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Fabrication and Metalworking Get welding advice, discuss different alloys, share pictures of your first fabrication attempts, as well as welds you are especially proud of

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  #1  
Old 11-11-2003, 08:28 PM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Some folks just gotta tinker

One of them folks would be me.

Background-On Outer Limits, Jeff Weston managed to set his track bar free and I was given the opportunity to use his Ready Welder to make it behave again. I liked almost everything about it until I went to weld the inside of the bracket on the inner frame side and the spool area was drastically interferring with the steering linkage.

I then purchased a Ready Welder and without ever firing it up to see if it worked, set about modifying it to a more tight quarters friendly package.

I grabbed the welding whip off of my Miller 185, hacked it in half and set about adapting it to the drive mechanism of the RW.

I cut the RW up into pieces and mounted the various components into a Pelican case. I remounted the circuit board for the speed control on the drive mechanism into one end of the case. I then moved the dial SC into the handle of the Mig whip by unsoldering the potentiometer from the circuit board and using a PVC coupling and some creative drilling, now have it protected from accidental change while welding.

My thought was that a 5' whip like a regular Mig would work anywhere the RW would and be easier to use. We'll see.








Here are some down and dirty test welds to see if everything worked.

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  #2  
Old 11-11-2003, 08:55 PM
ChrisK ChrisK is offline
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Note to self:

Invent machine to suck the cool ideas and knowledge to do said cool ideas out of Blaine's head.



Nice work (as usual)

Chris
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  #3  
Old 11-11-2003, 08:59 PM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by ChrisK
Note to self:

Invent machine to suck the cool ideas and knowledge to do said cool ideas out of Blaine's head.



Nice work (as usual)

Chris
Thanks, most of my ideas are out of desperation anyway. I was really irritated when that spool of wire in the handle wouldn't let me get a good shot at the inside of that bracket.
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  #4  
Old 11-11-2003, 09:18 PM
ChrisK ChrisK is offline
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What about one of these?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39443

The spool is in the box.

DougB has one and they've used it several times for trail repairs.

Chris
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  #5  
Old 11-11-2003, 09:36 PM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by ChrisK
What about one of these?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39443

The spool is in the box.

DougB has one and they've used it several times for trail repairs.

Chris
The RW has almost a 100 percent duty cycle, about the same money but needs two batteries from two rigs to work, runs from .023 to .035 wire, and I was impressed with the one Jeff had. I was also after a pretty small package.
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  #6  
Old 11-11-2003, 10:50 PM
Jeff Weston Jeff Weston is offline
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I guess that means the warranty on the Readywelder is void, huh? That's a pretty slick setup you've got there and the greater ability to get in tighter spaces will be invaluable.

As for the Harbor Freight link to the other welder, its downsides to me are its weight (45#) and the fact that it has built in batteries. If they're anything like my cell battery, their ability to hold a charge will diminish in time. It lists the aboutput at @ 130 amps whereas the RW puts out somewhere near 250A with two hefty batteries.

Either way, any welder is better than no welder.
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Old 11-12-2003, 12:13 AM
Paradiddle Paradiddle is offline
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Blaine - don't ever try to check that on an airplane - I can imagine that conversation.....
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Old 11-12-2003, 12:53 AM
blkTJ blkTJ is offline
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nice work. If I knew how to weld I'd probably want one for myself.
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  #9  
Old 11-12-2003, 04:44 AM
Tumbleweed Tumbleweed is offline
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So----Where do I send my cc # to for one of those?
Very nicely done.
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  #10  
Old 11-12-2003, 04:53 AM
utahjeepr utahjeepr is offline
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What, no gas solenoid? Hook up to the CO2 bottle you carry in the Jeep.

Yeah, I know the wind is gonna be a problem. You'd still have to use flux core most of the time. BUT the ability to run MIG on the trailside would be cool.
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  #11  
Old 11-12-2003, 05:48 AM
02_WHITE_TJ_X 02_WHITE_TJ_X is offline
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Wow thats cool. How much are you going to charge me to convert mine? But I do need the gas to the handle because I use mine at home connected to a bottle.
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  #12  
Old 11-12-2003, 05:49 AM
bart bart is offline
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Sweet! I like my RW, but it is bulky.
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  #13  
Old 11-12-2003, 06:21 AM
Allen Allen is offline
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Thumbs up

Slick.....

