3 Weld Projects for Beginners, Mecpow 2-in-1 Welder Review

Recently, I have been thinking that I need to reintroduce welding into my repertoire. I have a tiny amount of MIG experience through TechShop so many years ago but I feel this is a maker skill I need to level up on. I have had three big ideas that I will execute to the best of my abilities (professional welders, please add constructive criticism). I feel these are a good start for beginners and will add tips along the way.

Something that helped give me the welding push was the folks at Mecpow reached out thanks to my YouTube channel activity, and sent me their 2-in-1 welder. I will give my review of how their product helped in the end comments.

My three projects are:

1) A polyhedron dish

2) An industrial style lamp

3) A hexagonal HDPE "LE Press," inspired by inventTory (www.youtube.com/@inventTory1272)

NOTE: In my previous Instructables, I would put a note in the write up to follow my pictures, i.e., "I did XYZ by incorporating ABC (pic 1)." I am going to start just putting numbers in the parentheses.

1/8-in 3-foot angle iron

1/8-in 3-foot flat stock

16 ga 6-in x 24-in weldable metal sheet

Safety gear for debris / welding

Marking devices

File/sandpaper to remove harsh metal edges

Ruler or other measuring tool

Pulley, I found at a thrift store for 5 USD

Mecpow 2-in-1 welder - Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6QRJJ4R Mecpow Website: https://bit.ly/3WJVvxb

Welding magnets - I got the small 4-pack from Harbor Freight

Scrap wood, I used pallet scraps

Scrap dowel to fit inside the pulley

Polyhedron templates (I used templatemaker.nl)

Angle grinder or hacksaw (to score metal plate)

HDPE #2 plastic for recycling

A scale for plastic recycle

Clamps (gotta have clamps)

Lamp (like this kit from Amazon)

Here is a video of me going through the motions for prepping and welding these projects. Enjoy!

My first step is always ensuring I have enough materials for my builds (1).

Having the three weldable metal components, I measured up everything to use up as much as I could. My dimensions are as follows:

1) The octahedron dishes were made with templatmaker.nl (2) and the only specs I changed on the Platonic Solid was the midsphere diameter to 100 mm & the glue flap size to 0. The template was then printed and cut in half (3-4).

2) The angle iron frame was cut to 11 x 6 inches and rough edges ground down (5-6). The remaining 2 inch piece was cut in half to help guide the lamp cord (it'll make more sense later). I also knicked off one edge of the 11-inch piece to not allow any overhang from the 6-inch piece (7).

3) The plate was 6 by 4 inches and 6x 2-inch pieces were cut from the flat stock (8-12). The hexagon also came from templatemaker.nl (8)

All of my cuts were done by marking and cutting with my angle grinder and staged (13). These angle grinders are super cheap from harbor Freight and I highly recommend them for the price. It definitely beats using a hand saw (however, I wish I had a metal cutting bandsaw...one day...one day).

My welder is set up as a 2-in-1 so it can support stick welding, or MMA (Manual Metal Arc), and MIG (or rather Flux core). My MIG option requires no cover gas, like Argon, in order to weld so right out of the box. I just need the corresponding consumables in the form of sticks for MMA or spool for Flux Core, which is kind of nice. I adjusted the welder setpoints according the instructions and fine tuned it when necessary (14-16).

The Flux core wire feeds very easily (17-18), just make sure your tension is set on the appropriate thickness of wire (mine is 0.8 versus 1.0).

You could print the template mentioned above as is and score/weld an actual octa-, penta-, dodecahedron, whatever the case and be done. While I do have that in mind for a later project, I wanted to make little dishes to hold things like change, incense, a candle, etc.

After cutting the paper template out, I traced the design on my metal plate and started with cutting the pieces out first (1-6). My brain needs to NOT have a score/cut mistake so I take it one step at a time. Once that was done I ran score lines in the metal (7). For 16 Ga metal, I would suggest just making one pass to bend it (8). I feel like when I made multiple passes, I went too deep. The metal is relatively easy to bend and deep scores risk blowing out the metal when welding together, depending on your machine (9).

With the pieces cut, scored, & filed smooth (be careful with the sharp edges), I bent the metal into position (10). I did the two outside triangles first and did the middle one last to help keep them symmetrical. I feel that helped me.

With that part done, the edges were welded together with 0.8mm MIG (Flux Core) wire (11-13). This made easy work and so I decided to weld over the bent corners as well. When all 8 corners were taken care of, I sanded the weld spatter down to make it relatively smooth (14-16).

Full disclosure: I felt the stick welder need to be used here, too, for the "thick" metal aaaaaaaand I blew out the metal(17). It left a huge hole but nothing the MIG flux core couldn't fix. An unfortunate mistake but not detrimental, overall, to the project.

Again, I am not sure how to grind down the weld on the inside tight corners so any help/suggestions are welcome :)

I made two square bases out of some scrap poplar for them to recess into (18-24). I am not sure if I want to leave them like little "tables" or tack a base to them...I also don't know if a stain would be applicable here, too. I am too indecisive on that front.

Another thing I am debating internally is to make the square recesses smaller so more of the octahedron metal halves are showing on the top.

My idea is to weld the frame at all four corners, grind them smooth, insert a wooden backer in the recess, and attach the pulley to hold the lamp.

