My particular application is a bit unusual, though. "This thing leaks... Find it", and I have several thousand square feet to search. Steve S That was my initial interest in your posts here. That's pretty amazing, at least to another welder. Personally, I would almost have to be in the ri...

One thing that's cool with the old machines is they are often quieter on AC. My ABP is quieter than an egg frying. The Dynasty screams in comparison. I was welding in my shed with the ABP and a welder buddy of mine says, "damn, I had forgotten how nice it is not to hear square waves." Then...

I am gonna aim a different direction here and suggest a used name brand. Watch the auctions. My welding instructor reminded me of how much high art, high science TIG had been done on these older machines. I weld aluminum and 316 stainless most days and never bother with the inverter machine we have....

Do you have down time between these leak jobs, or is this something that happens a lot so you end up doing this every day? If the former, what do you do at other times?

Perhaps a lojack for the tractor?

There is a lot of math associated with bending/fitting, just considering the formula around gains and losses for each size of pipe alone. When I started where I am at now, they had a guy there with a scientific calculator just going to town on it constantly. Yes, it is good to know because you do ne...

this is quoted in my engineering plan drawing done by architectural draftsmen Now this statement could branch off in many directions. That translates into "engineers", or from my experience. . ."Imagineers." Not meaning to derail the thread and this is mostly being said tongue-i...

People are programmed to notice symmetry, though they're not usually aware of it. Studies of what we find attractive in the opposite sex show two of the biggest factors are symmetry, and fitting the "golden mean", which an elegant curve may do. It's in our nature to recognize beauty, whet...

Thank you. I will look into that. I can probably get them online.

Depends on what type of bender it is. On a press bender that starts at the center of a bend, yes. in that situation, a 90 degree die will usually have 105 degrees of a circle so that the ends of the die don't crease the inside ends the bend. On an draw type that uses either a wiper die or a follow b...

This is so fast and consistent and it answers a lot of layout questions by using these test bends, plus gives you physical proof. This is 3/4" sched 40. On the bender I use, it uses the center of the bend for the layout bend marks that you line up with the bender. On sizes up to 1" I use a...

Many times I will make a mock up by bending a piece of filler wire. I use an enerpac press bender. I have it mounted on a pedestal on a hinge so that I can use it both horizontally and vertically. The bender has a degree indicator on it. I have bent thousands of pipes so I can even guess how much to...

The guy who does the rigging notices when it doesn't skin his wires and they just snake right through with minimal effort. The upper tubes have a flange welded that is 1/4 x 4" x 6" flat bar with countersunk holes that sandwich the deck material. That way they are removable in the event th...

This is just stuff I think is neat. The disappointing part of which, I suppose is, that most people don't notice it enough to care. Still doesn't stop me from doing it. It's the moment I manage to capture it, personally. I am sure many of you have built parts never to be seen again, or covered by so...

For hole saws, I like using a spray bottle with dawn dish detergent in water. That way I can cool the hole cutter while continuously washing the chips and slurry out of the groove. I am a big fan of broaches or annular cutters on aluminum if all you have is a drill press or hand drill. Since you hav...

I often teach people how to weld like that. I will get them to rest the cup on the joint or on a starter plate at the end of one, ready, aim, fire. Then advance them one tack on tack at a time until they get a rythm.

Awesome! It's great when they take their job as shop counterweght seriously! So much easier than lugging around a bunch of sandbags. This was my shopdog, Della Rae. . . You are lucky to have had a loyal friend like that. Mine is near his end these days but he keeps trying and is as enthused as ever...

Alexa wrote:TamJeff. How does react to the various welding sounds? Alexa

I actually have to make him go away when I weld because he would not look away from the light. The only sounds he doesn't like is thunder or fireworks. The cure for that is turning the stereo up.

Does anyone here have one? Doesn't necessarily have to be a shop dog, but if yours is anything like mine, he's right in the middle of the action on any given day. Mine thinks that my build board is his personal portable porch. He's relentless with securing it, to the point where I could be standing ...

Great thread. No pun intended. I use tap magic as well but absolutely hate the smell of it. I have a can here with kerosene and just a bit of automatic transmission fluid in it that I use that seems to work well. I am a stickler over drill bits. I recently just restocked with Norseman bits. I have n...

WP-20 here as well for years now. The torch I have now has to be about 7 years old and I weld a lot at 250 amps AC. Besides torches, in spite of all of the buzz around the flex hoses, they have not made any real difference to me and the one complaint I have with the soft hoses, is some clubfoot with...

The 800.00 price seems like a steal. I had to look twice. I admit not being savvy to auctions and such but I would have bought that in a heartbeat for that, even if it needed a complete rebuild. You have to be proud of that machine. Before I went to welding school, I tried to find a machinist school...

Going to add two cents worth here, even though it's an old post, for whoever may happen to see it. Over the many years I have worked, we typically always needed new talent. The time span of when upper management started talking about hiring, to the point of when they actually solicited for it, could...

Do you get to build any of that on the table?

That's really nice. Gotta love the old iron, too.