That turned out nicer than I expected.

Well actually it didn't. I knew it'd be trick coming from you.

Allen
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  #14  
Old 11-12-2003, 06:35 AM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by utahjeepr
What, no gas solenoid? Hook up to the CO2 bottle you carry in the Jeep.

Yeah, I know the wind is gonna be a problem. You'd still have to use flux core most of the time. BUT the ability to run MIG on the trailside would be cool.
I'm not a huge fan of straight C02 Mig. The other thing is as you pointed out, the wind is a big problem out there.

If I get energetic, it still can be done. I didn't disable the gas mixture part of the set up.
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  #15  
Old 11-12-2003, 08:19 AM
Joe Dillard Joe Dillard is offline
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Question

Nicely done!

This may sound like a couple dumb questions, but I'm trying to learn a bit. Do you weld with the lid of the Pelican case open? Do the components inside warm up much while welding, even on quick jobs?

Do I smell a Patent around the corner?
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  #16  
Old 11-12-2003, 08:30 AM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Joe Dillard
Nicely done!

This may sound like a couple dumb questions, but I'm trying to learn a bit. Do you weld with the lid of the Pelican case open? Do the components inside warm up much while welding, even on quick jobs?

Do I smell a Patent around the corner?
The only heat generated would be from the little 540 sized drive motor on the drive wheels and then from the circuit board. Since all of those were previously enclosed in the original RW, I don't see and issue and I have further isolated the heat source from welding with the longer lead.

The small amount of welding I did caused no temperature rise. I guess that means you could weld with the lid closed. I did leave an option for a small cooling fan in the event it was needed.

If there were considerations of a patent, it would not be posted here.
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  #17  
Old 11-12-2003, 08:34 AM
TJRON TJRON is offline
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That's nice Blaine.
I haven't had a tight situation on the trail with mine yet but I do remember Jim B using a lot of rods to do the same track bar repair on my Jeep so he could reach up there.

What I had been thinking was adapting the welding whip to the snout of the spool gun. It might still all fit in compact Ready Welder case? What do you think?
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  #18  
Old 11-12-2003, 09:04 AM
Jeff Weston Jeff Weston is offline
Can I get a mint julep with that?
 
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Based on what the guy at RW told me, I don't think heat will be a concern for Blaine's setup. The original RW design had little vents on one side of the gun above the trigger. I guess they realized that heat wasn't a concern so they no longer have this vent on the new ones and they haven't had a single problem according to RW.

As a heads up for anybody considering a RW, the guy told me a few weeks ago that they are working on a revision which should be out sometime next year so that the gun is only hot when the trigger is pulled. I don't know if this mod will be solely on the circuit board (about $50 to replace) or if there will be other changes to the gun. Perhaps the current guns will be able to be adapted to the new setup?
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  #19  
Old 11-12-2003, 09:14 AM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jeff Weston
Based on what the guy at RW told me, I don't think heat will be a concern for Blaine's setup. The original RW design had little vents on one side of the gun above the trigger. I guess they realized that heat wasn't a concern so they no longer have this vent on the new ones and they haven't had a single problem according to RW.

As a heads up for anybody considering a RW, the guy told me a few weeks ago that they are working on a revision which should be out sometime next year so that the gun is only hot when the trigger is pulled. I don't know if this mod will be solely on the circuit board (about $50 to replace) or if there will be other changes to the gun. Perhaps the current guns will be able to be adapted to the new setup?
The circuit board doesn't handle the current to the welding tip, it's strictly a speed control for the motor. That's why it's hot all the time. What they will most likely be doing is adding a solenoid of some type in there that will shift power to the tip when you pull the trigger.
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  #20  
Old 11-12-2003, 09:19 AM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by TJRON
That's nice Blaine.
I haven't had a tight situation on the trail with mine yet but I do remember Jim B using a lot of rods to do the same track bar repair on my Jeep so he could reach up there.

