Nice work. The small, tedious jobs, are often more edge-of-the-seat than the large projects. I hated doing those parts. Too much setup time for such a small run. Can't wobble when they screw them on, etc. I bet Steve is glad the crack is not 2ft long. :) Motor shafts can be tricky. I had to build up...

Not today, but it's typical of weird projects that can appear on any day. These are noisemakers for an air cannon or something. The example they brought, was made on automated (semi-automated at the least) production equipment and that's what they wanted it to look like. Most of you fab'rs can relat...

Flap wheel would work, as will a milk wheel, but I prefer a stationary belt sander with some 60 grit on it, or even a hand held belt sander clamped in a vise.

I make the bevel large enough so that the tungsten fits down in the joint, with a 1/16th land, butted tight. I grind off the sharp outside corner so that it is flat, 45 degrees to the joint. I pulse weld it in reverse, so that the shielding gas is flowing directly at and under the weld puddle. Pulsi...

By the end of it, I was throwing weld beads at it. I have some on there that could pass for fast Alu MIG welds. The clincher was he got one size material, which was 3/8" x 5", because the two piling stay hoops I had to make after the fact were on 5" material, so I had to rip it to siz...

It is rumored that I may have 200 of these to build, being that since you brought up docks, and that I followed your thread and suddenly ended up with dock parts to build, figured to post it here. This one was needing to be shortened and narrowed in two days before this holiday weekend. Got it in on...

Shouldn't have to preheat the part with an exterior edge or an appendage repair, being there is somewhere for the stress to escape. It's been my experience, that is only needed on trapped damage where the cast is under tension, say, in the middle of a gear casing or something like that, by default o...

I have a SW 250 and mine has the same adjustment and it's in the same area that the HF points are located. Setting is continuous from 0-100% IIRC. Mine is set at about 70 for anodized. I can drop it way down to say 40 for mill finish. I don't really notice much difference either way, because I often...

I have actually welded one of those RC expansion chambers before and it was cracked as you say yours was. I used 1/8" pure, and manually pulse welded it at around 125 amps. 125 is somewhat squirrely on 1/8th" pure, but the pulse lets you out of it before things go wrong. I also built a t-k...

Many body seams in production cars were indeed brazed. Not saying those are factory, but all of the seams you find on older cars, that were caulked and painted were brazed. Drip checks above doors. . .brazed. The seams that go from the trunk to the rear windows were also usually brazed. The ductilit...

Traditional utility trucks are great for many things but don't overlook Haulmark type closed trailers/mobile shop for traveling TIG work once you get going. I used to do a lot of outdoor TIG'ng and I used to have to wait for people to quit looking at me work and telling them not to let their kids lo...

Nice work.

Busted transom engine bracket that holds twin 250hp. It had previously been welded. 3/8" aluminum mounting plate with adjoining sides of 1/4". Analysis reveals that when they sanded the weld bead smooth, they took too much meat from a minimal weld to start with. I clamped a piece of 2"...

The problem with name brands in recent years is that they are supported by salesmen instead of welders. Went thru it with the Miller Dynasty. It had been some years since I had dealt with a new machine, so found myself at odds when the guy who talked us into buying it had no idea of how to give an i...

It was just the first image I came across that wasn't a bolt-on made of stamped steel. I'm not particularly fond of google's newest image format so I tend to be a little lazy with it. Most gussets/braces I use end up being made of the tubing itself to keep from becoming a debris or contaminant trap....

I think it would have to be a two part, LPU clear, which would not be cheap and highly dangerous to spray without specific protection. Perhaps Rustoleum makes a clear for it. Most of the dirt bikes I owned growing up had either black or silver painted bars. Rustoleum makes a metallic silver that wou...

If you frame anything that moves on a roadway, and when in doubt, the engineering needs to go further than just weld joinery. Consider gusseting as another structural option. Plus they generally look cool and add a more engineered/finished look to projects. http://www.synthx.com/articles/trailer-str...

Nice table. The most used tool in any shop. Time to start dropping birthday hints for R11's and 6's.

We went from a liquid argon manifold system to individual bottles once there wasn't enough welders to keep the large system from icing up. In the mean time, the company we dealt with was merged by another and I started getting crappy gas. Some bottles would be 'ok' and some unusable. Seems that some...

Here's some more odd cast bits along with a trick for welding thin castings. Broken anti-ventilation plate prepped and ready to weld. Thickness is variable, from 3/8" to an 1/8". There is also an adjoining crack but no need to worry about that yet. The fist weld will tie the end of the oth...

Very nice and nice looking welds.

I present, my youngest son's, first aluminum TIG beads. *snif* "Watch the sides, watch the sides. . ." 220 amps AC, 1/8" pure, 5356 filler. http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l309/tigmaster/P6180013.jpg He's already built a couple easy parts from 1" anodized pipe and the welds wer...

When you see coupon tests presented as practice for outside corner welds, almost never do you see the back side. At the place where I work, the owner has multiple examples of my work, where pieces were cut out for other thru fittings and the back side shows ample penetration with it's own formed bea...

When welding outside corners that are going to be ground in thinner aluminum, you don't want to just fill the notch left by the open corner, but also keyhole weld it for penetration beyond the juncture of the inside of the corner. I see this neglected a lot. In this particular case, it cost this com...

Welcome back.