Anything welding

That is great !!

I venture your not paying retail list no matter what you think.

those with accounts do get treated better in most cases.

 

Free steel?

24" x 48" x 3/16"?

FUCK YES!

 

You can`t just say Free Steel fess up were it came from!!

Funny how many things get thrown out when jobs end that followed me home.

Not in the trade long enough to tell thickness just by looking?

 

This was from my wife's family member. He's got a small bench top band saw that he's letting me have for $50 as well which I couldn't pick up yet (space).

As for thickness? I don't get it?

3/16" is super easy to tell, as I weld that 1/4" and 3/8" a lot at work.

Maybe it came off as if I was asking...I meant it in conjuction with "free steel?" As in hell yes!

 

With the Question mark behind 3/16" I thought you were not sure of the size .

So that was just a typo?

 

Picked up a nice sheet of 3/16 about 3'x5' it was the cover plate for a piece of equipment we wrecked out.

Yes free steel is good

 

We have some Millers our techs have been sitting on since last November that Miller hasnt been able to deliver selector switches on.

 

I meant to add, Lincoln is charging the at the time of shipment price instead of at the time of order. Makes for a nasty little surprise on a machine that is 8-10 weeks out and sold to educational institutions.

 

We had the boards replaced on a handful of Multimatic 255's cause the TIG pedal wasn't communicating?

Fortunately we got our parts in within a few weeks; this was just 2 months ago give or take.

 

This is the price on machines not parts?

That makes a real mess when working through a distributor to the end user .

The estimate you quoted needs to be re estimated unless the distributor takes the hit which will get old real fast.

I will check on Tuesday to see if PSR has the same deal as they seldom buy machines but for the rental fleet.

 

ESAB has just sent us new machines instead of parts on several of the Rebel 235 machines in for warranty lately. I suspect it was serial numbers within a run of problematic machines, or a change in circuitry/board. I really think inverter machines are great, but man after they are out of warranty and break you could be going down the toilet in repair bills. Seems many problems cascade to other areas.

 

Inverters on low end machines are pretty much throw away`s out of warranty

I have fast blow fuses at my inverters the longer it takes to open the circuit more damage.

 

Yep, I have told our guys do not quote Lincoln machines (engine drives for sure) to schools and colleges without checking stock status because if they cut you a PO and your cost goes up before you can deliver, they may well have zero budget/grant dollars left to cover the increase and it leaves a bad taste in every ones mouth. First thing I hear is a lying salesman, and thats far from the truth. Most salesguys in the welding biz depend on the buyer and the buyer depends on the salesman steering them to the correct product. A one time customer is not something that makes your career, a life time customer is.

 

Even on higher end plasmas a board for a 6 year old machine can cost within 15% of what a new machine cost.

By the way, we are seeing discontinued parts (gas solenoid controls) on older Miller Syncrowave 250's. So if you happen to see a good deal on a 15 year old Syncrowave 250 and the tig torch has a valve on it, there is a reason. LOL

 

Howdy folks, got a rust prevention question.



I made this shitty repair panel to fix a part of my cab that was super fatigue cracked. I was trying to learn tig, so the repair panel is stainless, but all I learned about tig is that I'm thoroughly incapable of ever learning it. I switched back to mig to attach this abomination to the truck, figuring I'd be slightly less incompetent with the simpler technique, but the results don't necessarily support that hypothesis either. Finally I painted it all, but not before managing to permanently destroy the paint on my hood in the process. On top of it all, it took me nearly 6 months to accomplish this, due to my abjectly terrible time management skills at work. So overall... about par for the course!

Anyway but there's a bunch of bare steel behind all these shitty overlap joints. Should I smear everything over with body panel sealant before I try to put the bodywork back in place?

The goal is to prolong the onset of rust, but I wanted to ask others, because so far, my intuition has only made things worse.

No rush, I lost all the screws too.

 

You are welding stainless to carbon steel. You will not be able to achieve pretty welds. The nickel in the stainless is gonna give you troubles.

If you got it to stick, you are doing fine.

Stainless will weld to carbon steel, but a grinder and paint will always be required after.

 

Whenever I've welded mild steel and stainless (MIG) I've only ever used trimix and appropriate solid wire. That or 308L rod if I'm stick welding.

Could one MIG mild steel and stainless with other gasses?

 

I've MIG welded stainless to carbon steel often using CO2/Argon. It's not a big deal.

The weld will rust as well as the carbon steel.

 

Straight Argon and 309L I have done quite a lot of that over the years. I don`t have problems with bad welds when welding stainless to mild steel.

Wrong shielding Gas?

The fancy gas blends do come into play most where developed to save on labor finished goods for retail.( clean up time)

Then charge higher prices.



Being there seems to be an ever growing number of blends of stainless one needs to figure out what works with each blend.

 

Ideally 309 stainless and I have heard over and over you should never use straight argon on stainless mig welding, but I have seen it done rather well on thin material. If you are welding to code, then follow procedures by all means, but I learned long ago to never say never.

Some cored wires use straight CO2.