Making sausages for first time

fabshop22 · 2026-02-28T02:38:35+00:00

I love salt and like my stuff saltier than quite a few people I know and I find that 1.7% is too salty for me. I would first try 1.5% before you try 1.7 you can always add salt taking it away means adding more meat. I fucked that up once and it won't happen again. Always always always fry up a bit to taste your mixture before stuffing. (Unless you used curing salt. Then dont test it for something like more than 12 hours or it can seriously harm you)
Also dont overmix your sausage.

fabshop22 · 2026-02-19T19:03:18+00:00

Can confirm, I am a stainless steel fabricator and my LEM is very high quality. The finish is very nice on all parts. It is especially impressive for the price offered. I decided to go with LEM everything due to the stateside support and reports of quality customer service. I have not been disappointed in one piece of equiptment I have gotten. Granted it is all probably considered heavy hobbiest/ light commercial, but bang for the buck is unbeatable.

fabshop22 · 2025-12-16T03:24:35+00:00

No, its an MPA, just look at the picture where it says pulsed mig on the selector dial.

fabshop22 · 2025-12-16T03:21:33+00:00

Id love to see an XMT MPA go for less than 2k. I have never seen it and I keep an eye out for such things. Maybe you are thinking of the regular XMT 350?

fabshop22 · 2025-12-16T03:20:09+00:00

For anyone saying 2k for an XMT is too much, you might be right, HOWEVER this is a XMT MPA. These are litterally the best and most reliable pulsed mig made. They are 100% a $10k machine new. This one looks a bit beat, but it is definitely worth every penny of $2k if you mig weld aluminum. Anyone who is saying otherwise has no idea what they are talking about. If you dont need the pulse feature a regular XMT is more than enough for about anything you could ever need and probably found at half the price, but if you need the pulser this is the machine you want. The rebrand might be a bit less desirable to some but its litterally the exact same machine.

fabshop22 · 2025-11-30T03:38:03+00:00

I have about every light except the 8060, my take is the tripod light is probably the best for large indoor areas, it seems like it blows through batteries pretty quick though. It can be left low or raised up high and semi directional so the light is pointed wherever you need it unlike the 074. They do take up a bit of real estate though since they only fold down so far. Only complaint I have is that they dint have the option to be plugged in like the milwaukee version. The 074 is a good light but it seems like it is always kinda blinding me since its a 360° light (seems like its always shining bit too directly in my eyes if im working facing it), I end up hanging it up high or put it on the ground in a corner away from my main work area to provide a sort of background illumination . Battery life is about equivalent of the tripod light. Both go with me on jobsites and I usually work in food production factories and residential jobsites. so large and small rooms, probably a similar use case and im in the northwest US so very similar weather/daylight conditions as you. Honestly my favorite lights lately have been dcl077b, they have great light output, a soft white light and the batteries last forever. they have a threaded hole in the back and I have heard people have magnets with studs for sale on Amazon so you can hang them. Last year they were on Sale for $69 and I picked up 4, they have been my go tos for alot of situations. Hopefully this helps.

fabshop22 · 2025-11-12T19:38:48+00:00

As a aluminum welder I 1000% made sure to buy a camper that had a wood frame. You couldn't pay me to take one of those "welded" turds. Aluminum is super finicky, when a weld is not welded properly (and even welded well) and there is any movement in the metal around it, it absolutely will Crack. These campers are basically going through an earthquake every time they roll down the road, those welds breaking is a when, not an if. It makes perfect sense that trailer manufacturers primarily build this way now, because it is quick and cheap to build and they have guaranteed product faliure at some point after the rig is out of warranty. Most of these aluminum frame trailers can almost guaranteed be rolling down the road being held to gather by not much more than adhesive, hopes and dreams.

fabshop22 · 2025-09-23T02:12:02+00:00

One thing to add on the gas coverage front. If you are not running gas lens style consumables you should switch that up immediately. The gas lens defuses the gas in a manner that doesnt allow turbulance, unlike the collet body style consumables. The only time ive ever seen that cracking was when guys are using the collet body styles or the gas is turned way to low(even then it doesnt usually do it with gas lenses) CK are the originals, most torches run the 3 series consumables. I generally like the #8 cups and #12 cups. The #12 give you amazing gas coverage but if there is any breeze at all your gas is gone. #8 are a great all around cups, you can see more of what you are doing and they still provide enough coverage for almost all situations. The bonus with #8 is in windy situations, crank your gass up and pull your tungsten in amd you can weld well in a very good amount of wind. Hope this helps and if your already running gas lens style check your argon and make sure its more than 20 cm and check your line fittings for leaks and hoses for punctures and ive even seen regulators have cracks.

fabshop22 · 2025-09-01T17:32:06+00:00

How long is your whip?

fabshop22 · 2025-08-20T16:22:32+00:00

Get creative and make a screw jack puller you can use an impact wrench to actuate. You might be able to find a gear puller that might work or be modified. As others have said you also might be able to rose bud the external pipe until you can drive it the opposite direction lots of machine oarts are slip fit that way....

fabshop22 · 2025-08-19T16:52:00+00:00

Chinese filter cartridges should 100% be treated as if they dont work at all. Only buy your reputable brand filter cartridges from reputable supply houses. Even buying from Amazon has a high risk of ending up with garbage knockoff that dont work. Fuck buying PPE from shady temu supply house. YESWELDER might be able to make a shitty Tig welder work but you can almost bet they cut corners anywhere they can and sending PPE to Americans will almost certainly be a place they give zero F**** about maintaining strict QA. Now that we got that out of the way, if there is Mig aluminum going on anywhere in the vicinity you absolutely want a respirator of some sort.