I used the stick weld feature on the 2-in-1 welder and attached the corners to one another, clamping them to maintain square (1-8). Striking a weld like striking a match was easier with this machine than my previous experience, so that is always nice.

With the frame ready, I ground the welds smooth with my angle grinder (9), just swapping the disc.

While that cooled down, I gathered some scrap pallet wood and started my design which was angled (10-13). I thought it looked better than vert/horizontal stacking and definitely not because my scraps were too short....Nope, not at all ;) Those were glued, braced, and cut to fit. Any gaps were hidden by the angle iron and filled with scrap wood to keep it press fit into place. This also alleviated grinding down the weld inside the bend, which I wasn't sure how to tackle without a special dremel tool, or something...If you have ideas, please leave a comment.

My original idea was to have the dowel and the pulley brace be metal as well but my 1/8th-inch flat stock isn't big enough to accommodate that. Remember when I said I like to preplan...oops, I goofed that up. Regardless, I did it with scrap wood as well (14-16). After all, it isn't structural like a motorcycle and will hold the weight of a lamp. I think it'll be fine. I did plan for the pulley braces to be long enough to allow the plug/switch to maneuver into without having to take it apart.

I strung the cord, plugged in the lamp, and got it hung (17-19). I think it looks great. A quick interweb search showed me that similar wall lamps can be around 40-100 USD so I like this DIY option. It goes without saying but it is very satisfying to see a concept go from paper to being your own home décor!

I made a 2-inch edge hexagon template, again using templatemaker.nl, as a ... template and traced the outline on the metal base. The six 2-in pieces of 1/8-inch stock was then held in place with the 90-degree welding magnets (1-4). I left room on the corners for the weld to fill and tacked them in place, starting with the edge to plate (5). This was followed with the outside corners (6). NO welding occurred on the inside of the base. I didn't want weld spatter to corrupt my plastic recycling, lol.

Once the tacks were complete, I removed the magnets and filled all the outside gaps, again using the MIG option the entire time (7). I got this guy completely welded in about 20 minutes which for a beginner like me, is pretty impressive, IMO.

I cleaned up some of the superficial weld spatter and quickly got bored since this is for HDPE recycling & not a display piece. However, if you have other ideas for a similar concept, by all means, clean it up. I am interested to see how you are inspired by this last build if not for plastic reuse :)

Math for Geeks (optional, 9): To know how many grams of HDPE to fill this hexagon, I take the hexagon volume formula [3*sqrt(3)]/2 * a2h, where a2 is 'a' squared and is the length of a side & h is the height, and plug in 45mm for 'a' and 13mm for the height. Doing the math gets me about 68,394 cubic mm, or 68 cubic cm. I use 0.95g/cu-cm for HDPE density to get me about 65 grams of HDPE to completely fill my hexagon mold.

Be sure to line your mold with either parchment paper or nonstick grill mat material to allow the HDPE to release from the mold when it cools (10). I am pretty sure the raw metal will cling to the plastic and it'll be stuck forever. I also made a little "lid" out of the same dimensions for my clamps to hold all the HDPE in place (11). I am confident the metal mold won't flex like I have experienced with a wooden mold. I also made a wooden spacer for the lid as well to deflect/absorb some of the excess heat.

After weighing my HDPE, I placed the plastic in the mold (12-14)and stuck it in my spare toaster oven (5) at 325F until it was all blobby and gooey (protect your hands, you do NOT want "molten" HDPE to stick to your skin). When it was ready, I placed the lid/clamps on and let it sit for several hours (15).

The outcome on the mold side was, IMO, perfect (16-17). The edges and lid side need some work perhaps by planing or sawing the rough bubbling (18), but all in all this worked out better than I thought. Now I can batch out large recycled HDPE hexagons. Why, you ask? Hahaha, well...you know why viewer, you know!

But seriously, I used it for a little coaster (19) for the beauty shot but I was also wondering, IF someone made a LOT of these and meshed them together, couldn't you make giant tiles?!? A lot of work and recycled HDPE but it IS possible. Maybe I will keep that for a future project.

The Mecpow 2-in-1 welder has the flux core (MIG) and stick (MMA) weld options. It is small, lightweight, and quite affordable. I was impressed with the MMA getting through the 1/8-in angle iron. In all honesty, I didn't think it was going to have that much penetrating power but it did!! Being a total novice, I found striking an arc was easier with this machine than with others. It was definitely a confidence booster especially because I can see how getting into welding cold can be intimidating.

I, being more conformable with MIG, was also impressed with it's capability. The arc was, again, easy to strike and getting started was a breeze. I would imagine that since the manual tells you to connect the MIG weld gun to the (-) negative terminal that this machine is already ready for DC electronegative (DCEN). This seems to be a hot issue with other brands of flux core welders Not coming DCEN out of the box (you know which one I am talking about and if not, google it and I am certain a very specific brand will come up).

The display is user friendly and allows you to control the current while welding. I like that it is a knob and not a switch!

My biggest challenge is knowing what current is "best" for what gauge of metal/material. If the instructions would have given me a starting point, maybe I wouldn't have blown out my octahedron piece. Practice on scrap first!!

All in all, I like this machine for it's affordability, ease of use, and small footprint. I currently have a separate stick and flux core machine and am thinking of selling them to gain some real estate in my small shop. This thing is the epitome of big things come in small packages. Give it a go if you are interesting in adding welding to your maker-ness!!

See you on the next one!