What I had been thinking was adapting the welding whip to the snout of the spool gun. It might still all fit in compact Ready Welder case? What do you think?
You describe what I just did. I adapted the whip to the snout of the spool gun. If it's not removeable like mine is, you will ruin the whip by trying to roll it up that tight. The hard part is cutting up the whip to make the trigger on the mig whip run the spool gun.

The other issue is the drive assembly in the spool gun will only reliably feed the wire through about 6' of whip and that's with a modified Tweco .045 contact liner.
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  #21  
Old 11-12-2003, 12:11 PM
Scratch Scratch is offline
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Somebody needs to explain duty cycle to me. What does it mean and what does it mean on a practicle term?
I have one of those little 110 volt lincoln welders. It is great for the little things around the house and smaller things on the jeep. It does seem to weld worse and worse the longer I'm welding with it.
Does this have to do with the duty cycle?
Thanks
Bob
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  #22  
Old 11-12-2003, 12:50 PM
StealthTJ StealthTJ is offline
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Cool

The duty cycle, expressed in percent, like 30%, is usually based on a 10 minute use cycle.
A 30% duty cycle means that you can use it "only" 3 continous minutes, then it must cool for 7 minutes.




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  #23  
Old 11-15-2003, 05:28 PM
cbassett cbassett is offline
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That is a GREAT project Blaine! I happen to have a Pelican box in my garage, and thinking about picking up an RW next year... may have to explore this.

If you think about it, is there anything you'd do different?
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Old 11-15-2003, 06:38 PM
Overkill Overkill is offline
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Wow, that's just impressive... Hugely!
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  #25  
Old 11-15-2003, 08:46 PM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by cbassett
That is a GREAT project Blaine! I happen to have a Pelican box in my garage, and thinking about picking up an RW next year... may have to explore this.

If you think about it, is there anything you'd do different?
Yes, I'd do a couple of things differently. I'd adapt the MIG whip on so I didn't have to screw it in like a contact tip. I make a slip fit with a thumb screw. Just a little layout and machining is all it takes to make that happen.

I'd run a shorter whip, down to around 4' or so. I already have issues trying to roll mine up small enough to store easily without kinking it.

I'd get more creative and make a more robust drive system using a 12v stepper motor and the drive wheels out of a bigger MIG.

I'd add a 200 amp solenoid that closes when you pull the trigger to weld and put it on the power side to stop the tip from being hot all the time.

I'd change the two plugs on the side to only one. I only had 4 connector plugs and had to use two because I need 5 connections. That's three for the speed control and 2 for the trigger.

I'd redo the ground to be able to be coiled up in the lid. Easy to do.

Other than that, it's perfect.
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Old 11-15-2003, 08:48 PM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Overkill
Wow, that's just impressive... Hugely!
Thanks
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  #27  
Old 11-21-2003, 11:23 PM
NAILER341 NAILER341 is offline
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that is very nicely done!
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Old 05-16-2009, 07:58 PM
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  #29  
Old 05-29-2009, 08:01 PM
Retired Retired is offline
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I agree, the stock gun is bulky and hard to get in tight places.
I took a different approach -
I just made the tip a bunch longer. Simple!

I found a copper tip that was about 5" long at a welding shop - they had it on their parts shelf without a number - who knows what it was for. I had to thread the end so it'd screw in like the original one.
Then I used a hunk of copper tubing around it as a shield.
So far it's been able to reach in the tight places I've needed it to.

And I put the "cold switch" on it - it's a bulky box in the line, but I like it. If they put it in the gun that would be slick.
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  #30  
Old 05-29-2009, 08:09 PM
mrblaine mrblaine is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Retired View Post
I agree, the stock gun is bulky and hard to get in tight places.
I took a different approach -
I just made the tip a bunch longer. Simple!

I found a copper tip that was about 5" long at a welding shop - they had it on their parts shelf without a number - who knows what it was for. I had to thread the end so it'd screw in like the original one.
Then I used a hunk of copper tubing around it as a shield.
So far it's been able to reach in the tight places I've needed it to.

And I put the "cold switch" on it - it's a bulky box in the line, but I like it. If they put it in the gun that would be slick.
For the area that taught me that the gun was bulky, a longer tip would only make it worse. I was welding the stock track bar mount back on to the frame of a TJ in the front.
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