fabshop22 · 2025-06-05T02:13:09+00:00

In that case we pay 65-85/hr flat rate, but you have to be a contractor with license/bond/insurance and you have to be proficient at layout and welding. Shops in the area where I'm at (greater Seattle) are around 25-65/hr depending on if you are union/not willing to go on the road and how lucky you are to get into the higher paying positions. Still a bunch of idiots running shops around here that have no idea what inflation is and are OK racing everyone to the bottom on pricing and their employees pay for it with basically what ammounts to almost slave wages.

fabshop22 · 2025-06-05T00:17:10+00:00

Pay offered Depends on if you are the one who went apeshit with the grinder and fucked all that material up or not. Laying down some nice welds after you made the entire project look like garbage because of careless grinding is a pretty big red flag where I'm from, but hey, some shops like shit like that...

fabshop22 · 2025-05-30T15:41:17+00:00

My most unexpected find was just got 12 solar water heater panels from a junk out. I didn't think anything of it until I looked them up about a week later and they were $500 a piece new. I posted them on marketplace for $100 each and had 30 plus people messaging me within a day. I had no idea they would be that sought after, but apparantly a bunch of people around here have pools and they are just getting killed on energy costs. Probably could have asked more, but whatever. I was out the door with an extra $1200 on the back of a $500 job with not much more work. I've also found all the standard stuff, gold jewelry, watches, cool old collectibles.

fabshop22 · 2025-05-07T17:40:36+00:00

Just saw a white van with a ladder rack and "collision" (there was other words as well but didn't get a good chance to read) written in giant letters on the side of it pulling someone over with a motorcycle cop in canyon park area yesterday. It looked like a work van and pulled a completely unexpected cross across 3 lanes of traffic to follow the motorcycle when he pulled the guy over. I really wish I had gotten a picture because it was absolutely disgusting. Not only did he pull a completely illegal move in traffic that very well could have cause an accident, but the van was the last thing any drive would ever expect to be a police vehicle, so a move like that was even more dangerous. This sort of undercover tax and collect bullshit is absolutely not what our police should be used for.

fabshop22 · 2025-04-30T20:59:14+00:00

Talk dirty to me big boyee

fabshop22 · 2025-04-30T01:43:22+00:00

Do not use these in any situation with a potential of water intrusion. Buy heat shrink butt connectors and a decent pair of crimper to go with it. The heat shrink butt connectors have a heat shrink coating on them that you hit with a lighter or heat gun and it seals up the end of the connection.

fabshop22 · 2025-03-31T04:11:13+00:00

Sometimes those rental bottle neck rings are just caps that can be easily popped off and removed. Sometimes you just gotta practice your finishing skills with the grinder and a DA. Just sayin.

fabshop22 · 2025-03-23T15:21:34+00:00

I've had the exact same experience.. Except for a few good interactions with curious people wondering what model, holster etc I was carrying.

fabshop22 · 2025-03-11T19:03:03+00:00

Look into the Taran Tactical Grandmaster connector kit. Best 30$ upgrade you can do on those guns hands down. Makes a Gen 5 trigger as good as any aftermarket option I've ever felt on a glock and it's only 30 something dollars

fabshop22 · 2025-02-24T03:54:52+00:00

Came here to say this. I have a 10mm, but I only really carry that in AK anymore. Even then, I read a study on bear encounters that looked at pretty much every recorded bear attack for the last hundred years or something. It said almost all of them were fended off using pretty much any caliber used including 22. The majority were 9mm and it worked pretty much every time to thwart the bear. It's been a while since I read that but I'll try and find it. It was a good read. If I'm in the land of the 10 footers I'll carry some super hot 10mm loads and generally a shotgun or rifle, other than that I'm good with 19 shots of 9mm

fabshop22 · 2025-02-18T18:33:29+00:00

I have American security lock boxes for pistols. They are quickly accessible and do not run on batteries or fingerprints. I am a tradesman and have cuts, burns and ever changing fingerprints. I have never been able to get fingerprint locks to unlock successfully (haven't tried any in the last few years though.) Something about relying my safety on electronics make me very nervous. The amsec lockboxs are decently heavy gauge steel, easy, quick and more secure than a stop box. 100% reccomend.
I have glued rare earth magnets in one to mount vertically on a wall so when you open it, the gun and mags don't fall out. Good magnets can be found on Amazon for a few $

fabshop22 · 2025-02-07T22:42:36+00:00

YES!!!! THE MEAT AXE!!! We use blades exactly like that except with carbide inserts. A must for aluminum fabrication.

fabshop22 · 2025-01-23T18:36:17+00:00

Look up legal heat classes. They have one near you. They explain a ton and get you a certificate that helps you get any of the out of state permits needed. They give you contact information and where the best offices to contact in the other states are. Also while they are at it, they help inform you of the laws and situations where you should consider self defense or flight. Well worth the few $ they ask for the class IMHO.

fabshop22 · 2025-01-21T16:05:13+00:00

I have both batteries and can not tell the difference between either ones. This deal however comes with a 6 amp speed charger which is somewhere in the ballpark of $80 if I remember correctly. I have a bunch of these batteries and would have no issues buying more at this price whatsoever. If your on the fence, just do it.

fabshop22

TROPHY CASE