Setting up Shop Questions - from an NZ learner

[joco-nz]

Norman - As you have been around the block a bit, are these reference texts on model engines from Hemingway Kits worthwhile?
http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/Engine_Refences.html

Or are they just packaging up something that is readily available elsewhere?

Cheers,
James.

 

[goldstar31]

Basically, Yes and No! The texts may well be in a book form but probably will have appeared perhaps in Model Engineer in a series of articles. Westbury was, if you recall, the editor. Unless you have the Model Engineer issues, buying the book is the way to go.

Does this help, please?

 

[joco-nz]

Thanks Norman. Given how far back those articles might be it could well be easier to just buy the books. I'll have to have a hunt through the indexes. But Mr Westbury seems to have been pretty prolific over the years.

 

[goldstar31]

Thanks Norman. Given how far back those articles might be it could well be easier to just buy the books. I'll have to have a hunt through the indexes. But Mr Westbury seems to have been pretty prolific over the years.

happy to help but E.T.Westbury also wrote under a number of pen names as well.

I suspect that he was Artificer, Exactus, 'Ned' and you'll forgive me but I'm forgetting all or most.

What you had was what Shakespeare would have described as a 'Nest of Singing Birds' with Marshall House as the sort of head with ETW, Sparey, Chaddock, Thomas, Tubal Cain, Bradley and Hallows as themselves and as Duplex and of course, Curly Lawrence as LBSC. Again, your own Jack Radford and Thomas were mates with GHT going to visit JAR in NZ.
Probably there was Neville Shute Norway writing as Neville Shute and his Trustee from the Tool Room was obviously 'Ned' Westbury.

 

[joco-nz]

Got a new bimetal blade today, 18tpi, which seems to work well on the 3mm walled SHS I have been cutting. I'll get another blade for dealing with solid stock in the coming weeks.

But the I was right, new blade and I am back to cutting nice and straight. As an added precaution I have slowed the saw to its lowest setting. Hopefully the bimetal blade will do a lot better than the cheapie carbide one that came with the saw.

Cheers,
James.

 

[joco-nz]

Today managed to get by argoshield gas. Was a bit lucky as the local supplier who open in the weekend said they had none when I called. But on a hunch I headed on down anyway and got them to actually LOOK. Once people used their eyes we find a lonely D bottle of argoshield in a corner shelf.

So, a MIG welding we will go!

Was going ok, but dang, couldnt see anything. Was I doing something wrong? I muddled through for a bit but really doing beads blind.

I happened to have bought a cigweld helemt for by son so he could learn with me. I tried it. OH GOD, was like night and day, I could see EVERYTHING. :thumbup: SO much easier to weld, beads started to look like what I saw people doing on videos. Well sometimes they did. I have a bit of a consistency issue. To be expected I guess after only have a max of 15mins actualy continuous MIG weld time.

What was wrong with my helmet? Ok, hand up for the blonde moment.
I pulled all the lenses off my helmet and noticed I had missed taking one of the protetcive films off the inside lens! IDIOT. :wall: :rant: oh:

So, lets just say I fixed this little issue, tried some more welds and enjoyed the fact I could see what the >>favourate expletive<< was going on.

I'm sure there's a moral to this story but I'm not feeling particulary qualified tonight to identify it.

Cheers,
"Embarrased".

 

[Blogwitch]

Don't assume, check!!!

No need to be embarrassed, we ALL make mistakes like this, unless of course you are the one who can walk on water.

I made the same sort of mistake with my auto darkening mask, I had the dial settings wrong, couldn't see a thing. Didn't make much difference though, I still couldn't get a decent run out of it. I was given my MIG welder by a chap who won it in a raffle, and all the bits to go with it, all brand new. No destructions came with it and couldn't get the correct manual anywhere, so don't know how to set it up correctly, so I have gone back to stick welding, much better now.

John

 

[Dalee]

Don't assume, check!!!

No destructions came with it and couldn't get the correct manual anywhere, so don't know how to set it up correctly, so I have gone back to stick welding, much better now.

John

Hi,

Yep, made many, many such mistakes in the past. And I'm pretty sure I've got a bunch I need to make yet!

For your Mig, just plug it in, turn it on, and use. The amperages and wire feed speeds are quite variable.

Generally speaking, the higher the amperage, the faster your wire speed needs to be. If you burn through, turn down the heat. Then listen to the arc to set wire speed. It needs to sound like frying bacon. Play until happy.

Dalee

 

[joco-nz]

YouTuber ChuckE2009 has some good videos on how to mig wel, including other processes. I've found them to be rather useful, others might as well.

 

[grapegro]

Hello James,
The photos of my DRO should be attached. Cost was around A$460 and delivery about 3 days. All manuals and fitting instructions included. Could not ask for better service, equipment or operation.

 

[Blogwitch]

Hi,

For your Mig, just plug it in, turn it on, and use. The amperages and wire feed speeds are quite variable.

Generally speaking, the higher the amperage, the faster your wire speed needs to be. If you burn through, turn down the heat. Then listen to the arc to set wire speed. It needs to sound like frying bacon. Play until happy.

Dalee

Don't get me wrong D, I have welded with it, I made up a tow bar for my mobility scooter, but not up to the quality I can obtain with gas or stick. I did 2 years of night classes at college to get those under my belt.
I think the main cause of the problem was the fact I was using the supplied gasless wire, and it spattered everywhere.
I do very little welding nowadays, so it would not be a viable proposition for me to get it fitted out with a large gas bottle when I can just get hold of a few rods and weld away with certainty.

