Ask your WELDING questions here.

I ran into the same things a while ago. MrsDonkeys was unwilling to let me buy a Northern Tool special, and insist we take a trip to the welding shop for a proper helmet. It seems she values my eyes a little more than I do.

I don't really "weld". I am a hobbyist, and I do it for fun, and some necessity. I only pull the welder out of the garage a few times a month, so I struggled with spending a lot of money on a helmet. I ended up with the Miller Digital Performance Series. The comfort and larger viewing area have proved to be worth the extra money. I've noticed that I tend to play a little more now I've got something more comfortable on my head, and I get a little less frustrated with visibility issues. I think I walked out for around $200 all said and done. I've been happy with it, and would buy another in a heartbeat.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/welding_protection/head_face/helmets/performance/

Also a hobbyist - this is the helmet I use most: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200416894_200416894

It came with a cover/bag and allows using diopter lenses. The 1.75x is nice and allows a good view. The second switch time and viewing area is what separates the expensive from not-so-expensive helmets all other features the same (i.e. you are paying for less eye strain and a better view). If I welded much or considered myself a welder, I would upgrade the helmet to a faster switch time. My helmet has a 1/25000 sec (40 microsecond) switch time and a Jackson pro helmet has a 0.15 microsecond time.

I have a few harbor freight helmets with adjustable shade. Good units. They do not work for TIG, they flicker.
Small window, good price. Daily I use a miller elite.

David

My $.02:
O-A and O-H alu welding is still used today, but only for non-structural projects and I've only heard of it being used on sheet alu.

O-H burns at a lower temp (closer to the melting point of alu) so it's easier to manage than O-A when working with alu.

You said you have experience brazing, why don't you braze the piece? You are likely to get much better penetration with less of a chance of warping the tube.

Also, why are there so many people hating on this man's project? If the brake fails he's always got the rear to fall back on (no pun intended ).

Alright.... TIG welder question.

I'm to the point in my aluminum melting that I think I could do a lot better job if I had a foot control for my welder. Unfortunately, I see no way to adapt my welder to be able to hook up a foot pedal... So if I were to keep my eyes peeled for a used TIG welder, what would y'all recommend? It needs to be able to weld THIN aluminum, and be on the cheaper side for a TIG welder. Thinking of maybe selling my current set up (keep the tank, regulator, and maybe torch and leads?) and use some tax money to fund a nicer machine.

A quick perusal of KSL and Craigslist show a few used Millers- 180SD, 200 syncrowave, and a few other misc brands, all ranging from between $1,000 to $3,000 depending on what all comes with it.

Here is my current setup:

I am pretty sure you can't braze aluminum.

"If the brake fails" <~~~~~~~~~ Those words are not in my vocabulary.

David

I originally thought the tangs were structural. Upon more evaluation, I realize the tangs stop the pads from spinning on the disc but do not take the load from stopping the disc. I am still considering the HTS/alumaweld/alumaloy aluminum-zinc path.

If both the upper and lower tang break, the pad will spin but still stay with the caliper and on the disc. There is also the original left side disc brake and the rear brake as mentioned. However, the hydraulics changes will affect the original brakes. So, there is some risk in this mod.

year 1976 on a 1969 (?) bridgestone 175 street scrambler. 2 stroke rotary valve 2 cylinder bike.

Drum brakes. There is a link from the fork to the backing plate so the shoes don't spin around.

The link broke. The backing plate rotates in the direction to pull the cable tight. I went on my Azz!

Another time on a Yamaha RD350 I ha been working on it. The front axle slid partway out at 50+ mph causing
the rotor to lock up in the caliper from misalignment. I went on my azz. The skid mark was less than 2 feet long from riding
to sliding. Please don't mess with your front brakes.

:)

Cheers, that looks like a good one & they even ship to NZ for a reasonable rate. My initial look around locally didn't find much available in between the ~NZ$100 cheapys & the $500+ pro stuff.

Cheers
Clint

I see where you're going here.
Let him make a bad decision and if he survives the wreck he won't be nearly as apt to wanna try some stupid modification to the safty equipment again.

A while back I posted a request for opinions of some of the newer inverter welders because I was trying to decide between one of those and an old miller 300. yesterday I stole the welder below for $850. It came with 75' of stinger, 75' of ground lead with a heavy cast clamp, a foot pedal with 20' of cord and a Weld craft wp20 torch with 25' of cable, a water recirculation tank and a full argon cylinder with a low flow regulator. Hopefully I will have it off the trailer tomorrow and have a 50 amp outlet for it by the end of the weekend.

For those not familiar this is a Miller 330A/BP and it will put out 465 amps. They were initially made by Airco in the early 1950's and changed very little over the next 30 years. This partuicular welder was purchased new in 1983 and has not been used for the past 10 years. the inside looks nearly new and still has that new car smell.

Enjoy your new machine. My water cooler for the tig torch cost that much.

Pictures of welds please.

David

Sure, I see your point. There are used and new right fork lowers with ATE brake castings out there. Aside from the tangs, the fork lower needs to be drilled and reamed for a 20 mm axle. I will think about this some more as it is neither urgent or mandatory.

Nice machine, Redprimo.

The 330AB/P is a beast, and cosmetically, at least, yours looks sweet. (Not that there's much you can do to harm those big xformer machines...)

I run a Sync 250 but if I had $850 lying around all lonely and unloved, I'd grab a machine like that in a heartbeat.

Best of luck with it.

(I suspect you already know this, but you'll need a lot more than 50A if you want to run that monster wide-open!)

No worries about the 50A outlet. The torch I have is only rated for 250A but more importantly what I will be fabricating with will be mostly 1/8" or less mild steel. I opted for the big old beast mostly due to such a low price for a plug and play set up with a water cooled torch.

Yesterday I got the +800lb welder off the trailer and moved into its new home, no easy task but not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I hooked up the regulator to the tank that came with it and it looks like I've got 1,400 psi of argon.

Every day you don't use a new tig welder is a sin. Show us some pics.

David

Here's a question I've been working on:

Would a hobbyist be better off going with Tig so he could weld anything or would a wire feed set up for steel & aluminum be better?

This popped up on CL today, I've seen it before too:
http://eugene.craigslist.org/tls/3610999670.html

If the ad is gone here's the text:

175 AMP POWER SUPPLY 208/230 volt single phase, 2 owned 282cu ft tanks-one steel mix- the other argon mix (aluminum)
Has built in steel mig with 20' lead & gun, and 50' leads with spool gun. (lincoln) with aluminum wire (.030) 4043. 50 foot power cord.
selling because closed shop! works great ! $700.00 FIRM.



I don't have any set projects in store for it. I borrow a friend's Miller 135 wire feed when I need to do any welding but it's proven too light duty for some horse trailer repairs I've had to do.

I don't have any aluminum projects lined out but after seeing Kirkster's panniers I kind of want to make some

I would suggest you think about what types of projects are in your future and if they're mostly steel, go with MIG; if they're mostly Alu, go with TIG. If you don't have any TIG experience and you buy a TIG machine to do all your steel and alu projects, you are looking at a steep learning curve that might really inhibit your ability to complete projects.

The nice thing about many or most TIG machines is that you can also stick weld with them, so you effectively get two machines in one.

If you want to weld aluminum with a TIG, be sure to get one with AC.

man, I'm late to the game, but they did make and I have run into 7" pipe.

We were able to special order a hunk and a fitting. It was about 10 years ago. If I can remember it was schedule 40 and was normal wall thickness, so 7 5/8" OD?