Probably too late now, but on the note of holding that odd shaped part. Lookup a fractal vise, designed to hold even weirder shapes than that slight taper. My other thought for a quick one of fixturewould be to just makeup a couple softwood blocks cut to the right taper to hold the part in a standar...

If nothing was changed start at the basics and troubleshoot. Check the gas is still set at the same pressure, sometimes when the bottle is low guys will crank the reg to get that last little bit done. Did a leak somewhere in the gas line form during the bottle swap for some reason or just by pure co...

It's not as bad as you think with alum, 1/8 thick is pretty forgiving I find. If possible I clamp up to a piece of heavy angle stock and tack, I'll leave the angle clamped up if the job allows, most times though if I'm doing open corners on 1/8 it means I'm making a tank of sorts and can't clamp, ca...

Doesn't sound like a setting issue but possibly more of a technique thing to me. When I'm welding heavier sections and want a bigger bead I find the only way to achieve it is either bigger cup or pull back the torch and ramp up the gasflow to compensate. I do that once I've got the root of the weld ...

My brain goes straight to silicon bronze or alumna bronze filler based off just that pic. Only way I know to get a gold colour to an alum bead. Even when I weld dirty old cruddy aluminium I still don't get a gold colour. Just lots of black and that lovely burnt looking greyish blue colour that alum ...

That'll do for years to come as long as the pesky orings in the swivel portion don't blow out.

I got the clone of that from PA for our paint booth line. Still going after 5 years ish, just had to change the inlet fitting on it once I believe.

Ive got a box of Walter excavator's from years back when I thought they'd disappear like the cheapies did. They definitely remove material quickly. Never used 3m cubitron so I can't really make the comparison. I would say though my go to is still just a resin sanding disc made by either Walter or Pf...

Only ever seen 2" cheaters as well. Mind you I've never looked for them yet.

Could always try cutting one down with a glass cutter and fitting it in.

Going to guess the purge is for full pen with no oxide skin on the backside of the weld.

Pretty sure Jody did a video on it where he shows the difference of purge and no purge on some thin alum sheet.

Was quite an eye opener as to the difference.

For 100' your either going to have to buy something high end and expensive or buy something cheap and modify to suit. I got a $20 reel from princess auto (Canadian harbor freight) it's meant for 50' but I can see it being modified for 100' portable in a couple hours tops. Or you can buy the air swiv...

The welding pixies just don't like the LED pixies is all.

Good to know that this can happen though, will definitely keep it in mind.

Tapatalk has been giving me all sorts of error codes for the past couple months now I believe.

Pretty sure its on someones back end if it's not just me though.

Perhaps thats why the forum has seemed to slow down lately and feel a little empty.

That arc was hitting that cup good. What do you mean by that? I've never heard of that term and don't even know what your seeing to determine that. I want to guess it's the colouration of the cup that's the visual factor? Yes, I was basing it off the assumption of the position of the tungsten. It l...

Dropped torches and broken many over the years. likely that one got cracked after a fall and just took a while to finally give up for good. I'll never know exactly what does my cups in, havnt dropped my torch in about a year, at most it'll get brushed against whatever I'm hanging it off during a co...

Oscar wrote: ↑Fri May 20, 2022 9:05 pm That arc was hitting that cup good.

What do you mean by that? I've never heard of that term and don't even know what your seeing to determine that.

I want to guess it's the colouration of the cup that's the visual factor?

Well this cup finally fell in two after about 2 weeks of seeing the crack when the cup was red hot. Broke on the last 4" of 164" worth of welding I was doing today. I figured eh I'll brush away the broken chunk and try and use it since I didn't feel like walking to grab a cup. I wasn't exp...

My experience with green (pure) tung in a dynasty 400 is that it won't strike a arc to save it's life. Took about 6+ pedal romps and clicks etc to get a burst of a arc to start.

Pulled my hair in that one till I realised all the 1/16 tungsten I had was pure only.

As long as the U bends are accurate, then it’s far less welding required. Things that make a difference: material, thickness, purpose of tank? I’ve done a half dozen aluminum fuel tanks recently. Half I did were bent U’s, the other was 6 plates. The advantage of the plates was I could weld from ins...

Looking for everyone's opinion on a task we have at the shop currently. Customer wants a tank made that is roughly 24" x 11" x 14" tall (14 height is the only critical dimension I was told) Just curious if you guys think it's easier to weld two folded U's together or if you would fabr...

Most gas lenses don’t require a specific “cup”. The tungsten size is dictated by the gas lens, but you can still use a variety of cup sizes with different lenses and tungstens. I think the only difference is the isolator gets changed out on the face. Least that is how mine was, the gas lense cups d...

If you have everything to do the swap and hook up the C10 then why not just try it?

Can't see gas hurting the machine or whip, just might make bad welds or different welds then the other machine is all.

Or it'll be the same and you'll know you can switch if you wanted.

Handheld metal cutting saws are definitely grabby when you get too pushing. Or when your plunged down in way deep like say north of 1" deep. I run a 5 3/8 dia blade on a ooold weak milwaukee 4 1/2" grinder and it works well enough for my needs. Have run the same blades in both corded and b...

Well if the curiosity gets the better of you I see two options. Tear the casting right down till you find some potential alloy #'s and get on Google to see if you get lucky with some reliable info. Or if possible/feesible send a chunk to a lab for analysis. 3rd just popped into my head, jump through...

I'm curious about the 30% vinegar too, if you ever wind up trying it post about it here if you don't mind. And yup HCL destroys things around it rather quickly, can bring a brand new set of pliers into the solder area where a bit of HCL is used and it just wrecks everything in at least a 6ft radius....

Now I can't say if it's more or less prone to hot short cracks than another alloy. But I have used it to weld cast oil pans and heat exchanger tanks in the past with no issue. Just welded a rub through on a cast alum oil pan last week and it welded just fine and holds oil just fine. Didn't realize i...