Alright, I'll bite, why don't you guys paint trailers? because they are hot dipped galvanized. Ditto here in most parts of europe. Regulations around vehicle and trailer approvals make it time consuming for any individual to build a trailer and get it approved for road use, so most don't bother and...

That's exactly the use-case where 'seam sealer' was invented :D Used on spot- or stitch-welded parts that you still want protected and then possibly paint. It's like a super tenacious caulk that's designed to resist a lot of weather influences and be capable of being painted over. It also stays just...

while 3 phase to single phase conversion is always possible, whats the odds of having a single phase connection big enough to handle it. That will be the biggest question. Many 3-phase welders and cutters and such go that route when they exceed the current that a single phase can deliver easily. Th...

My thought was that silicon bronze with its lower melting point would be easier to braze the thick to thin decreasing the chance of melting the edge of the 20 gauge. Although true, the biggest challenge on things like this will be to control the inevitable warping that will happen to the sheet stee...

sounds about right. budget power supplies in those don't take kindly to drops in voltage. with the big push for efficiency many people here upgrade their lights to LED which then fail really quickly due to the budget power supply design. Not helped by the fact that in an effort to reduce cost and i...

Make sure to paint/coat the area after the repair as otherwise the more 'noble' stainless nut will start to create a corrosion ring around it on the mild steel if water gets involved. The steel plate basically starts to rust/corrode faster because of the contact with the stainless steel if it's allo...

Like many things, the red (thoriated), tungsten in it's 'solid' form is not a problem from a radiation standpoint. It's quite low dosage as the actual thorium content is of course limited. It's when you start grinding them and the dust gets into the air and that slowly works it's way into your lungs...

Prep and weld it right then it's fine. Eg. proper beveling, multi-pass where neded, etc. Eg. nice video's on basically using MIG (and sometimes dual shield) on massive excavator and other mining rigs stuff from CEE Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HANEJww4j8M He uses a lot of MIG as he oft...

i doubt the power requirements are very high. Yup.. The auto-darkening is quite similar to basic LCD operation in that an applied voltage, but only tiny, tiny current, is used to 'flip' the state of the liquid crystal layers in the lense and by playing with the polarisation and number of layers you...

Tried to figure out why I can't see where I'm going when welding. Bad news is, it's not my hand position. I can see the puddle clearly, but everything outside the arc light is black. I'll check the shade setting on my helmet, but I know I didn't set it very dark. I've always had poor night vision. ...

Problem solved. I believe there were cracks from the impact that were moving during welding that were not visible to my poor eyes. If you need to do more like these then perhaps get some dye penetrant kit (cleaner, dye and developer can): https://www.grainger.com/category/welding/welding-chemicals/...

Isn't it weird how women's welding gear seems to be so much more effective? Why do we have to gear up in full coverage clothes, gloves and such???? It's unfair!!

Bye, Arno.

The pump/motor combo is often the biggest cost when building one as it has to be one that can work at fairly high pressure/resistance and many of those are more expensive than a common impeller style garden pump which does a lot of flow but usually doesn't like too much backpressure. The flow throug...

Yeah, we were thinking along the same lines, but there was not even the tiniest amount of magnetic attraction when I tested them. Weird.. Must mean that they are an alloyed steel, but not a normal chromium based like 304/316 (aka. A2/A4 on nuts), or the nuts have been heated to very high temperatur...

Try sticking a magnet on the nuts. Likely they are highly magnetic and quite likely just plain (mild-)steel. Could be 409 'stainless', which will definitely rust and is not suitable for these applications, but as it looks like it's even rusting inside the threads that seems unlikely. Best option wou...

Yup.. Austenitic stainless steels like 304, 316 and the like are by default more tricky to machine as it won't make a good chip and tends to gall quickly. The advantage of these in fabrication though is that 304 and 316 and the like do not harden with heat, but can only be (cold) work hardened, so t...

The heat affected zone is another detail that's hard to understand. I know you don't want to end up with a large heat affected zone; but, I also know you don't want to be laying down a bead on cold metal. Is there a target I should set as a goal? 1/8", or maybe 1/4" on each side of the be...

Okay. But how tight is ideal? 1mm? 2mm? 3mm? 1/16"? 1/8"? Rule of thumb usually is to usually keep about the same distance as the thickness of your filler rod, but on thicker ones like 1/8" then closer is usually better as it keeps the heat focussed on the base material. What you'll ...

Using an 'Y' can work, but it would rely on the pump having significant over-capacity flow wise to feed both torches simultaneously. If it doesn't then the torch that has the least flow resistance will get nearly all the coolant and the other only gets a trickle and cooks if you were tyo weld with t...

I just always thought you needed a cavity of some sort for the argon to be in up against the metal being back purged. For active purging with argon, yes. But you can also prevent oxygen from reaching the back of a weld and the resulting sugaring by other means like fitting the pieces in a jig/frame...

Really no problem in Europe to get them: 7018: https://www.weldingtool.eu/utp-stabelektrode-614-kb-mini-pack-o-3-2-x-350-e7018-e-42-3-b-32-h-10.html In switzerland: https://www.sechy.ch/produkt/basisch-----e-7018-407 ISO code would be 2560-A E 46 4 Mo B 42 H5 or 3580-A: E Mo B 42 H5 6013: https://ww...

Looking at the specs: https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en/products/k3963-1 OCV for the PowerMIG is listed as only 56V 6010 really wants between 70 - 90V to light up well. It's running voltage (at 240V input) at 27V is OK for the PowerMIG. This means it will kinda run 6010 when it's started, but has p...

One would assume a modern high end inverter machine would be more than capable of either limiting the voltage to not exceed a certain number when maxed out to avoid damaging the machine or would be built with components that could handle running maxed out at a few higher volts than one would typica...

Amperage aside, Any reason I could not use those 480V 3-pole breakers at 400V and 240V ( 3-ph of course)? What I know tells me the lower operating voltage (compared to the breaker voltage rating) should have no ill-effects, so long as they are sized properly to protect the wiring, etc. Thoughts? Ye...

Basically, TIG (welding) amps are not related to the type of power input as far as the voltage or frequency goes. The TIG amps may be limited to a certain level as the AC input circuit may only be dimensioned/fused to a certain level in each country/region. Eg. in the USA a welder on a 120V/20A circ...