The cast iron rods I ordered showed up yesterday. They're nickel free rods, which I've never heard of before. Most of the rods I'm familiar with are either 99% Nickel or 55% nickel. The 99% have a machinable deposit but are more inclined to end up with some porosity. The 55% doesn't have the porosity issue but the deposits are non-machinable. The package on the ones I got yesterday say they are good for joining cast iron to steel, also. 309 stainless rods are good for malleable iron to steel and stainless to carbon steel but they are relatively high in nickel as well. Anyway, I'll run a couple of them to get the feel for them and then try and take care of the job I bought them for.
When I went to start the tractor to swap out the grader blade for the welder, the damn thing wouldn't turn over. The battery is relatively new, so that came as a surprise. I put it on the charger and still no go. The battery is contained in a box so you can't see it. I pulled the lid off and put the meter on it. It showed over 13 volts but the positive terminal was pretty corroded so I cleaned that up and that solved the problem. It didn't take much to get the welder on the three-point, now I need to transfer the welder from the skid to the back of the truck. The tailgate height is about 33" from the ground and the welder is about 25". I'll need to get something to act as a ramp, then hook the come-a-long to it and pull it into the bed of the truck. Fortunately, the welder is oriented properly for access to the cables and the amperage switch to make it easy to hook things up. Just need to decide if I'm going to get a new battery first. I also need to give some consideration to building some type of tent or doghouse over the top of the thing when it's not being used. I tarp it but the tarps don't last for any length of time due to the the lifting eye and throttle lever poking a hole in them. Another project that should have been addressed before this.
2 comments:
You have a trailer...two trailers...that are typically the type of thing stored outside that are indoors. The welder, that should be protected from the elements, is stored outside. Perhaps we (you, me, and the boys) could do a little reconfig of the big barn and position the welder in close proximity to where the tractor gets parked. At the same time, get rid of some of the things you're looking to get rid of. Perhaps a fall project. I'm MORE than happy to assist with this.
Definitely need to get a little more order to things. I'll work on tidying things up in the barn and this fall we can tackle moving some of the big things around.
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