Thanks anyway for the tips

John

 

[joco-nz]

Hello James,
The photos of my DRO should be attached. Cost was around A$460 and delivery about 3 days. All manuals and fitting instructions included. Could not ask for better service, equipment or operation.

Nice looking setup. I'm still keen on the BF20LV which is likely to be procured in the next 2 weeks. Given one of the local suppliers has it on sale until the 17th Sept.

While I recognise the need to learn how to use the dials I like the the idea of the DRO setup and how it will help me deal with backlash. Something I need to plan aroudnd when usin dials. So ... where did you source the DRO kit from?

Cheers,
James.

 

[joco-nz]

Some good progress on the desk framing this weekend, especially after getting my MIG welding operational. Some gratuitous pics :thumbup:

The two side frames. One will house an ATX computer case (mid tower size) and the other provides the support for the other side of the desk. I need to add a bracing bracket at the top so it has side support.


Just a collection of MIG welds from the frames. Getting better but still a lot of learning/practice to go.






Aftert this weekend I am REALLY keen to get the lathe and mill. Just so much fun making sparks and working metal. Even got my teenage son out to watch some welding and explain what was happening. He was very interested and can't wait to have a go. I can see us building our first wobblers in tandem once the machines are purchased.

Cheers,
James.

 

[DJP]

Just curious.... did you win a lottery and retire? You obviously get bored easily and need more new things to stimulate interest.

This is not a bad thing as I see too many people wasting their 'bored' time which is when creativity happens.

The best part of this hobby is the confidence to make parts and more parts in support of any new idea. That's the best and something that you need to pass along to your children and grandchildren. I recently started our 12 year old grandson with stick welding and his older sister can run the lathe and mill. These are skills that not a lot of kids in their generation will ever have. My mission to to make them self-sufficient and self-confident.

 

[bazmak]

Welding looks.Take that from a welder

 

[DJP]

A suggestion for your consideration as it appears that you are welding in your garage/shop. Be sure that the big doors are open and there is a cross breeze to remove fumes. Better still, weld outdoors or install a blower to extract the welding fumes quickly. The professional welders that I know developed lung problems later in life so I worry about fumes even for occasional welding.

Welding galvanized steel creates a yellow smoke that I am sure is bad. Painted steel also creates toxic fumes which could be epoxy based.

You are working with clean steel and this is best but many of my projects involve a visit to the scrap yard where any available material of the right size gets carried home.

It's a small thing but by simply moving outdoors you will be much better off.

 

[joco-nz]

Just curious.... did you win a lottery and retire? You obviously get bored easily and need more new things to stimulate interest.

This is not a bad thing as I see too many people wasting their 'bored' time which is when creativity happens.

The best part of this hobby is the confidence to make parts and more parts in support of any new idea. That's the best and something that you need to pass along to your children and grandchildren. I recently started our 12 year old grandson with stick welding and his older sister can run the lathe and mill. These are skills that not a lot of kids in their generation will ever have. My mission to to make them self-sufficient and self-confident.

Lottery/Retire - I WISH. Nah, I set aside the bonus I got from work last year as my "metalworking shop setup fund". It's enough to get me a (smallish) lathe, mill and a base set of tools. This whole thing is about sanity management as much as it is about the fun of creating. I fundamentally like to make/create things and I now spend all my time at work dealing with people and not creating/making. The other driver (similar to you) is to get my son involved in something "real" beyond all the bits and bytes they now seem to live in.

 

[joco-nz]

A suggestion for your consideration as it appears that you are welding in your garage/shop. Be sure that the big doors are open and there is a cross breeze to remove fumes. Better still, weld outdoors or install a blower to extract the welding fumes quickly. The professional welders that I know developed lung problems later in life so I worry about fumes even for occasional welding.

Welding galvanized steel creates a yellow smoke that I am sure is bad. Painted steel also creates toxic fumes which could be epoxy based.

You are working with clean steel and this is best but many of my projects involve a visit to the scrap yard where any available material of the right size gets carried home.

It's a small thing but by simply moving outdoors you will be much better off.

When stick welding - hell yes. I had doors open after each weld, gas-mask on. Fortunately my garage is not fully lined (no roof panels) so there is always good air circulation. But when stick welding definitely need something more. The MIG didn't seem to be so bad. Sod all smoke. But my standard pattern has been to weld a bit with doors down to protect passers by, then lift the doors to circulate air while I clean up and setup for the next set of welding.

Re galvanized and zinc coated - that stuff is evil. Everything I had read and listened to leads me to stay way from that stuff at all costs. IF I need to do anything with that material (e.g. weld some big fat nuts and bolts as part of a height adjustment system) it will be stick welding, outside, with gas mask on, and a portable fan (one of those column/stand jobs) setup to blow the fumes away from me. :hDe:

 

[joco-nz]

Welding looks.Take that from a welder

Gosh I hope that's a missing "OK" not something like "rubbish". scratch.gif

 

[bazmak]

Missing word is great.Keyboard seems to play up
For the amount of welding you do a large shed will have adequate ventilation
With regards to galv.Yes it is bad the white floating particles are toxic
Spent many years visiting Doctors with flu like symptoms and bad sore throats
till I found out it was toxic welding fumes from galv.Only weld galv when necessary and outdoors.Same as silver soldering with cadmium fumes
For a day job its BAD but for the home handyman its not as dangerous as it is often made out to be.Again your welding is improving in heaps and bounds
cant get it from a book,its practice