Monday, June 3, 2019

Productive Weekend


Nice looking TIG weld, even if I do say so myself. Cuzzin Ricky brought me a pair of jackstands that he wanted a plate welded to the bottom of to keep them from sinking into the sand. One of the stands had a corner bent out, so I straightened that out, set it on the bench and it was all out of kilter. I had to twist it back into shape before I could weld it but no problem doing so. There was an auction tag on one of them, so I assume Rick bought them without checking them over real carefully. There's a tag on them that says they're good for 2 tons but I think this one must have been over loaded or something. Should be good now though. No way those legs are going to spread welded to that 1/4" plate.

Before I could do any work out there I needed to clean up after the raccoon. When I was out there the other day it sounded like there was a baby or two in there with momma. I didn't want to trap the mother and get stuck with a couple of little ones stuck in the wall. I thought maybe some pepper spray might get them to move out but when I got out there they had already vacated. I washed the wall and doors down with Pine-Sol and it seemed to do a good job of cleaning and removing the odor. The wall is covered in OSB and the door in luan plywood. I varnished both the wall and the doors when I installed them, so that helped repel the 'coon piss and made the clean up easier. After I try to figure out how they got in, I'll replace the ceiling,

I put the pitcher pump back on the well pipe, replaced the headgear on a welding helmet, restocked my metric bolt organizer and got some yard work done in addition to mowing. Pretty productive weekend now that the rain has stopped. According to the weatherman, more's on the way again later in the week, however.

2 comments:

Rich in Ky said...

Was given (GIVEN!) an old Atco (I think that's the name; I'm not in the shop right now) buzz box ac-only welder recently. This one has a spinning wheel on top that you crank to adjust the current. Handiest thing ever. Especially since my old lincoln tombstone has been permanently borrowed.

Also use a small 120vac mig unit (140amp), but I just use it with the rosin core wire, not gas. The welds aren't pretty, and if the wire gets any age to it, I'm pretty much playing Connect The Blobs. But I like the portability, and it does a decent job within it's limits.

Shop Teacher Bob said...

It sounds like the stick welder is an Airco. The crank wheel gives you better control over the amperage than the Lincoln which only gives you 15 amp increments. Both of them will last just about forever as long as you don't use them too often in the higher amperage ranges.

I'm not a fan of the flux core wires unless you're working on heavy material like structural steel. However, they are handy. I've been doing a lot more TIG welding of late because the MIG wire rusts in my shop if I leave it in the machine.