Which handyman (cheap) welder?

Smashweld! What a brilliant name for a welder.
Should be a piece of piss for you to fix the thyristor or whatever.
Only potential problem (or is that opportunity) is the hire of gas bottle.
ESAB are pretty good in my book.
 
Drikko,

a lot will depend on the power supply you have available. I doubt your residence has 3 phase power and it is unlikely to have a dedicated 15 amp circuit too.

This will leave you being limited to a mig with a 10 amp plug. I have one of these and it is gas/gasless. The gas bottles you can buy are expensive per litre but if you get big bottles then you need to use them a lot to justify the bottle rentals.

You are welcome to come up here and splatter a few pieces of steel to try it out if you wish. I generally just keep gasless wire in it and use it for steel. I don't get into alloys. For the little I do I just go down to the local alloy boat builder and pay him. Cheaper in the long run and a much better job.

Cheers
Rod
 
Poffer said:
For someone like me, who know little about welding, that seems like a really good guide - thanks !

May take me a few days to pluck up the courage to explore the section on "Butt Welding"  :o
Click to expand...

Poff, your eyes are going to weep when you get to the part where they talk about vertical ups with a welding rod!
 
Hey Rocket Rod, when I was getting my egg nishner installed I had the sparky put a 15 A circuit into the garage, got it's own circuit breaker and everthang :)

BTW the guy with the Smashweld said he'd pretty much give it to me if I went to the effort to go up there so I am heading up Saturday :)

 
Well that's a deal that is hard to refuse.  :D

Glad you have the power sorted. Its something that a lot of people don't realise and a cheap welder could become an expensive project. :o

It will most likely be pretty heavy so take care when you get it home with your leg. I'm guessing it may be a 2 person lift for you. A friend or neighbour should save you some grief.

By the look of it the regulator will be for the big bottles. If you plan to use the smaller dsiposable type you may need a new reg but I'm not sure of all the types and adaptors.

It will most likely take the big spools of wire and much heavier gauge than mine. Cheaper by bulk. I buy big spools then transfer it to the ones on my machine using the drill press.

Cheers

Rod
 
Alpino said:
It will most likely take the big spools of wire and much heavier gauge than mine. Cheaper by bulk. I buy big spools then transfer it to the ones on my machine using the drill press.
Rod
Click to expand...
problem with the big reels of wire is that over time and especially with the rain we have had recently it starts to rust which then gets inside your main feed line to your gun and jams the whole deal up
so in the end you wind up throwing a bunch of wire out if you are not a constant user of the machine


 
nothing wrong with my Lincoln bullet, it can still do today what it was capable of in 1950, and for experimentation of positional welding, try a horizontal vertical

To pass ASMEE 9G (R) you only have to do one weld, it is a butt weld in 200mm mild steel tube,with 25mm wall thickness, fixed at 45 degrees to the ground, and you are not allowed to rotate, or raise/lower, and for the (R) tag, this takes place in a cubicle where the sides prevent you from getting your nose further away from the weld than the length of the rod.

CLEM
 
So I took the gamble of spending $40 on fuel to go and look at the welder, and flippin heck it was bigger and heavier than I thought! 60kgs heavy to be precise, he'd had it weighed to get a freight quote.

I made a silly offer which he accepted, burled it in the back of the car and headed home! It was almost new, apparently all it had ever done was make a bullbar for a 4WD and that's all, looks like it too, the insides were still clean even! He reckons the original owner had paid $1,600 for it brand new not too many years ago.

Fired it up and sure enough the wire feeder was going full speed. Took the sidecover off, flip that's a big rectifier and transformer! It's no chinese cheapie that's for sure.

IMG_0197.JPG


Measured the speed control pot and it was OK, so must be in this board as the feed motor is driven from here and the pot as well:-

IMG_0199.JPG


Traced the board out and tested everything and hey presto the MJ2955 (big silver thing in the middle) is shorted out between collector and emitter, even when removed. Makes sense as it's the driving transistor for the motor, being shorted it's holding the motor on full speed. Scrabbled around my spares bin and couldn't find one so a quick trip to Jaycar tomorrow should see the $2.95 part in and working hopefully. I'll replace it's base driver transistor as well just to be certain although it measures OK. Then I can have a play hopefully :)

IMG_0215.JPG


So looks like I've scored one mean mutha of a welder for little bucks  :D :D :D :D :D

 
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