Welding again

Well, my welding helmet turned up very promptly, but to my surprise, the blue lightning design also features (in a ghostly, slightly spooky way) those pesky skulls!

pesky skulls, looming

Actually I'm getting to quite like them, even though I don't get the connection with welding at all.  The lightning makes perfect sense for arc welding, obviously, and I could follow through transforming metals towards some alchemical symbols, maybe, or possibly even a few runes, but the skulls -  maybe it's to do with defying death in some way?  Not really how I approach welding.  Now if they printed the skulls all over the trampoline, it would make a lot more sense...

Anyway, the house recycled water system repair turned out to be a big flop - when it rained recently and the tank filled up a bit,  the controller switched back to using stored water, pumped a load of crud up from the tank and blocked the inlet of the downstairs loo.  Now it takes several hours to fill up; a performance so leisurely that it borders on the complacent.  Not right at all.  When all's said and done, one doesn't want attitude from the plumbing, does one?

So it seems I will have to get into the tank again, and set the float switch a bit higher.  Which seems like a good reason to weld some stabilising bits onto the paved-tank-cover lifting wheel-o-tron (TM)  to stiffen it up a bit and keep the main rails upright when the full weight of the paved cover is being supported by the wheels.  Anyway, I had to try out the new skull hat.

Which is great!  My welding has instantly been transformed, by the miracle of being able to see through the welding mask, from this poor specimen:

crap welding

featuring lava flow-style blobbery, spatter, and voids, to this:

pretty good welding actually

...which really isn't too bad at all (apart from being out of focus, sorry).  For MIG welding.

Of course, I've long held an aspiration to get hold of a TIG welder, which is like gas welding but with an electric arc instead of a flame.  You get to control the filler rod yourself though, unlike MIG welding.
At its best, TIG welding can be genuinely beautiful, like this:

or these:

partly because of those amazing colours you can get welding stainless steel in different conditions.  Incidentally, for the pharmaceutical industry, the only acceptable colour for a weld in stainless is steel coloured.  So they have to settle for this sort of lovely:

and hopefully spend their time complaining about the bit that has only been tack-welded in place. But then I discovered laser welding, which is like TIG but with a laser!  Here's the advert piece:

Ideal for making steam engine boilers, apparently.  Alas, the laser welder hasn't made it to the hobbyist marketplace yet, and they cost a great deal of money.  I'll just have to wait for someone on YouTube to show me how to make one out of a broken microwave and a CD player (or something).

And in the meantime, go back to wishing I could justify a TIG welder - probably at a cost of about £500.  Which I can't, let's face it.  Unless I can think up a suitable project...