Anything welding

Miller has a nice variety around the $160 mark I mentioned; I went Lincoln for the second hood cause I love their 4C lens as it's stupid clear with great contrast

The differences from the two are - hood composition as the more expensive one is rated for overhead (cheaper hoods will not hold up to the splatter/etc), larger viewing area (this raises the price for mostly any brand hood), much more comfortable headgear (you can always replace these on most hoods), larger number of shades 5 through 13 versus 9 through 13, and finally, external grind/weld modes on the more expensive variant

Some people would see a lot of value in being able to bring a shade level down to 5 for things like oxyfuel, plasma, etc as well as the large viewing area

 

0 effort product holder I whipped up today lol

 

i think true color is way too much of a gimmick.

it doesn't matter what color the arc is, what matters is being able to clearly see the difference between the puddle, the bead, and the area coming up to be welded. i'd be happy if it was all gray, as long as i can see it properly!

 

Haven't heard of "true color" myself, must be a term coined by a certain company.

My shade is a blueish green.

I will say, different lenses from different companies yield different contrasting colors.

That Miller I mentioned earlier where I got flashed a lot? That was my friend's as he brought it over to confirm 1 of 2 things - was his eyesight getting worse or was it the hood as he had trouble seeing his puddle at all.

So he brought it over, mind you his hood never flashed him before but he only does MIG, and the hood flashed me a ton while I did some TIG. I switched to MIG and no issue. Anyway, he wore my Lincoln hood while I wore his Miller and we took turns.

I was able to see my weld puddle just fine with either the Miller or the Lincoln. He could see the weld puddle much better with my Lincoln but had trouble doing so with his own Miller.

His eyes aren't as good as mine, and he was afraid of that being the cause, but it was fair to say a different hood made it possible to see his weld puddle much better.

Good hoods aren't cheap, but maybe getting your eyes behind someone else's before committing could help a lot.

 

What TPI band saw blad do you guys prefer for general automotive fab?

 

My welds

 

Eh...automotive fab cause that could include stainless steel for exhaust work and stuff

You mean general metal fabrication or do you have a specific type metal you need to cut often?

I use 14/18tpi as I cut mostly mild steel, and some aluminum and stainless

 

Same. I use 18 t/I for everything.

If you doing sheetmetal cutting primarily, then 24 t/I blades would less likely grab and possibly distort the metal. Automotive body panels are very thin these days.

 

On another note, I sold another dino...but this time a welded one

The buyer? A semi-retired gentleman that was super cool in talking to. I say semi cause he just happens to own a welding store just some 20mins from me

He said it had been some years since he got really excited about anything welding; his dad is 98 so hard for him to do much even

Said I should swing on by his shop one day; if I own my welding bottles, he'll happily swap one for me on the house

 

Some tin snips or a plasma cutter for really thin stuff!

 

Anyone here have a Hypertherm Powermax 45 plasma cutter? Or running a torch that uses a T45 consumable set?

I'd like to buy an electrode or two (new) before committing to a set of 5 for $60+

 

Do you have a part number for those consumables?

 

220669

Only sold in packs of 5, like I said I would buy a whole pack but it's really to experiment with "pierce count"

I have a few packs from PrimeWeld, I have a pack from Plasmadyn, I'll be getting a pack from 'George' ebay shop (he posts a lot on the Langmuir site) and wanted to get 1 or 2 genuine Hypertherm electrodes

Wanted to record pictures with pierce count numbers as I run them each through many various cuts

 

I was curious if the Millers used similar 'trodes. Just checked mine. I use 204325.

Sorry, no help here.

 

Naw you're good.

Yeah Miller would have their own, just as Hypertherm does.

Only looking for a Hypertherm cause that's what my clone torch is knock-off of.

It'd just be nice to cure the itch I've got going - does it make sense to spend $60+ for 5 electrodes if an entire 20 piece set (with 6 electrodes, retaining cup, swirl rings, shielding cup) only costs $99? Or if I don't need all those extras, will this $30 set of 5 electrodes net me the same pierce count?

Just makes it easier in pricing out work as I include my consumable usage.

 

@Pyrotech

I'll do some playing with in figuring stuff out before I give you (and anyone that watches this thread) detailed post on what I've learned.

I ran my first test piece as a "business card" application



The experiment here was, something small with basic shapes but details that are close together



This is as basic as it can get before I dive into hatch fill and all that

I intend to learn how different tension affects the line work, not to mention speeds and how those two affect accuracy as well

 

A while back I posted a bike rack I made for a power wheels truck. You guys seemed to like it so here is the latest.

He keeps bending the steering linkage so I'm reinforcing it with 14g 3/4" square. I'm also making it 4wd.

 

I take that back, after assessing my torch mount I realized I had a tiny bit of play due to the eccentric bearings Langmuir uses.

Tightened up these nuts (11mm although really it'san SAE bolt) and the play is all gone -



The next run produced an accurate representation of my drawing -



Here are the two for comparison -



So @Pyrotech few things, you're building your own table so it's fair to say you won't run into any issues with 'loose' parts or assemblies. Mine was a simple fix, but it could be an issue for others on their tables.

The drawing used is one I drew myself. It is no different than anything I would cut out on plasma with the only difference being that I don't have to worry about "drops" so no need to bridge parts.

The only adjustments made in my CAM profile, and what worked for me is -

Instead of a cut height of 0.06", you need to use a negative value to keep your scriber against the metal

Instead of a pierce height of 0.15", you need a negative value (preferably matching that of your cut height)

On my first piece that came out messed up I had used a cut and pierce height of -0.1 and 50 ipm

I decided to add more tension (for a deeper score) so I went with a cut and pierce height of -0.2 but also increased my "cut" speed to 100ipm

Here's a video of that run -

https://youtu.be/rSJFAh1eLe8?si=NYanaRwv8cAEl4O_

 

Looking forward to your efforts.

An it is good to see you putting it to good use.

Is the vibration your picking up in the table causing any issues in the scribe line?