Anything welding

Have you considered hoisting the seldom used ones up to the ceiling? I have 11 foot ceilings in my garage and it's been such a valuable use of space with various hanging racks and hoists. Even with a not so tall ceiling, you can get some good use out of it.

 

I haven't thought about that

Hmm, but then they'd sit over the fridge/entryway from the house to the garage

That and I've got an overhead sprinkler system in case of fire so that'll be interesting

 

it's always been the plan-- i knew the lesson from puddin's fab shop on youtube--he always ran out right at the wrong time as well. i knew i was going to be close when i started that morning, and the tank shop was open 'till noon, but i couldn't pass on returning a half-full tank.. when i was originally looking at somewhere near an $800 in initial cost only in tanks and initial fill was a big pill to swallow, which was why i just went with one tank for now and keep the flux core spools as backup. i fully trust it'll hold, the flux just burns different and takes more prep later to prime/paint.

that's a really good idea. i'll have to look into that. enough to finish things off, but not so much cash outlay for a full size tank!

 

Fuuuuuuuuck $800?

Yeah well aware of flux! I only like running dual shield flux, but god damn why so expensive

But like you said I too wouldn't swap out a half tank full, you'd just be throwing away gas

 

Why are the axles so far back?

 

If you ever run flux core and don't use anti spatter spray, go onto Amazon and grab a couple cans right now, and thank me later

 

Think the rearmost axle is just to prop the frame up

 

yeah, it works out to about $350 for the tank, and then about $30-45 for the co2/argon mig mix.

this is just an empty tank:
https://www.northerntool.com/produc...4OiCHQP4rzc4xJiXTE3s-8WiW6UCIwAGBym0n-p3ryjHg

i had priced out a few different local welding shop places, and they were all roughly the same-- some money could be saved going to more specialty shops, but none of those are open on saturdays, or have later business hours that i could get to without taking off work, which entirely negates any amount of savings to me.

and there's also the refill factor--it's a gray area about buying my own tanks-- some places might refill them, they might not--no one's required to refill a tank they didn't supply. a major factor is that i'm also not a high volume user by any means, so from a business perspective, no place has a lot of motivation to do me a favor to refill and turn a profit on the gas. by buying/exchanging the tank through the same place, i at least solve the supply consistency problem.

really, the whole process of getting into mig welding has been a very sobering experience to the amount of money literally just sitting around in even the most backwoods redneck garages. equipment and setup costs, assuming power is already ran to the garage, are easily $2k-5k minimum for capabilities to 1/4" thickness...

 

Damn dude

This thread has has taught me that a lot of you guys pay more for steel than us here in the west coast, but bottles too?

A 150cf tank here runs you about $350, before tax

Gets put under your name, and it's yours in their system

However, you can sell it and the new owner gets it put in their name

Get it refilled at any mom and pop store too if you want, or exchange it with the outfitter that sold it to you; the benefit is that the gas exchanges are cheap and you never worry about a hydrotest fee/expiration

That same shop I bought bottles from will take in any bottle for an exchange

I had an 80cf tank expired from the 90s, exchanged it and got a current one with gas and the only added expense was a hydrotest fee (40) since mine was super old; that same bottle new from them would've been about $170 give or take before tax

You need to find another shop for sure! Although being open on a Sunday until 12pm is a nice perk for you guys

 

@soundman98 move out to CA, it's cheap out here!

 

i missed your quote earlier.

the axle held by c-clamps is in rough position--that's the rear-most axle. the axle behind it is loose, but will go in front of it later on. trailer is 144" long, making the load center at 72". center point between axles is about 86", making for a roughly 1/3 weight distribution.

and while normally i can't remember any numbers, i only know all the measurements because most of my friday off was planning out axle locations to keep as much weight on the trailer axle, while also maintaining adequate loading on the hitch point.

i'll also be able to bias that distribution either way later on with the suspension airbags, pressurizing/loading the front or rear axle more or less to deal with the load i'm carrying. and because i'll have a winch on the trailer, the plan is to add a pully or fairlead over each axle so i can make a tag axle out of either axle if i either don't need them, or run into wheel/bearing issues.

