[Franz©]

There’s drone footage of the actually harvesters on my channel on YouTube. Julian Waldner. The machines I could probably dig some up, got some in the shop now, changing bearings and such. But potatoes are all bulk. From the diggers to the truck, to a giant pile in the shed. Then by the truckload to McCains to be made into Macdonald’s fries. No bagging or such. Not sure if I’ll get kicked for posting farming on a welding site

Naw, you can claim the MickyD frys exemption.

[JayWal]

Haha. Kick me off and I stop producing fries!

[Bill Beauregard]

Could you persuade McDonalds to leave the fries in the fryer a few minutes longer? The whole world prefers a crisp fry.

[JayWal]

Haha. Kick me off and I stop producing fries!

Could you persuade McDonalds to leave the fries in the fryer a few minutes longer? The whole world prefers a crisp fry.

I’m sorry my friend, but us lowly straw hat wearin’ wheat straw chewin’ farmers ain’t got any clout whatsoever with the Golden Arches big shots!

Plus I disagree with you

[Franz©]

Right about now I could use some McFrys, but I can't have the salt.

On the good side, I did make a couple prototype tater pancakes to go with my kraut tonight, and I have eliminated the possibility they can be made on a sammich grill rather than fried in hot oil. Taste was OK, but texture sucked.

I did look over the tater for a country of origin stamp but didn't find one.

[JayWal]

Right about now I could use some McFrys, but I can't have the salt.

On the good side, I did make a couple prototype tater pancakes to go with my kraut tonight, and I have eliminated the possibility they can be made on a sammich grill rather than fried in hot oil. Taste was OK, but texture sucked.

I did look over the tater for a country of origin stamp but didn't find one.

The taters from the local McCain’s here supply Manitoba and the Chicago area. So doubtful it was an Acadia Farms spud! Plus ours all get chipped or hash browns. Whole grocery store potatoes is a completely different industry.

I try to avoid salt and sugar in my food too. My favorited way is take fresh ones straight from the ground, when they’re about golf ball size. They literally melt in your mouth. Otherwise fried in olive oil over a campfire or propane burner, seasoned with steak spice instead of straight up salt is just as good. Mcdee’s honestly don’t even compare.

[Franz©]

I got addicted to taters back when I was still wearin short pants in the war years when about everything was rationed. Mom would take me to the store, and I generally had a tater as we walked past the barrel to snack on. Storekeeper would never take money for the ones I ate in the store.

My favorite is to shave them about 1/16 thick along with onions cut the same and layer into a roaster with caraway seed a couple inches deep, and lay Italian sausage on top. Roast the whole deal for a few hours, flip the sausage a time or 2 and chow down. Oddly a lot of people think them big propane fired things that look like roasters connected to the propane tank on a welding rig are rod heaters. Some of them rods smell just like sausage too.

[JayWal]

You got pictures of them tater harvesting & cleanup toys? Post em up. We have major onion growing about 50 miles SW of me, black muck ground that can and will swallow a road trailer, but everything there leaves in bulk boxes to be seen next in grocery stores. Never got to see much tater or onion processing.

Nelson has taken over building their own power supply and claims it's better because it's of course DIGITAL metered and contains PC firestarters, and all kinds of dials. In my world that translates to We'll RENT it and let you own the problems. It don't run, we don't pay. We also don't pay if somebody has to spend half the day on the phone listening to "try adjusting".

Big machine is a dirt eliminator, has a bed of spinning rubber rollers that separate the loose dirt and small clods, the spacing between the rollers is hydraulic lay adjustable. After the rollers there would be 8 ppl picking out whatever clods and vines the machine didn’t get.

The other yellow conveyor is used to pile in the sheds, and to fill trucks when emptying the shed. Has a telescopic boom, swings right and left, and is remote controlled.

The unpainted little wagon is my latest project. Kinda proud of it actually designed, drew, and made it all myself. Simple really, the sheds are emptied with a skid steer and big snow bucket. Dump into the wagon with the skid steer, wagon feeds the piler mentioned above, straight into the truck.

Other pics are one of the shed we just started emptying. Holds 80,000 bags of spuds; 8 million pounds. Kinda gives you a tiny idea of the insane amount of fries McDonald’s puts through. Tho not all go to McD, only the best of the best potatoes actually. Anything less than the best goes to Costco and such.

The harvest vid is https://youtu.be/y77O4jO3AXo

[tungstendipper]

Now that is a tater machine!

[Franz©]

Looks like the old ground driven tater picker upper grew and somebody figured out rollers do a batter job than that bar grate chain.
Stacker looks like it got hauled in from a coal mine and put to work..

Your little wagon looks like you borrowed some ideas from a boll buggy on a cotton farm. At least taters ain't likely to catch fire.

[ryanjames170]

Studs.... 3/4 studs are not to much fun if the machine is not set right but when there running good u can get a fair number done in a day. Oh 3/4 studs to repair take a 3/8 inch fillet weld 1/2 inch either side of any place that is not flashed.. per D1.1 code book. Also for the love of god make sure u bend some of them they don't always weld right and can break right off.

