Post by DavidPost by GremlinDoes anyone here weld? MIG, fluxcore, TIG, or stick?
I've been wanting to learn for several years now. Just before Xmas, I
committed to it; I bought a little 120v welder. :)
And I opted to start with Stick first. The welder I have supports
fluxcore stick and lift tig. It'll be a bit before I'm doing any TIG
though; it requires a cylinder of Argon and initial cost isn't exactly
cheap. :) I'm going to setup the mig torch for fluxcore once the
weather turns good again; I ordered another torch just in case I really
goof the one it came with. I doubt I'd do that, but just to be on the
safe side, I want another one on hand so I can continue on if I do.
I'm getting better with stick; I can strike my 3/32 rods on first try
most of the time now, right where I want to start the bead. I can
usually strike my 1/8 6010 rod on first/second strike. Still having
trouble 1st striking the 7018 but it's not exactly a rod for n00bs like
myself either. I'm getting there though. :)
Anyone else here into welding?
Not any more ...... but I did once replace the complete floor of a car
like this using an oxy-acetylene rig:-
Damn David, you like doing things the hard way. Respect though for being
able to use the torch to weld and not turn metal into liquid. I've seen many
a 'welder' do exactly that. :)
Post by Davidhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_Fulvia
It subsequently passed its MOT!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test
Phew!
Impressive.
Oh, to remain on topic; I just ordered my 2nd welder today.
https://www.amazon.com/Sunstac-Aluminum-Voltage-Multifunctional-Welding/dp/B0
C5M8MFCJ
I've had my eyeballs on this one for almost two damn months. :) I've read
all kinds of articles about it and it's manufacturing company. I also like
the fact it's using standard DSINKI (I may have misspelled this word; the
connection interfaces are still new to me) euro style twist lock connectors
on everything. Nothing is perm wired like many of the ones from Harbor
freight and other box stores. It's 249 on the tiktok shop; and sadly, It
went up about 15 dollars on Amazon from a week ago. Had to reroute funds to
get it before the price continued to climb. :) I'm not a political person by
any means, but the threats of Tarifs from our president isn't helping me
with my welding interests. It's causing price increases. Annoying! Stuff is
expensive enough as it is. And, I'm not exactly a rich SOB.
This is the one I've been using to teach myself
https://www.amazon.com/TOOLIOM-Gasless-Welding-Machine-Inverter/dp/B0CP4VV4KK
I've been very pleased with it. I ordered the tig torch for it and a 2nd MIG
torch for it; Just in case when I'm ready to do fluxcore I goof up the
lining or something. It also came with extra contact tips; very convenient.
But, it's not a true MIG welder; it doesn't support GAS natively. I could
buy a torch with a seperate gas line to get around that, but it would cost
me nearly as much as the Sunstac which already supports gas. It supports a
variety infact. I'll only be using Argon though; but it's nice to know that
if I wanted to mix things up, it's cool with it. It also helps that it can
weld aluminum just by changing out the liner to graphene (or graphite, seps
something etc) but it's still a DC output so have to be careful.
I have been able to succesfully weld aluminum with my Tooliom in stick mode
of all things, but, it's not the prettiest looking bead and you can tell it
wasn't done with an AC welder. AC where it swaps polarity actually cleans
the aluminum as you go. And I did the welding with stick using a 3/32 7014
rod. I had to play with the heat control and swap polarity so the heat was
focused on the rod and not the surface. Yes, I gave up penetration for it;
but the material was .07 inch thick too; and I'm sure you understand how
easy it is to burn a damn hole right thru it. :) I had my welder all the way
down to 30amps to finish that; and I swapped polarity to DCEN instead of
DCEP to give me a little more time to make the puddle before I burned thru
the surface. Negative side on DC is where the electrical energy actually
comes from. It's called electron flow. Conventional flow is where you are
taught it goes from positive to negative side. It doesn't. It's actually the
reverse but! we already have so much material out there explaining it the
wrong way that we labeled it as conventional current flow and electron
current flow. Yea, heh, that's how we fixed a major booboo in education; a
world wide education goof in this case.
I've got the .30 2lb roll of fluxcore as well as the .35 2lb roll of the
same for that welder, but it can also be used on my SunStac. Infact, almost
everything I have for my current welder will go right onto the Sunstac.
Except for the MIG torches, obviously. Since the Sunstac supports gas
natively, it's MIG torch has a gas line where as my Tooliom MIG torches do
not; since it doesn't do gas on it's own.
I've been wanting to strike an arc and maybe load it with fluxcore wire to
check that option out, but the weather here has not been friendly for
welding. My damn hood fogs up on me for example. I can't very well weld if I
can't see a damn thing. Plus, I have an auto darkening hood that cost me
more than my first welder. It has an electronic panel inside of it that does
the real work and I don't want to mess it up. So I haven't been able to weld
for days now.
