If she’s anything like my physio she’ll roll her eyes and say “why aren’t you doing the exercises I’ve already given you” (for forearm, shoulder and neck). My guy got to the stage that he could tell whether I’d been doing bench or hammer work by how stuffed my upper thoracic muscles were... But my dentist wins first prize for responding to my toothache with “oh, no. Tooth is good. You do lots of hammer. Your forearm hurts.” Referred pain!
Rivets v Welding v Epoxy
- Thread starter Bowie
- Start date
If she’s anything like my physio she’ll roll her eyes and say “why aren’t you doing the exercises I’ve already given you” (for forearm, shoulder and neck). My guy got to the stage that he could tell whether I’d been doing bench or hammer work by how stuffed my upper thoracic muscles were... But my dentist wins first prize for responding to my toothache with “oh, no. Tooth is good. You do lots of hammer. Your forearm hurts.” Referred pain!
Luckily most of the places I'd need to weld, I've got a 15A plug not that far away, but I was looking at the generator requirements for them, and yeah, it's like 11kVA and more! That's a lot of initial kick needed.
If you are using a MIG or TIG make sure that you have a good power supply. That is not using an overly long extension lead otherwise the welder will not run properly.
An old fashioned transformer stick welder will be the most forgiving.
A lot of the MIG's & TIG's and also Caddy welders have 15 amp plugs on them. Do yourself a favour and get a 15 amp outlet installed in your shed, and if you need to use an extension lead make sure it is rated at 15 amps. Don't file down the earth pin because something will melt and may cause a fire.
Hmm when I was working on the ship, it had a tractor pac DC stick welder in the workshop about mid ship and below the deck level. It had a 'reel' of welding cable normally connected to the welder so it could reach a lot of the ship up through the hatches as setup.
The earth return was just the steel ship. Hmm my experience was it needed to be run at twice the settings expected, for any effective welding.The tractor pac welder was driven by a big DC motor on the ships 180V DC system. There was an extension welding cable also for the hard to reach parts.
Voltage drop ?? What is that ??Jaahn
Mind you that 180V DC system was pretty good at striking an arc if it breached the old salt soaked insulation in the metal ducts. Would/had burnt back about 50mm of heavy cable when it had happened in a couple of places I fixed on the deck gear power supplies. Good fuseing on the ship.
Last edited:
probably OK cos it's actually got steel and copper in it instead of electronics
My very un-pretty stick welder has been around for about 60 years, heavy as lead, runs fine for 16g RHS tube on 240V - even better though on 400V.
Bob
When I started working in heavy industry there was similar setup with a very large three phase welder installed on the ground floor with the earth from the welder attached to the building structure. The hand piece cable was the run up through the building with outlets for the hand piece to be plugged into on the various levels of the building.Hmm when I was working on the ship, it had a tractor pac DC stick welder in the workshop about mid ship and below the deck level. It had a 'reel' of welding cable normally connected to the welder so it could reach a lot of the ship up through the hatches as setup.
The tractor pac welder was driven by a big DC motor on the ships 180V DC system. There was an extension welding cable also for the hard to reach parts.
Jaahn
Mind you that 180V DC system was pretty good at striking an arc if it breached the old salt soaked insulation in the metal ducts. Would/had burnt back about 50mm of heavy cable when it had happened in a couple of places I fixed on the deck gear power supplies. Good fuseing on the ship.
When I worked on a farm in Victoria about 40 years ago the farmer had a big old blue welder in his machinery shed.probably OK cos it's actually got steel and copper in it instead of electronics
My very un-pretty stick welder has been around for about 60 years, heavy as lead, runs fine for 16g RHS tube on 240V - even better though on 400V.
Bob
IIRC it was 400 amp and it had a big crank handle on the top to adjust it. He used to wind it all the way to the top, put the fattest rods he had in it and use it to cut steel plate.
It wasn't neat, it was a bit of a fireworks show, it filled the shed with smoke, but boy it sure could blow through some fairly heavy steel.
