Winter Project

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by SpudRider

I'm sure it is much warmer in Puerto Rico than Wisconsin.

I can't understand why many of my coworkers are mad at me?

Bearings came today.

[cheesy]

As promised, I tried out the new welder today. The 20oz Gatorade bottle is there for scale. Tiny bugger.


This is what it is replacing. An antique.


Here is what I'm attempting to repair. Think I bit off more than I can chew.


Prep.




No pictures of the repair itself because there was nothing there to fix. A quarter inch below the drilled hole, the steel was paper thin. A waste of time.

I grabbed some scrap metal and smoked a few rods. First off, I haven't used a stick welder in at least fifteen years. So, it took a bit of practice to get the hang of striking and maintaining an arc again. I was using 1/16" 6013 rod. The welder instructions states that rod of that size should use a setting from 20 to 40 amps, the rods state 20 to 50. I started at 30 found it too cold. I found that 44 amps worked well on the 1/8" scrap I was practicing on. That got me good penetration and a fairly flat, if ugly, weld. I will need to retrain myself to control the puddle to get something resembling a nice weld.

About the welder. 110 volt, small, light weight, easy to set up. Even comes with a shoulder strap. I may or may not use the strap. At this point, the machine is better than the monkey making smoke.

After going through Welds' thread on Linda's Utility Trailer, I read where ripcuda modified his welding cart to hold both of his units. Great Idea. As I don't have a cart, I went shopping today. Found this Lincoln cart on sale at Farm and Fleet.
http://www.farmandfleet.com/products...ding-cart.html
As both my stick welder and plasma cutter are pretty small, I can probably get both on the cart along with the flux core machine without too much hassle. That would free up some space under my bench.

BTW, the new stick welder looks lonely on the new cart. Scored some 1/16" 7018 rods on clearance, too.

[bogieboy]

cheesy, in my experience with stick (very limited...LOL) i have found the best amperage for good penetration and ease of arc striking is usually about 10a over the recommended amperage setting....LOL although that does depend onn the thickness of the material as well... welding 20ga steel with 1/16th rod at 60 amps is like trying to weld it with a cutting torch....LOL

also and fyi i have had pretty good luck with harbor freight welding rods... they are quite cheap from what i remember too....

[cheesy]

Nothing much happening with this at the moment. I've acquired most of the parts I need. Also got the material to mod the welding cart. Just looking for some me time. We, Mrs. C and I, have also been busy getting ready to have the kids here from Maine for the holidays. Looking forward to spending some quality time with my granddaughter. We haven't seen her for over a year. I expect much hot chocolate with whipped cream will be consumed along with a visit to the local bicycle shop. Maybe we will stick pieces of metal together.

I will admit that we both are still in a funk with Dashers' passing. We both look at his blanket on the couch to see if he is breathing then realize he isn't here anymore. Jeez, we miss him.

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by cheesy

I will admit that we both are still in a funk with Dashers' passing. We both look at his blanket on the couch to see if he is breathing then realize he isn't here anymore. Jeez, we miss him.

I can totally appreciate that. The only thing that has helped us move forward after Cooper's passing is our younger dog, Winnie.

[cheesy]

I was home alone today so I forced myself out to the garage today. Decided I should attempt the mods to the welding cart. Got it where it will hold the flux-core and stick welders plus the plasma cutter.


Still some more to do; hooks for hanging cables for each unit, tubes to hold rods, tool storage, and a place to hang my helmets and other safety gear.

Cut everything with the plasma cutter. It's the catsass for a long cut in 16ga sheet. All the welding was stick using 1/16" 7018 rod. I forgot how nice that stuff was to use. Not too shabby for two hours of eyeballing.

[Weldangrind]

That's a nice outfit. It would be easy to roll the whole deal under a bench.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

That's a nice outfit. It would be easy to roll the whole deal under a bench.

Thanks.
I like that idea. Too bad it won't fit under any of my benches.

[Weldangrind]

That's precisely why I'm building new benches.

[cheesy]

As this will be a green Christmas this year, I decided to take the grandkids into the garage and show them how to make snowmen and Christmas trees with the plasma cutter. I'm sure Karis will eat it up. Eli, on the other hand, will probably be more interested in my latest die cast acquisition.
1960 Falcon Ranchero.

I learned to drive in a red 62 with a 170 six and 3 on the tree. Eli has already unpacked it.

[Weldangrind]

That is sweet like sugar. I'd love a sedan version; even a quadraport.

[cheesy]

Almost there.

[kohburn]

Originally Posted by bogieboy

welding 20ga steel with 1/16th rod at 60 amps is like trying to weld it with a cutting torch....LOL...

yup, I tried doing some crazy stuff like that once. I picked up a china plasma cutter/stick/tig welder a while back and mostly tig weld now unless I'm in a hurry then I use my Clark mig welder (copy of a miller that when I bought it was about 1/3 the price of a miller)

if you are welding (especially filling a hole or gap) thin metal then using a brass/copper backing plate is really helpful. you can make one from old copper tubing http://www.ehow.com/how_4821642_weld...eld-spoon.html

[cheesy]

Warmed up enough to spend some time on the Toro today. I now have the 49 year old B&S completely apart. It is in decent shape for the most part. Not enough taper in the cylinder to warrant any work on it. Heck, didn't even need to use the ridge reamer. Did find some carbon build up on the exhaust valve seat that was probably the cause of the built in beer break. But that was it. I might sneak into the shop tomorrow and drop the block in the hot tank for a short while. No plans on watching the Stupor Bowl, anyway.

[cheesy]

Coldest day of the month and I was in the garage working on the B&S.

The engine is 85% back together now. Valves lapped, quick pass in the bore with the cylinder hone, new seals and gaskets. It would be 100% together but I dropped the #@&%$*&&^# flywheel key. That bounced once and disappeared into another dimension.