Found the perfect welder! #2

[ineed2fly]

From my experience pouring water on a weld will crack it...?

 

[oscaryu1]

Yeah that's what I thought...

Red hot sounds... dangerous

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Very dangerous, let it air cool, think 3 times before grabbing anything, just because it aint glowin dont mean its safe to grab.

 

[kibble]

Holy crap! This discussion is headed for #3 status!

 

[oscaryu1]

We're aiming for #9 status

Anyhow, how should I test or know when I have gotten a good weld?

What should the knob be at (for the wirefeed thing)? Thanks again!

 

[jr dragster T]

The wire feed is different for different thickness's of metel
And it is very precise. I have a lincoln electric MIG welder and some of the settings vary from 3 3/4 or 5 1/2 But your welder just has 2 heat settings. My lincoln has 10 heat settings and 10 wire feed settings after you learn to weld with flux core Maybe you can get into MIG. Once you ditch the flux core you will NEVER go back to it.

 

[risto]

 

[oscaryu1]

How much is a MIG? No I'm not buying it!

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

You can theoretically convert a flux core to mig with the bottle/reg and stuff found at a hardware store. just drill a hole in the tip/shield whatchamacarcass
stick some copper tubing in there (1/4" sounds about right, need around a foot (length of gun))
zip tie tube to gun
connect copper to 1/4" ID hose(need enough to run length of gun cable+3 feet)
zip tie tubing to cable
hook tube to reg
load proper wire
go welding

 

[AutoMX]

well when welding some decently thick metal, it's said that a half inch weld should be able to hold 500lb when pulled apart before breaking. not sure how useful that is to know. an easy way to check is to try to break the weld with whatever you got. if its supposed to hold you and you can break it with a hammer, the weld is no good.

also, the whole water thing is very questionable. putting hot metal in water is a way to harden the metal, especially if it was exposed to carbon like in coal. the harder a metal is, the more likely it is to crack under stress. if you're making drill bits, that fine, harder metal will last longer. if you're making a chassis or drivetrain/suspension components, you're gonna have parts that break under the stress of bumps and jumps.

so don't quickly cool down metal unless you need hardened metal for a specific reason. it also prevents warping the shape.

 

[oscaryu1]

What do most of yall have that wirefeed knob on?

 

[jr dragster T]

Here's some pics of my stuff. Excuse the mess in the garage/car.

 

[kibble]

What do most of yall have that wirefeed knob on?

There's not just one setting to have it on for all around use, it depends on what you're doing/trying to accomplish. You have to find a setting in that feeds the wire in just enough to not spatter all over the place. If it feeds too slow, you'll hear more like bzzz....bzzz.....bzzz....bzzz. You want a constant bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Should sound like bacon frying.

 

[risto]

Here's some pics of my stuff. Excuse the mess in the garage/car.

you are excused.

 

[oscaryu1]

Hmm... well we'll see. Next thursday, I'm bringing back a old one speed bike. What setting should I use?

On the helmet... there's also a knob on the side with numbers, and a slow-fast switch. What should these be on?

PS - This is a solar powered helmet, with 6V backup batteries...

 

[kibble]

Is this the helmet that HF sells?

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Hmm... well we'll see. Next thursday, I'm bringing back a old one speed bike. What setting should I use? Trial and error/good guessing

On the helmet... there's also a knob on the side with numbers, and a slow-fast switch. What should these be on? Probably how quick it darkens and how dark it gets.

PS - This is a solar powered helmet, with 6V backup batteries...

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