Torch Art

This simple project is as much art as it is welding.

Welder Joel Ort, from Hortonville, Wisconsin, was on the internet looking for supplies. "I stumbled across this," he says, holding up the shapely wisp of metal that functions as a TIG torch holder. About $10 on the web, Ort fashioned this one in less than an hour at no cost.

"This is a simple, useful project," he says. We'd rate it a 1 on the 1 to 5 skill scale we use for our do-it-yourself Progressive Farmer welding projects.

Before he built the torch holder, Ort had been hanging his TIG torch in a steel cup welded to his welding table. The torch rested fully on its fragile, ceramic cup. Not a good place.

"It's too easy to walk by, bump it and break it," Ort says. "With this holder, the torch is better protected. And, I can move it around the table out of the way as I work, not just leave it at one spot."

Ort traced the curved, graceful lines of the holder onto a scrap piece of 16-gauge steel. He cut it out with one of the best tools in any shop: the plasma cutter. He cleaned up the rough, outside edges with an angle grinder. A die grinder made short work of the inside edges.

Ort's tip: When cutting out the shape, stay outside the lines. "That leaves a little bit of extra material left as I grind and smooth the edges and curves," he says.

Ort put two bends into the holder, one about halfway up the shape he cut. "I did put a little bend in here. All that does is hold the torch at the angle I prefer. You can bend it at any angle you want." The bend prevents the ceramic cup from touching anything. He used the back of his vise to make the curve he wanted.

The second bend was a 90-degree bend where he attached a magnet to the bottom of the holder with a small screw and nut. The magnet holds the stand upright on the welding table.

And, that's it. "This was a nice little project. It saves you about $10, and it's just another project you did for yourself," Ort says.

Shop Time: 20 minutes

Shop Cost: Gratis

Difficulty: 1 out of 5 stars

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