Hi, Vic, I haven't worked since July. One of the issues I'm having is crippling fatigue. It comes in cycles, every 6-10 days, and can last 1-3 days. In between, I can become almost manic. One thing I suspect, that my GP dismissed out of hand, is a pheocromocytoma. It's a little tumor that grows on o...

MFleet, I'm going to throw a couple of ideas at you that are really obvious. Obvious enough to be missed. I'm going to ignore the eye color and go straight where I'd have gone if you hadn't mentioned it. What color shirt do you wear when you weld? Light colored shirts reflect more light (and UV) int...

I'll admit to being a little self-absorbed with health issues. Not just my own. My wife and I now live with her sister and our brother-in-law. I'm now the least crippled person in the house. It works out well enough, as these people are family before they are in-laws. They see to all our needs as we...

It's been a year and a half since anyone discussed the podcast on this thread?

Damn!

Steve

First thing I'd try is polishing the electrodes. I'll remove them, chuck them one at a time in a good drill press (a mill is better) and run them against a fine flat grinding stone. This knocks off all the tiny arc marks and lets you start with fresh metal. Then reinstall, rinse with electrical cont...

If it is welded with 308, this is a ferrite-bearing rod and can induce cracking. Don't quench until the color has subsided. How about if its welded with 316 filler? 316 is also ferritic. 312 is lower in ferrite, and 347 is fully Austinitic. These present their own problems, though. Cold-cracking, s...

Ok guys I’m new here, I’ve just been a lurker. So please be gentle if I have wrong forum etiquette. :D So a little about what I work on. We build small structural (I’m using that term loosely) items that have water pumped through them. 2-35 PSI or so. It’s all 304ss and most of it is made from sch1...

Popeye, next time I'm in your neck of the woods (only God knows when that might be), we're going to have to cook something with that weed-burner, and throw back a beer or three.

Steve

LOL! Yes, 316 is fine for 304. The higher grade rule of thumb has a few caveats to be aware of, though. A 400-series filler is a chemically different steel, for example. 400s are primarily Martinsitic, if I recall corrrectly. 300s are primarily Austinitic. This leads to the next caveat; 308 and 316 ...

At a steel mill, I used natural gas/O2 as my cutting flame. I had no control of pressure; It came from a manifold. There was a learning curve. I found that, unlike oxy/acet, I had to approximate the mixture before I tried to light it. There was no "turn on the gas, light it, add the oxygen"...

Welcome, Chris! I've followed you on IG for quite some time, and I have listened to your podcast, episode 30. I'm certainly glad you've joined us! You will not find any of the snarky "armchair CWI" talk on here. We treat everyone the same from the greenest newbie to the twice-retired aeros...

If you mean by " nozzle " ( which is termed here a gas shroud ) I think most common plastics would melt being that close to the arc - I have one odd spool on torch which I use just for odd job repairs in the field where material is too thin for stick ( but runs from a stand alone converte...

A second guess is what may lie on the back side of the tubing. Clean it inside and out.

Steve

Very nice!

Steve

Nicely done!

Steve

On a sheet that thin, you can move VERY rapidly, minimizing heat input. The trick here is to have cutting guides in place. Trying to free-hand such thin material accurately is difficult at best, and slows you down adding to distortion. Fences for straight lines, templates for curves. The faster you ...

Thanks - that was very helpful. Since my post, don’t know if it’s good info but they said if you were below 40 amps dragging is ok. Mike That makes sense. We primarily use Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 80 at work, and while it comes with cut guides, and even a specific drag tip, I find on 16 ga. stain...

I can't see how the implant would contribute to being shocked... I'd expect your friend to hear significant noise if the implant were part of the current path. That said, I have a friend who had to have a pacemaker with built-in defibrillator implanted, and he's not allowed near arc welding of any k...

Glad to hear it, Mike!
I don't recall where I got that tip from, but it was probably here. I use this method at work as our machines see a lot of abuse, and it's always worked for me, even with the sloppy, worn out, 10-year-old Harbor Freight drill press we have.


Steve

I like to remove them completely, chuck 'em in a drill press (a mill is better), and run them against a flat stone like you'd sharpen a knife with.

Steve

I'm back, more or less. Came in to do some overdue cleanup work. I had a Cardiologist appointment yesterday, and I'm scheduled for several procedures July 10. Hopefully, I'll find some answers to the issues that have been making my life difficult for the last many months. I intend to spend more time...

Hell, I'll throw my 2 cents in here. I did my first industrial work in my mid 30's. It was a powerhouse in Iowa, and we were building the coal bunkers. There were 4 bunkers and 14 men in them, working in 2-man teams. Three of the bunkers had two teams in them. The fourth bunker, they paired me up wi...

I appreciate the condolences. It sucks losing a brother, and this is my third. One on my dad's side, and now two on Mom's side. A woman is not meant to outlive her children. She turned 91 on Jan 13, which is also my late brother Joe's birthday. Sucks that they coincide. My brother Eyrl was able to b...

Hi, W, I suggest chatting up the fellow giving the test. It doesn't always work, but it has for me in the past. He can tell you about idiosyncrasies in particular machines in the test room, and may even offer guidance for the test itself. I passed AAR (railroad) certification this way, having never ...

Y'all are certainly dressed like it's a good night for a roaring fire...

Good stuff!

Steve