maker of things wrote:5 amps is pretty low for an autodarkening hood. Wouldn't be too hard to bock even a portion of the light and cause the hood to undarken. I think a fixed 8 shade gold lens would be ideal. My 9 wasn't bad but a little tricky to see through before arc start. I don't think it showed well in the pic but I ended up making a hold down fork from 3/32 stainless and used one clamp on the end where it is bent 180. That applied light pressure that holds the blades down but they could still be aligned after clamping.
It is a fun challenge, but I'm really dreading the overhead tee
Good feedback, thanks Jon. Now you've got me thinking about that fixed 8 shade gold lens...hmm....
Kym at the the LWS mine was about $6.5 USD. If your current hood will accept the standard size lens you could just temporarily swap out. If it doesn't the gold lenses are available in polycarbonate and you could cut to size. Cheaper than a 100 pack of razor blades.
-Jon
I learned how to weld at night, but not last night. (despite how my weld looks)
Lincoln Viking 3350 K3034-2&3
Dynasty 210DX w/cps and coolmate3
Lincoln Power Mig 180c
hermit.shed on instagram
maker of things wrote:Kym at the the LWS mine was about $6.5 USD. If your current hood will accept the standard size lens you could just temporarily swap out. If it doesn't the gold lenses are available in polycarbonate and you could cut to size. Cheaper than a 100 pack of razor blades.
More good advice, thanks Jon.
My LWS tends not to be great with stocking useful stuff but I'll give them a shot. Pretty sure my hood accepts standard sized lenses. I like the idea of swapping out the lens and having a shot at this.
Good pic Jon, gonna try a setup like that if I get time tomorrow.
I got stuck in again tonight, tried a bit of pulse work but what seems still to work best for me is simply a 5 amp start, 14 amps main and feathering the pedal a little.
It's all good practise for when I have to weld a thin stainless exhaust in the near future, right?
I am figuring it makes good practice for just about anything. All the tolerances are very narrow so any slack in my technique is effectively magnified. On the outside corner with filler I set for 15amps and then pulsed with the pedal. Ramped up to almost max to melt the filler then backed off so the arc was just barely still established to move. Never manually pulsed before, but I know I will use that technique someday in the future. I'm learning lots of fine detail that my normal work wouldn't expose me to, yet I'm sure I will use what I am learning on a somewhat regular basis.
Inside corner is proving to be more problematic. I think I will be burning up quite a few blades. Still 15 amps 8-10 cfh .040 2% lanthanated .023 mig wire filler. Can't even get a tack on the ends yet.
IMG_20160913_053326462.jpg (34.57 KiB) Viewed 1456 times
-Jon
I learned how to weld at night, but not last night. (despite how my weld looks)
Lincoln Viking 3350 K3034-2&3
Dynasty 210DX w/cps and coolmate3
Lincoln Power Mig 180c
hermit.shed on instagram
I get to play a little later today but heres a tip for inside corner welding those blades....grind off the sharpened edge to get to the true metal thickness or you will be cooking blades forever. You know how fast thin metal burns back so take that tapered edge off. It may be cheating a little but I haven't found any way to not fry back an edge on metal so thin.
sedanman wrote:If anyone is using a machine with high speed pulse, now is the time to experiment with it. It is amazing. Yeah l know, some say it's a crutch.......
How many pulses per second are you running?
I experimented with 1PPS last night with only okay results. I can wind the speed up, would be interested to know what's working for you.
sedanman wrote:My machine will go to 999 pps on dc. I haven't been over 400 yet. It really gives you control over the heat
Pretty sure mine has similar parameters - I'll give high speed pulse a shot soon - thanks for the tip.
So impressed with my machine (Metalmaster 215 Elite, similar to Everlast). Wherever I go, whatever I try, I am always the weak link. The machine will do whatever I ask of it.
Got a little closer. I did end up sanding off the sharpened edge as EX suggested. I also made a dedicated fixture. It's really tough getting the arc to stay in the middle. Any little movement and the arc is all into one side or the other and then it's through the metal.
IMG_20160913_153956450.jpg (58.1 KiB) Viewed 1495 times
-Jon
I learned how to weld at night, but not last night. (despite how my weld looks)
Lincoln Viking 3350 K3034-2&3
Dynasty 210DX w/cps and coolmate3
Lincoln Power Mig 180c
hermit.shed on instagram
Ol maker is determined to win this thing! Nice job! I suddenly got really busy so I haven't had time to play but I will soon. My first attempt at an inside corner on the thin blades was an excercise in burning metal. Crashed and burned...literally
Nice work! I'm practicing for thin tube test using 1/2" EMT . Pickled in muratic acid to remove the zibc, then fishmouthed with rotary file. It is 0.702" OD with a 0.042" wall. 45 amps pulsed rule of 33 is my starting point.
Cheap practice material and once those look good, chrome moly will be a snap.
I have welded 1/16" S2 filler rods together to use all the scraps. I usually stop when the filler gets around 2" long. S2 filler is cheap but the local weld shop is 30 miles away. You do what you have to do to finish the project.
Keith_J wrote:I have welded 1/16" S2 filler rods together to use all the scraps. I usually stop when the filler gets around 2" long. S2 filler is cheap but the local weld shop is 30 miles away. You do what you have to do to finish the project.
