Anything welding

you guys are the best!
I mean that. Been way too long since I checked out this thread. Was about 40 pages behind, but it was a joy to read them.
some really great stuff in here! CNC Tables, Belt Sanders, Taco Parts

some recent stuff I've been up to

fabbed up a mount for the winch on/off switch out of scrap 16ga.






and making some sliders for some friends in the NSBS thread




I'm starting to hit the thermal shutdown on my welder a little too often.... ( Lincoln Migpak 140 )
might be time for an upgrade soon....

 

I have always wanted a set of dimple dies. even though I never really NEEDED a set. After I bought my 3d printer, an I got comfortable with it, I started looking into some "exotic" filaments. I came across some Carbon Fiber Nylon. It is then I had an idea, why not print a set of dimple dies.

I played around with a design and printed a 2" dimple die, and it worked, although I was not happy with the appearance of the print or the dimple it made.

So I kept messing around and I came up with a design (ie google image search ...) I drew up a 3/4" die set and ran a print. Of course when it came time to test the die, I wanted to do something that could be somewhat useful. So I came up with a a pair of 6" dice faces. one with a 5 and one with a 2.




You can see below the fairly even dimple






The die after doing 7 holes.. you can see some slight wear at the point where the pilot section and the start of the dimple meet





If I increase the fillet size at that location I suspect it may hold up better. but for casual use, and for something made of plastic I am very please with results, total print time for this die was about 9 hours.

 

Nice work. Holding to .0625 tolerance is noteworthy on sliders.
Zim

 

That's awesome, I love seeing 3d printing being mixed into fabrication stuff.

 

Boss bought a harbor freight tube roller and the swag offroad kit to beef it up and make it electric driven with the pipe threader.

put that all together today and did a quick test on a piece of 1” round tube

 

That’s going to be my next purchase once they release another coupon.

 

Looking good.

I messed mine up when I installed the wings. I was in such a hurry to weld it I didn’t make sure all the pins sat perfectly level to each other. It made trying to keep your bends straight even harder than it already is with everything done right. I ended up buying pre cut sides to replace it.

 

I’m probably gonna pick one up too now that I see how well it works haha. Don’t really need to roll a lot of tube but it’s America and I want one

Thanks dude. Haha I wanted to bang it out quick but I decided to watch the video on YouTube of how to put it together and I made sure to watch each step, pause, weld the piece, watch the next step, pause, weld the next piece, and so on haha. So it wasn’t too bad! I love swag offroad. They make some awesome stuff

 

Thanks... the idea of 3d printed tooling is something I find to be an amazing leap for the home shop. I am tempted to try that printed die on some 1/8 mild steel just to see of it will survive.

I am going to try embossing a custom "license plate" next

 

Someone tell me why I shouldn’t buy a HF titanium 170 mig! It’s on sale this week for $520 and I plan on buying it with my credit card which will extend the warranty 3 extra years.

Planning on doing minor garage work and some cmc’s, weld on rock sliders for friends. Have the flux core 140 now and plan on selling it. Definitely going gas route and have 240 outlet in garage. Trying not to spend over $750

 

I love mine so far. I think it’s a pretty good unit for the money.

 

I've checked these out closely. The build quality is very nice! I really can't see how a hobbyist would be able to wear one of these out.

You better make up your mind quick, because I bet there is 10 other guys about to swoop one up.

 

I had bought 1 because my MIG machine at the time was 220 and too heavy. A job came up that had to be on site and only 110v available.

Went and bought the Harbor Freight to knock out the job quickly. Paid something in the $400’s for it , job was $2300 and finished in 2 hours lol. So yes it was worth it for that.

HOWEVER - the gun feels very flimsy. My ground clamp messed up pretty quickly, a lot of the machine is not very heavy duty. Mine with below moderate use it wasn’t holding up that well.

It welds great I will say that. Just not built to last forever.

Me personally I would wait and opt for a different machine like this

https://www.weldingsuppliesfromioc....unAA1dzAdAzamKofjRMvTdscsSJXhEQwaAuZSEALw_wcB

I have a fabrication shop. If you’re in Houston I can show you some of my toys. Not for sale just for reference.

 

Appreicate the comments and have been looking at the miller’s but do have one question… Do these units ever go on sale? I can hold off until Black Friday.

 

If you're looking at Miller, look at Hobart as well. Miller owns Hobart, or maybe it's the other way around. Either way they're basically the same machines in different skins.

 

I haven’t seen Miller do many sales… I waited about 6 months for them to post something about a sale and nothing. Finally just pulled the trigger

some of the welding websites have promotions on free items or money back if you spend over “X” amount, or with the purchase of a machine

 

Did the titanium have some outrageously long post flow. I had a migmax 215 for a backup. As you stated it welded surprisingly good, but didn’t feel like something that would last long for someone who would be using it for more than an hour here or there. The post flow ultimately killed it for me so I gave it to a buddy. Gonna have to pick up a 211 for a backup

 

On sale no but here n there they have rebates.

 

Yes it does have a long post flow which I don’t understand the use for a machine like it.

Currently we’re using Miller Multimatic 215 for all mig jobs, smooth like butter. I’m gonna be adding the Miller 255 strictly for aluminum mig work with the alumapro.

Definitely don’t need to spend on the most expensive ones. We had a tiny Miller 140 when I started the company and it never let us down.