Anything welding

Nice. I'm happy to finally have some juice running and put the Lincoln 100 back on the shelf

 

Cant wait to see the sandwich that comes from this...

 

Build up I did on some aluminum sewer nozzles


Some .072 232 flux core

A little tig on some mild steel and more buildup on a worn part
And some mig action

 

Wow that looks amazing. I’m not quite there yet, but my welds are getting more consistent!







Are the little metal balls because I don’t clean off the metal first? Does that give my welds the splatter I see coming off as I’m welding?

 

Are you using flux core wire? The BB's are common with flux core wire. They hurt nothing. A quick scrape with a putty knife and they are gone.

Your welds look very nice.

 

That looks like a tank! Nice job! whats that thing weigh?

 

Here is my contribution, just a little tig.



And a photo @Seabass got of me attaching my sliders while I kept blowing the braker at my house.

I had to use the tactical weld flashlight attachment.

 

Woohoo! Just bought a Hobart ac/D.C. Stick welder for $350 with 50' lead extensions!
I can finally do some welding!

 

No flux core over here, I'm using .030 solid wire and ArCo2 gas. Any other thoughts on the messiness of my welds? I know the TIG process requires a super clean surface/material so the welds probably come out super clean, but mine just seem a little extra.

This thing is a tank, its heavy to say the least. I'm not sure on exact poundage

 

The spatter is normal just knock them off with a chisel and wire brush it.

 

Interested to see how well it works.

 

My new welder just got delivered but I'm stuck at work

 

Cleaner is always better. First check that you have good shielding gas flow, smooth feeding, clean wire, etc. You can try to control spatter with wire feed speed (my guess is your WFS is too high), voltage and keeping the stick out short

 

Thank you! I’ll try adjusting the wire speed. I have a Lincoln 180 with 5 voltage settings, opposed to an infinite selection (is that the correct wording?), so adjusting the wire might be the way to go.

 

Haha me too. I used some online calculators to get my volume between firebox and cook chamber correct as well as chimney width and height. I’m hoping it works out.

I have a deflector plate and some tubing plates to help give it an even cooking temp within the cook chamber.

If I were to do it again, I’d keep the volume the same and change the dimensions to make the cook chamber a little narrower, but longer.

 

Yup, having discrete voltages isn't the worst thing since wire speed and current are functions of each other. Therefore you can compensate for not having as much granularity with voltage with WFS. It helps to keep a notebook with your machine so you can see if adjustments make an improvement or not. Focus on being consistent on gun angle, stick out, travel speed. Something as simple as getting lazy and letting the gun drop a few degrees makes a difference. MIG is forgiving but good technique still helps.

 

I've a few more questions for you fine folks.

The skid plate warped a bit after welding in all those gussets and mounts. the front plate of the skid bowed downward, and the bottom plate bowed upward. Thats probably because the gussets I added weren't a perfect fit? So they pulled the skids and bends the plate?

Also, been working a deal on that used diamond plate to be used for my bumper. I haven't seen it yet, but the seller says its got some discoloring surface rust, but no pitting.

I was thinking the easiest way to clean it might be to cut all my pieces out and run an electrolysis bath on the cut pieces? How well does electrolysis work at removing rust?

Seems like there are a few options for cleaning rusted steel...acid bath, wire wheels, flap discs, braided wire wheel, addition of wd-40, sandblasting. I got a quote of $100-200 to blast it, but I'm cheap.

Thanks again.

Also, I'm not sure if I posted this or not, but I got the smoke stack cut out and burned onto the side of the smoker.

 

I'm a Grip in the motion picture industry and use that Box Truss constantly. We almost always use Showrig Truss. Which company is your Truss?

 

Wire wheel (cup type) for a grinder is most likely going to be the best method. $50 bucks to HF and you will be able to use it for many more projects.