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This weekly welding video is about building a boom arm for a mig welding wire feeder.
The reason for the boom arm is so that I can have a 35 foot radius where I can mig weld without ever moving the mig welder or the gas cylinder.
That means whenever someone pulls a trailer in the shop, I can reach it.
Whenever I am fabricating a large assembly, I dont have to pull my mig welder around to reach all corners of the project.
I met a guy a few weeks ago who has this product that lets you take the drive motor and rollers out of you millermatic 200, 250, 252, or whatever and install them in a separate wire feeder box and hang it on a boom arm. And that will let me reach practically any area in my shop without moving the mig welder.
And you know what that means?
No more lifting the cylinder up onto the machine.
No more dragging the machine around only to have a small piece of welding rod get stuck under a wheel and stop me in my tracks.
No more power cable and mig gun cable on the floor.
This will make life easier and thats always a good thing.
My boom arm is 8 feet long.
Its made from 1 – 1/2″ sq tubing with some bracing and will be mounted on a 4 inch sq tubing post that will be anchored to the floor as well as braced at the top.
Part 2 of this video will show how to hang the wire feeder and how this will make the shop a lot more effecient.
When someone pulls a trailer in the roll up door, all I will need to do is turn the welder on and swing the arm to the weld area, reach up and grab the mig gun and boom!! I can weld the job, and then hang the gun back on the hook and swing the boom arm out of the way until the next job comes in the door.
( As always, feel free to visit us at our sister site, WeldingTipsAndTricks.com. )
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May 4, 2021 at 7:12 PM
Patrickjmblanchard@gmail.com
Hi I was curious if you ever made part 3 of the swing arm boom. part 3 were you mount the swing arm and convert the mm250 to a wire feeder welder.
March 27, 2013 at 10:04 PM
The jig table you use did you build it or buy it? I am very interested in the clamps as well. I have purchased some of your tig fingers and I’m a big fan of them. Keep the tips coming.
March 23, 2013 at 12:35 AM
I really like ur videos I’m interest in miller tig welder what model would u recommend
March 14, 2013 at 7:43 PM
Is that jig table a table that you made or purchased? If you made this yourself, where did you get the metal plats with the holes that I see you useing for clamping material down. I am going to be building a shop in the near future, and man I would love to have a jig table like that in my shop. I could build about anything. Do you ever use any Auto cad for any of you projects? Thanks for all the welding tips.
March 14, 2013 at 4:30 PM
loved it today jody….. but then i have not seen a bad video from you yet. you should see the caboose i made for my big gas tanks that follow my tig welder around. it is always a pain to keep moving the tanks etc so i made a “trailer that keeps all my extra shielding gas tanks secure and portable. got your 400 series of Argon, tri-mix and A25 all within reach of the welder it is great and convenient. i also built a clamp rack taht is movable saves running all over the shop and keeps stuff off the welding table, organized and easy to find. makes jobs more productive IMHO>>>>