Welder and Fabrication Techniques 101

[RacerDan]

Dave, the sun deal worked. I set it on the hood of my truck for about 30 minutes before I started welding and it was way better.

[geofffinlay]

Did I miss a post from Dave? I see an answer to Racer Dan (I'll keep it in mind too), but not the post between page 1 & 2

Geoff

[RacerDan]

HUH?????

[horizenjob]

The manual with my auto darkening visor recommends an hour of direct sun or a nearby 100 watt bulb before use...

[Off Road SHO]

Geoff,

Yes the hinged flap works very well. Most guys that do it in the offroad world just cut a 1" high by 3" long slot in the bottom of the baffle(s) and cover them with swinging doors that are a little taller and longer on the oil pick-up side of the baffle. As soon as your sideways G force is greater than the oil wanting to get back to the pickup area, the flap closes on that side only, thereby keeping the oil from sliding out.

The fresnel lens can be had at the welding supply house, and it is already cut to fit the old style welding helmets and cutting goggles. My newer Miller Auto Darkening has a larger lens but I am sure they make a cheater lens for it also. I just use my reading glasses now; much cheaper.

Tom

[geofffinlay]

Tom,
Do you know of a picture of the hinge setup? Also sorry to be such a dunce. Is the Fresnel lens a replacement for reading glasses?

Geoff

[Off Road SHO]

Geoff,

Yes, if you get a Fresnel (pronounced Fra-nel') lens, you don't need the reading glasses.

I'll try and dig up a pic of a flapper plate.

Tom

[geofffinlay]

Thanks again Tom,
The engine is sat on the floor of my garage and I'm working on the pan-shortening stuff. Obviously, I'd like to include the "flapper plate" into the process.

I'm quite comfy using reading glasses, but I'll look into the Fresnel Lens next time I'm at a welding supply house. Isn't it amazing the little holes we find in our knowledge banks? Some of the "specific" info I've picked up on this site would be so difficult to find elsewhere.

One of my favourite expressions to my sons as they've grown has been: "you don't know what you don't know". I try to remember it as I continue to grow too.

Geoff

[knickly]

The fresnel lens can be had at the welding supply house, and it is already cut to fit the old style welding helmets and cutting goggles. My newer Miller Auto Darkening has a larger lens but I am sure they make a cheater lens for it also. I just use my reading glasses now; much cheaper.

Tom

From what I've seen, they only have the smaller lenses. You can, however, mount them in the helmets with the large lenses. Primarily, you will look out of the area that the lens covers; the rest is mostly to see where you're going (though the change in focus could be bad if you look there).

[Racer46]

I bought some cheap WalMart reading glasses and wear them under my helmet. I think I got a 3 pack for $10.

[mgbgtn]

One tip my instructer taught me at aircraft structural school was to drill a small .125 inch hole between tubes to allow heated air to escape otherwise you can not seal the weld because the heated air expands and will blow through the last bit of the weld. Another reason is to allow you to fill the tubes with boild linseed oil from a fitting in the lowest tube until it comes out a hole in the top most tube. You then roll the tube around to fully coat the inside of the frame and then drain the oil out of the frame. The BOILED linsead oil dries on the inside of the frame and helps to reduce corrosion caused by condensation. This is what they used to do in tube frame aircraft years ago.

[horizenjob]

I think the linseed oil is a good idea and worth making an effort for. You would need holes between tubes, maybe bigger then the .125", I don't know.

Rust from the inside does happen and I have heard water running inside a frame when it was tilted...

[colvindesign]

Why should Flux Cored welders be avoided?

[geofffinlay]

Gentlemen,
It's been a while since I got back to the build and I thought I'd report in. I did pick up a 500 watt work light which was on sale at Loews who were in the process of changing lines. I got it at half price.... score!

Regardless of the position, I couldn't use it in concert with my auto-darkening helmet as the helmet would insist on being dark whenever the work light was on.

I had a small 12 volt on/off pressure switch from a machine I had previously designed and a low-pressure air foot pedal to operate it. I also had a 12/110v relay and a 12v transformer and combined the group to operate the work light with my foot. (If I had a 110v relay I would have used it, but this was a truly Locost project.... I also had the 110v ac outlet and an old box to put the mess in.)

As the arc began I could press the foot switch and have the additional 500 watts concentrated in the weld area (6" from it), and I could see what I was doing. Tonight I did some of the best, neatest, straightest welds I've EVER done. I even went down the same weld twice and joined the two beads to strengthen a sharp bend I'd made in a bracket. It looks like someone else did it.

Geoff

[dhempy]

I was doing a bunch of sanding and grinding on my wife's scooter last night, prepping for paint. Found a tiny little crack, so I grabbed the welder. Flipped down my face shield, pulled the trigger, and realized in 0.010 seconds that I was still wearing my clear face shield, not my welding mask.

-dave " " hempy