Thanks framie! Thankfully I have a good girl by my side, so the porn is about useless until she leaves for work. I'm already walking about 4 miles a day now, but i find that there's some 14 hours in the day I'm not doing something other than scoping the internet. You never realize the value of somet...

Howdy folks, So I just had shoulder surgery this past Wednesday do to injuries from a previous career as a whitewater raft guide. To make a long story short, the Dr. says I'm out of work for 8 weeks minimum. I'm on day 3 right now and already losing my mind. Have any of yall had shoulder surgery bef...

AKmud wrote:Thanks for the help guys. My 1/8" GL feels like fine tuning a watch with a 2# sledge.

I feel the pain. I work with primarily stainless .125 and thinner, and I'd die with a 1/8" gas lens!

That looks pretty good. I like the linear design of that one, it'd fit my needs well and sit right next to my welder on it's cart.

Brother!, I owe you a few pitchers of beer at least! I started out with my same old BS and then asked myself, "Self, what in the hell are you doing?". Then I straightened up and just look what happened! Much better man, I still think your heat may be a little too much. I know you said tha...

Who here's made the best and baddest DIY water cooler for your home rig?

I'm thinking about making one myself soon. Damn 26 torch is a piece of junk that Everlast sent with the machine.

If you have the option to turn up your sensitivity on the hood, I'd recommend you try that first, and unless I'm running upwards of 200 amps, I don't go darker than a shade 10.

I've got a designated grinder just for tungsten so it wouldn't imagine it to be that.

Your consistency is on the way there, but your heat input is way too high. You need to either turn downs the amps or move faster across that joint. That dark burnt purple is the hexavalent chromium burnt off which defeats the purpose of stainless to begin with. I'd try to move along the joint faster.

I don't see 16ga stainless and anything more than about 45 - 50 amps. It'll allow to slow your travel speed just a bit and not have your puddle out of control, but still enough so that you can move along the joint. I work with a lot of stainless for poultry (we do lots of contract work for the local...

I'm wondering if the quality of tungsten could also be playing a part in this. Anybody think that may be it?

I've got a pack of Anchor brand 2% ceriated, and a cheapo brand of the same. Still haven't broke into the anchor guys, maybe it'll make a difference.

DLewis0289 wrote:#10 outdoors and #12 indoors with a 2.5 cheater or drug store reading glasses. And gold is the way to go for conventional lenses. (buy clears 20 at a time minimum definitely cheaper in the long run)

You run a shade 12 indoors?!

I reckon the grinding marks may have something to do with it considering I'm using a coarse grit wheel to grind it at home, vs a designated tungsten grinder at work. It's not as if this happens often, but I've notice my arc wandering more than once or twice with an inverter.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's not but I might as well ask. I've got an inverter myself, but my shop has a 3 newer syncrowaves and an old beast of a syncrowave. I've noticed that I tend to get more arc wander and instability with my inverter than I do with the transformer units. I'm not entirely ...

Artie F. Emm wrote:The prototyping must be interesting work, you must be pretty fair at reading blue prints. ☺

yes sir! took two courses while in school and a handful of drafting courses as well

Artie F. Emm wrote:Welcome, Boone! Stainless welding, machine shop... what are you building?

Anything that comes through the door really. We do a lot of work for the Tyson chicken plant in town, some R&D prototype. We're kinda like 70% job shop, 30% production work type of stuff.

Howdy Folks. My friends call me Boone, some call me dumb@$$, you can call me anything just don't call me shirley. I'm 24, work in a fab shop in a small town nestled in the mountains of Appalachian North Carolina welding mostly stainless, and also running most of their machine shop. I'm looking to re...