the engine. You could taste it in the oil. I had been the tool hander in all previous expeditions into auto repair. Learning little save for the sizes and types of wrenches, which was valuable in itself. We did not have the tools to remove the engine so we took it apart in situ and this time I told the old man...you hand me the tools and I'll wrench this one.

I had removed all the oil pan bolts and broke the oil pan lose from the gasket and removed the pan. Staring back at me was the crank shaft and six connecting rods all connected to each other and the block in what struck my mind as a near godly perfection of mechanical expression. I rolled two words out of my mouth when the purity of the perfection hit me..."that's beautiful". I'm sure those words and the way they came out of my face haunted the old man as the basement two car garage became an operational garage/auto body repair shop until I graduated high school. I can't remember how many engines I rebuilt...20ish. People from high school, people from dad's work, people who heard from these people, our own family cars. I made money.

It made perfect sense to me without instruction or explanation...the utter simplicity yet pure beauty of "lever A" moves "lever B". Surely, hands and mind possessed of such understanding deserved the best tools. Harbor Freight? Not me...never!

Times change. I bought a dedicated stick welder for 250. That's cheap and they have cheaper but this model fit my wants. I learned the very basics of welding back in high school shop and power mechanics where one might imagine was my home base in high school. I got to where I could do moderately well with the old Buzz box, as they got to be called, and had one in the garage. Had a gas axe, too. Full blown garage. Yank an engine out of a car...after school project.

It has been a looong time since I last welded anything. I've been practicing of late and rebuilt my 5x8 trailer...replacing the tongue, even. Pwew, I'm rusty. But I got it done...with a harbor freight welder that, for my purposes, seems to pretty damned decent.

I always wanted to try one of those new fangled wire welders. They look like they might be easier than the old stick welder, What I really want is a plasma cutter. They look like they might have it all over the old gas axe. I guess I'll try something from harbor freight.

I can't believe I just said that...lol.

There's a trade related purpose to this screed but since it's 3am, I'll come to that later...