Poor man's plasma cutter.
When I was an impressionable young tradie I worked at a coal handling plant (Bayswater) and the boilermakers were welding insitu a monstrous heavy plate coal hopper, probably 2 inch and 4 inch thick plate steel. They bought in this mega power plant/welder and 5 or 6 of them all fed off the one plant, as they spent weeks welding the beast up. The things you see in heavy industry.
'spose you can still get copper coated carbon/gouging rods ? messy but effective....
also handy for the action end of resistance soldering hand-piecesBob
In PNG 40 years ago i wanted a good welder but had a toy to work with. The power could be a bit variable and drooped badly some days. Another expat I got friendly with had bought two old big welders at an auction and built one out of them both and offered me the other in parts. I had to rebuild the electrics a bit, no electronics just real wire but it was a professional unit with the big adjusting handle and could run off 240v single or two phase 415v. I only had single phase so rewired it for that and it worked a treat. Struck an arc easy and just carried on. Best welder I have used !! and did a lot of work.probably OK cos it's actually got steel and copper in it instead of electronics
My very un-pretty stick welder has been around for about 60 years, heavy as lead, runs fine for 16g RHS tube on 240V - even better though on 400V.
Bob
jaahn
Got to love a farmer for knowing how to hack things!When I worked on a farm in Victoria about 40 years ago the farmer had a big old blue welder in his machinery shed.
IIRC it was 400 amp and it had a big crank handle on the top to adjust it. He used to wind it all the way to the top, put the fattest rods he had in it and use it to cut steel plate.
It wasn't neat, it was a bit of a fireworks show, it filled the shed with smoke, but boy it sure could blow through some fairly heavy steel.
Poor man's plasma cutter.
crikey, deluxe model, mine's the poverty pack version with the choke on the end of a stick held in position with a screw !! Still a two man lift onto the ute though which is likely why it's so smooth running and easy to use, even choked right down.
Nearly forgot, there's a choice of two output voltages/current ranges.
Built by a guy that made monster spot welders for industry, the 'home welders' were some sort of tax free beer money item for him, made up from left over bits from production runs - seem to recall it was £18 or maybe even £12. Must have been one of my better tool choices over the years, it's still in use....
Bob
i have some ,panel work chassis repair to do on my 404 i will be drilling out spot welds ,on the rad support panel and wondering if re spot welding it is the go rather than miging the seams ,i see spot welding clamps on e bay ,for use with spot welders .i have an old Pearless stick welder here 200 amps 25 volts with a 30 percent duty cycle on the secondary ,would that be sufficient to spot weld 1.5 mm steel sheet ,or do i need a machine designed specifically for spot welding ,tks.I am also replacing the sheet metal bottoms on the chassis [which have rusted from the inside[ , rails forward of the cross member which will be coming out as well as the struts ,the motor being supported from a beam above , front of car on stands ,think i should have sufficient room to work a lot of un stitching to be done on old metal ,
Reweld the spot welds, so the next owner can fix it easily too.
re spot the spots thats a good idea ,what's your thoughts on sealing the seam after welding to ,prevent moisture getting in resulting in rust ,.thinking i could paint the seam except were the welds are going to be ,then treat the area around the weld after
fish oil ! If you do not mind the smell and the cats and dogs licking off the drips. Use a small tube with a garden micro sprayer to coat everything inside there ! Possibly a modern alternative Tectyl could be good applied the same way !
Jaahn
ultimate toy.... ?
note specs, very low output voltage and whacking great current - akin to a resistance soldering unit. I dunno if this is standard for spot welding units but it's not the sort of specs you'd see for a stick welder.... ?
Bob
Portable Spot Welding Machine 230V/110V 1.5+1.5mm Steel Plate Sheet Metal Welder | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Portable Spot Welding Machine 230V/110V 1.5+1.5mm Steel Plate Sheet Metal Welder at the best online prices at eBay!
www.ebay.com.au
Bob