If u need 900 on this thing order a good 50 to 100 more to get the machine set right and to re do any that break off mid bend test..

Bend is 30 degree bend and 1 in 10 studs per code book.

Make sure u do bend test them I've heard story's of studs letting go in buildings and bad things happning because they did not test them and or did not fix ones that did not fully flash. If they do not flash chances are u can brake them off with little effort. I've done this many a time.

[JayWal]

Studs.... 3/4 studs are not to much fun if the machine is not set right but when there running good u can get a fair number done in a day. Oh 3/4 studs to repair take a 3/8 inch fillet weld 1/2 inch either side of any place that is not flashed.. per D1.1 code book. Also for the love of god make sure u bend some of them they don't always weld right and can break right off.

If u need 900 on this thing order a good 50 to 100 more to get the machine set right and to re do any that break off mid bend test..

Bend is 30 degree bend and 1 in 10 studs per code book.

Make sure u do bend test them I've heard story's of studs letting go in buildings and bad things happning because they did not test them and or did not fix ones that did not fully flash. If they do not flash chances are u can brake them off with little effort. I've done this many a time.

Like so? Thanks for the heads up.

What kind of stickout do you have usually? I was getting undercut just over the weld till I adjusted the stud to stick out to about 1/4 past the ceramic cup giving me a nice fat weld shoulder at the plate

[tungstendipper]

I love a shop that is as clean as yours!

[JayWal]

I love a shop that is as clean as yours!

Oh believe me it’s not like that all the time! Far from. I try to clean on weekends tho

[ryanjames170]

yeah that would be about what your looking for, for a test one and then a test on the peace is about 30 degrees.

i run about 1/8 to 3/16 inch past the cup and i run about 1450 to 1550 amps and about .9 to 1 sec for the time. varries machine to machine.

[JayWal]

yeah that would be about what your looking for, for a test one and then a test on the peace is about 30 degrees.

i run about 1/8 to 3/16 inch past the cup and i run about 1450 to 1550 amps and about .9 to 1 sec for the time. varries machine to machine.

That’s pretty much exactly what I settled on 3/16 including the point on the end of the stud. 1500 amps even and 0.9sec. That’s hot enough you can see a little blue discolouration on the top side of the 1/2 inch plate.

Hardest part it trying to stick the suckers on straight. I’m trying to find a little level bubble to duct tape on somehow to help with that. But nobody’s gonna see em in the concrete.

[cj737]

Hardest part it trying to stick the suckers on straight. I’m trying to find a little level bubble to duct tape on somehow to help with that. But nobody’s gonna see em in the concrete.

Might be easier to mock up a square jig (think large Speed Square) that you rest the gun against while the jig is placed on the material. Faster and easier.

[Franz©]

It's one of the jobs where the "can't see it from my house" standard comes into play.

[Ben Bernhard]

Hey ive never used dual shield flux core but hear about its benefits in its strength over standard mig. I have a multimatic 200 that I do lots of repair work outside with and would love to try out a spool of Dual shield in. I currently have it set up with .030 solid wire. I assume Ill need to get it set for .035? What wire should I get to try first? Do I understand correctly that the dual shield flux core wire is specifically formulated for use with a specific gas and not just using argon with any old flux core wire? Sorry if this has been covered Im just starting out with some side jobs and primarily weld inside on cast aluminum molds tig welding. Just trying to branch out and learn new stuff. I love listening to the welding tricks and tips podcast and watching youtube videos on the different things people like Jody, JD Brewer, ect.. talk about. Thanks for any help and direction that comes my way.

[JayWal]

Hey ive never used dual shield flux core but hear about its benefits in its strength over standard mig. I have a multimatic 200 that I do lots of repair work outside with and would love to try out a spool of Dual shield in. I currently have it set up with .030 solid wire. I assume Ill need to get it set for .035? What wire should I get to try first? Do I understand correctly that the dual shield flux core wire is specifically formulated for use with a specific gas and not just using argon with any old flux core wire? Sorry if this has been covered Im just starting out with some side jobs and primarily weld inside on cast aluminum molds tig welding. Just trying to branch out and learn new stuff. I love listening to the welding tricks and tips podcast and watching youtube videos on the different things people like Jody, JD Brewer, ect.. talk about. Thanks for any help and direction that comes my way.

Yes you’ll need different drive rollers for it, “knurled” or serrated ones to feed the wire smoothly. Since it’s actually hollow, regular smooth rollers can crush the wire or slip. Tho I’m not even sure you can get 0.035 dual shield flux core I could very easily be wrong but 0.045 is the smallest diameter I’ve seen. 1/16, and as large as 3/32.

I’ve talked with a lot of people about it, and what they all say is it’s a VERY hot process. It’ll melt cheap mig guns, and some say they’ve gotten burned even through thick welding gloves. For example the recommended settings for just 1/8 inch material is 210 ipm wire speed and 19-20 volts. I’m not sure what the max volts would be for your welder.

