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DavidR8's shop shenanigans
- Thread starter DavidR8
- Start date
I have one, but my opinion of whether or not it is a good welder is not worth squat. I have managed to join a few things with it mostly by sheer luck.
Then again, it's ability to join anything when used by a welding idiot is a good testiment to its idiot proof design.
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
You will really like the upgrade. I went from a 140 Hobart to a 180c Lincoln, and I can't go back to a smaller machine now. The bigger one is so much more versatile. I wish I still had it (gave it to a friend), and kept it loaded with 0.023 for sheet metal, but as a primary machine for the stuff I do mostly, it was too small.
Dabbler
ersatz engineer
YAY! can you post the details? I may be in the market... soon...
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Dabbler
ersatz engineer
Try it out for a while. Some guys love MIG aluminum (I'm one) but far more hate it. It is very tricky to get good penetration with excellent weld quality in MIG aluminum. Getting enough cleaning balance without overheating your tip an welding the wire to the tip can be a challenge. Even more than TIG, the material has to be spotlessly clean before using a MIG to weld aluminum.
- For me learning to TIG has been a struggle, and my aluminum MIG welds are better. My welds will never pass professional muster, but they do the job that I need to do,
So after doing ten feet or more of beads on the spool gun, you might find that you might really need to keep the TIG, or not.
No burning need to sell it and the new machine is actually smaller than the Miller so that's a plus.
To be perfectly honest my TIG time can be counted in a small, single digit hour count whereas my MIG time is in the dozens of hours. That's likely the same as for most home gamers like me.
I'll see how it goes. I actually find TIG'ing aluminum easier than steel. Not sure why. I'm curious about trying the spool gun.
Keeping in mind my boy wonder welding skills.....
I hate my spool gun. Way too much "stuff" to hold while I'm trying to see what I'm doing through a welding Helmut. I no like.
They say aluminium wire won't feed through a regular length cable. But is that REALLY TRUE? Or is it more like: won't feed through a cable that twists all over the place like a drunken snake orgy?
I have not tried any welding since my stroke. That gun was bad enough with 2 eyes. I can only imagine what it will be like with only one eye.
Dabbler
ersatz engineer
The stiffer grade of aluminum wire feeds through my short cable just fine. I recently bought a spool gun with John N, but haven't hooked it up yet. ALL my aluminum MIG welding has been through the normal feeding means. But on that welder the total cable length is about 5 feet, Teflon lined, and appropriately sized.
How it happened is this: I needed to do a lot of aluminum welding for a project in about '83... I bought a ClarkeWeld, an inexpensive offshore welder and a spool of aluminum wire. The guy at the welding shop told me it wouldn't work. At all. (I knew a guy once that was stubborn and pig-headed. it wasn't me - oh look, a squirrel!)
So without know anything about aluminum welding, and nothing about polarity or cleaning, I proceeded to make attempt after attempt until I got really strong, terrible looking welds in 6061T4 tubing. It got the job done. Since then I've dome a fair bit of aluminum welding, but all of it would make the good welders here on the forum cringe. but the welds all have decent penetration, are strong and the mess grinds away like any other weld.
We would use a teflon/plastic? lined liner for aluminum mig welding, with a different feeder wheel on the drive. This was pushing the wire thru 12-15 feet of cable. This liner was changed out for a regular liner when running wire for steel/cast iron welding. We did not want cross contamination. The aluminum liner sometimes had to be changed a bit more then the others, due to wear.
Check for sharp bends, Knicks, and break down of cable where cable leaves the welder at the connector and at the hand grip where cable enters grip. Watch out for a knicked liner also, remember, if you can't push the wire thru the cable by hand, the feeder can't do it either unless you have a push/pull system.
A lot of shops have gone to mig welding aluminum, tig is maybe? a slowly dying art in aluminum
Check for sharp bends, Knicks, and break down of cable where cable leaves the welder at the connector and at the hand grip where cable enters grip. Watch out for a knicked liner also, remember, if you can't push the wire thru the cable by hand, the feeder can't do it either unless you have a push/pull system.
A lot of shops have gone to mig welding aluminum, tig is maybe? a slowly dying art in aluminum
Working on a bathroom renovation.
This marks the sixth bathroom I’ve done and the part that always vexes me is removing the blasted drain.
While at the local hardware store picking up supplies I noticed this drain wrench.
1/2” drive, spiral grooves that dig in counter clockwise.
A few whacks to seat it and a 24” breaker bar and presto, out it came.
Highly recommended tool.
This marks the sixth bathroom I’ve done and the part that always vexes me is removing the blasted drain.
While at the local hardware store picking up supplies I noticed this drain wrench.
1/2” drive, spiral grooves that dig in counter clockwise.
A few whacks to seat it and a 24” breaker bar and presto, out it came.
Highly recommended tool.
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140mower
Don
...... you know, there's help groups out there that can guide you out of situations of self harm
It’s actually seven bathrooms. I forgot one. Dang....... you know, there's help groups out there that can guide you out of situations of self harm
Here’s some of my best tile work.
For those who are allergic to thinset, this works great for back splashes. Not sure about wet areas but we used it 15 years ago and the tile is still on the wall.
I've peeled tile off with out damaging the drywall as well, you just need to remove the grout first.
I've peeled tile off with out damaging the drywall as well, you just need to remove the grout first.