The weather is supposed to get into the 50s over the next few days though;
plenty warm enough to strike an arc! without fogging my hood or risking any
damage via condensation for the auto darkening lens assembly.
I'm almost dying to go outside and strike an arc, but, it's too dark already.
LOL! I've got welders bug in case you couldn't tell. I'm fucking addicted to
it, bro. Seriously. I love it! I wish I got into it years ago. I didn't have
the opportunity to take any welding classes during school. I wasn't one of
those kids who had a nice house with people that had heavy duty tools that I
could use to learn to weld back then. It just wasn't like that for me. We
had a place to live, but it wasn't some fancy ass place with a garage etc.
No place to have welding equipment or metal fabrication equipment.
I've been wanting to learn for several years now (repeating myself here I
suspect) so I committed myself; I spent funds. It actually showed up. I'm
not one for buying tools I won't use. Hell, the first day I got it out of
the box I knew I couldn't use it yet (didn't have a hood or rods or anything
yet) but I did plug it in and turn it on. I spent probably 20 minutes or so
reading the very well written book it came with. Going by the owners manual
you'd never guess it comes out of China. Tooliom is actually a Canadian
company; the designs are done by my northern neighbors. But they don't have
their own manufacturing plant there, and it wouldn't be cost effective if
they did for what the welder is. So, like many other companies, it's
assembled in China to their specifications.
I'm also looking into purchasing a small lathe for metal fabrication. Along
with a plasma cutter and suitable tank based air compressor. As it is now
though, I have to run 3 dedicated circuits to my welding area. One 120v 30a
circuit and two 240v circuits. The welder I just ordered claims it only draws
30amps on 240volts with settings on 200a output; maxxed out. Since I want to
make sure the welder has access to all the power it wants, I'm thinking of
pulling the 240v runs with wire suitable for a 50a continuous duty load. The
only thing I'll be saving is the labor cost. I can't do anything about
material costs. I've already freed up room in the main panel for two double
poles and two single poles. Already mapped out exactly how I'm going to pull
the wire too; I'm going straight up from the panel into the attic and out to
the garage area where I'll use schedule 80 PVC to protect the wire and bring
it to several nice water tight boxes with suitable receptacles. outdoor
rated ones at that.
I've probably burned close to 14lbs of rods now with my Tooliom. I plan to
burn a shitload more. :) When the SunStac gets here the first thing i'm
going to do is strike a 1/8 7018 and run it hella hot. I'm checking to see
if it'll throw my 20a dedicated circuit breaker. My Tooliom will; but I have
to burn several 1/8 rods practically back to back on full power (135a)
before it'll go ahead and do it. I've yet to hit duty cycle. The welder
hasn't over heated or backed off or gone into protection mode a single time!
If I burn a couple of rods and wait a few minutes, it won't trip the breaker;
it's a thermal overload issue which is causing the trip. I am pulling more
than it's rated for when I do that, but, not for very long; which is why the
breaker holds so well for me. I've also been using a 14ga 25ft medium duty
rated extension cord for it. Surprisingly to me, the 12ga and 14ga are rated
for 15a until you reach 100ft; then the 14ga drops off to 13a.
It doesn't even get the cord warm most of the time. It's very handy being
able to weld on a jobsite if welding becomes necessary for something. Which
has happened on several commercial jobs. We've had to wait until someone can
get there with a 120v welder to fix the structure so we can wire it, without
falling thru it or it toppling over onto us. Think the outdoor signs for
advertising. Some of them are a good ways up too. Plus, I think everyone
should learn how to take two pieces of metal and weld them together. It's an
important and useful (imho) life skill.
I found out my nephew is taking welding in school; He had the choice of
automotive or welding. I kind of? pushed him towards welding. :) It'll give
him the ability to travel if he wants when he's done with HS as well as make
damn good coin. He won't be starving.
And, it hasn't lit my arse up with a nasty shock (yet rofl) either; most
likely because I'm wearing proper PPE and know better than to introduce
myself into the circuit itself. Plus, they included a schematic with parts
list in the owners manual. So, short of it blowing a proprietary IC, I can
fix it if I do kill it. That's another plus in my book. Any company willing
to share their circuit layout gets my attention and possibly my business;
because they know they have a good circuit and aren't trying to hide it.
Just like the good stereo systems I grew up around. Sansui is a good example
of that. Both receivers came with a full on schematic and parts list for
servicing them. Back then, they weren't scared to show you what was actually
under the hood. FFS, they took pride in their circuit designs and wanted
those into electronics to see that for themselves.
--
I don't need no Dr. All I need...is my lawyer.