You can use 100% co2 or 75/25 mix. Both work.

[Ben Bernhard]

JayWal
I remember seeing that Ill need the knurled rollers thanks for the reminder. I know that JD Brewer has spoken about using Dual shield in his Lincoln 210MP welder and I pretty much have the Miller version. He did mention that he burned up a machine or a gun I cant remember. I just figured I could get the same set up for my miller. I may need to investigate a bit more on what actually my multimatic 200 can handle as its my only portable machine and its what I do most of my side work with. Thanks for the heads up!

[homeboy]

I considered Dual Shield also. One issue was to find.035 wire and then in the 8in rolls which I wanted. All I found were the larger rolls which would require a spool gun which was overkill for all the welding I do. If you are going to a longer work lead the flux core might give feeding problems. I have a 15ft lead and tried gasless Flux Core, .035 with.035 liner and it seemed to bounce all over, being less ridgid than solid mig wire. I have a smaller welder with a 10ft lead and Flux Core feeds perfectly. On another post someone said 12ft was as far as Flux Core wire would feed properly. I use a smooth roller but if it takes too much pressure on the Flux Core wire a diamond file to slightly flatten the outside corners of the drive groove does work.

[cj737]

JayWal
I remember seeing that Ill need the knurled rollers thanks for the reminder. I know that JD Brewer has spoken about using Dual shield in his Lincoln 210MP welder and I pretty much have the Miller version. He did mention that he burned up a machine or a gun I cant remember. I just figured I could get the same set up for my miller. I may need to investigate a bit more on what actually my multimatic 200 can handle as its my only portable machine and its what I do most of my side work with. Thanks for the heads up!

Your MM200will run Dual Shield with the included rollers. Just tinker with the tensioner until it feeds smoothly. Dual Shield is available in smaller diameters, but it is extremely difficult to find it not on a 33# Spool (which won’t fit your machine). You’ll need to take an empty hard wire spool and transfer Dual Shield to it from a larger spool. PITA, but it is what it is.

You run standard 75/25 for Dual Shield, not Argon. I’ve run about 30# of it through my MM200 without issue, 0.035 wire. Worked a treat. (Personally, I would have been just as happy to run FC, but I was helping a buddy and he began the job with Dual Shield from his 12vs, so to make things consistent, we spoiled me up from his extra 33#. Kind of like winding fishing line onto a reel...).

[JayWal]

JayWal
I remember seeing that Ill need the knurled rollers thanks for the reminder. I know that JD Brewer has spoken about using Dual shield in his Lincoln 210MP welder and I pretty much have the Miller version. He did mention that he burned up a machine or a gun I cant remember. I just figured I could get the same set up for my miller. I may need to investigate a bit more on what actually my multimatic 200 can handle as its my only portable machine and its what I do most of my side work with. Thanks for the heads up!

Your MM200will run Dual Shield with the included rollers. Just tinker with the tensioner until it feeds smoothly. Dual Shield is available in smaller diameters, but it is extremely difficult to find it not on a 33# Spool (which won’t fit your machine). You’ll need to take an empty hard wire spool and transfer Dual Shield to it from a larger spool. PITA, but it is what it is.

You run standard 75/25 for Dual Shield, not Argon. I’ve run about 30# of it through my MM200 without issue, 0.035 wire. Worked a treat. (Personally, I would have been just as happy to run FC, but I was helping a buddy and he began the job with Dual Shield from his 12vs, so to make things consistent, we spoiled me up from his extra 33#. Kind of like winding fishing line onto a reel...).

Chuck the empty spool up in the lathe, crank up the rip’ems and wind it full in no time! Unless you’re like me and don’t have a lathe

[cj737]

JayWal
I remember seeing that Ill need the knurled rollers thanks for the reminder. I know that JD Brewer has spoken about using Dual shield in his Lincoln 210MP welder and I pretty much have the Miller version. He did mention that he burned up a machine or a gun I cant remember. I just figured I could get the same set up for my miller. I may need to investigate a bit more on what actually my multimatic 200 can handle as its my only portable machine and its what I do most of my side work with. Thanks for the heads up!

Your MM200will run Dual Shield with the included rollers. Just tinker with the tensioner until it feeds smoothly. Dual Shield is available in smaller diameters, but it is extremely difficult to find it not on a 33# Spool (which won’t fit your machine). You’ll need to take an empty hard wire spool and transfer Dual Shield to it from a larger spool. PITA, but it is what it is.

You run standard 75/25 for Dual Shield, not Argon. I’ve run about 30# of it through my MM200 without issue, 0.035 wire. Worked a treat. (Personally, I would have been just as happy to run FC, but I was helping a buddy and he began the job with Dual Shield from his 12vs, so to make things consistent, we spoiled me up from his extra 33#. Kind of like winding fishing line onto a reel...).

Chuck the empty spool up in the lathe, crank up the rip’ems and wind it full in no time! Unless you’re like me and don’t have a lathe

I do have a lathe, it runs on 3 phase and weighs about 1.5 tons. Not too portable.