 

lol, maybe i should just visit for the welding supplies! my property taxes are only $2500, and it only costs about $250(and dropping with age) to register both my vehicles...

i've got a working theory that we all pay roughly the same overall for staying alive and participating in our hobbies, only the distribution between specifics is drastically different.

though the steel costs have been surprising-- they make most of it within 40 miles of me.

 

I was lucky I was passed down tanks my dad bought when I was born. I also bought some 250cf slick neck O2 cylinders at auction back in my 20s. I traded one in for Argon when bought my Tig machine. Dads old 150cf O2 tank got traded in for C25 and the other O2 the local shop would not trade it in. They claimed the company was still in business in Wyoming. When it was actually a company in Rockford IL that closed down there gas divison. Airgas later bought there inventory. The rep I spoke to at the company confirmed the tank was customer owned an said airgas was required to exchange the tank. Tank was out of date so had to pay the hydrotest fee. I wanted to swap the big tank for c25 but they only had 120s they said they would swap thr big tank for with $0 cost out the door. But I was not about to give up a customer own 250cf tank. So that is why the small tank is C25 now

 

Speaking of inert gases



Ran out of co2 in the aquarium; I'll get the 20oz filled up for free one of these days

The disposables are a back up but last 3 weeks 3 days per tank

 

What does an aquarium use CO2 for?

 

Plants

Many plants in the trade start off as "emersed" meaning, roots underwater and plants themselves grown above water

In the natural world, many plants do begin life underwater, but in the trade, you're far more successful growing them emersed to sell

Emersed, or any above ground plants have an infinite supply of co2

When entered into a submerged state, their structure changes to adapt to their new environment thus they take up far less co2 since it isn't as available

This means slower growth, and less nutrient intake, not to mention the possibility of algae growth if the tank is exposed to too much light; not having co2 means it's easier to have an imbalance within your tank

Injecting co2 directly into a tank allows for much better nutrient intake, longer (and better) periods of photosynthesis, and well...exponential growth

During natural cycling in a tank, nitrates are the end of result of nitrifying bacteria handling both ammonia and nitrites created inside the tank (whether it's hormonal secretion, fish waste, excess foods, etc)

Plants take up nitrates which, at high levels, can be fatal to fish

In many tanks, people conduct water changes each week to decrease what would be say...40-80ppm of nitrates

In my well-stocked but well-planted tank, I have a total of 5ppm of nitrates (ridiculously low) at the end of each week just before a water change

That's because my plants grow like crazy due to co2

These are just the floaters themselves



The tank (with that sign I made here some weeks back)

 

To add, here is an anubias which is an extremely slow growing plant

This was shortly after adding it to my tank; "melting" and yellowing of leaves as expected...most fell off shortly after



Fast forward two months later and it is bright green, having grown most of its leaves back and more

 

Been too busy to make many signs lately. Did cut this one yesterday. Future owner is going to paint it to match his Bee. He has a one family owned, green, 69 like this one:



I did simplify the bee drawing to help prevent any cutting errors, but it's decent. The plate with the "Super Bee" cutout and the bee itself were really heavy with mill scale. This pic is after only wiping surface with a rag. That concentrated vinegar bath overnight really does the job.

 

Been busy with other stuff which, I'll post about later once it's started

However, someone from the FB group was having problems with small holes on 16 gauge material

I normally do .35" and larger holes on plasma, and on thicker metal, but this person needed to do .25" diameter so I figured why not run a test for him



The result, which wasn't bad at all



Only to find out, he couldn't "get it to show up"

Should've lead with that as it's clearly a linking constraint issue if I assume he means in his post processing setup

 

found this page earlier, it explains some of the blue print symbols for welding. along with some other interesting stuff

https://engineersbible.com/types-of-welds/