Buy a house?

Check this out

https://www.amazon.com/WYNNsky-Comp...ords=Compressed+air+kit&qid=1598753526&sr=8-2

I have one of these kits set up in my barn. It's a winner.

 

I hate those milton fittings. I finally solved the hissing issues with air hoses. Prevost fittings are worth twice the money. I got raped from the snap on guy, but amazon sells them now. What I want now are silicone air hoses. I have the orange plastic hoses that get wedding night hard when it gets cold. Anyone got a suggestion for the last air hose I will ever need to buy??

 

So it turns out the old bulley wired the 50 amp cut off to the 30 amp cable... and put a 30 amp plug on the 50 amp cable.

Not sure why but I managed to rewire them.

Kind of annoying though because I set up my workshop according to where I thought the 50 amp plug was so now the feng shui is all kinds of messed up.

I will replace the 50 amp female plug with a wall mounted one later. They don't sell it at the local lowes so I'll have to order it and redo the plug later.

Hopefully its all wired correctly. I suppose we will see when I flip the breaker back on...

 

So the plugs both work. Yay... tig welding is back on the menu.

I put a shelf up above the lathe too. Good spot for bits and bobs.

I want to get a chip tray for the lathe to catch oil and crap. Any ideas where I can get one or how to go about building one?



Also put power strips up and bolted my screw holder bin to the wall

 

Got the compressor hooked up.

 

This is the part where I tell you to call your home inspector and ask for some money back for him missing that!

I had an idiot home inspector too.
Next time things will be REALLY different.
It's a live and learn. Good catch.

 

Yeah I guess ultimately it doesn't matter the 50 amp shut off on the 30 amp line didn't have a fuse in it so it would have tripped the main 30 amp breaker if it drew too much.

But the 30 amp plug on the 50 amp line was a total waste. Could only draw 30 amp with that type of plug. Mehh!

Is this hooked correctly?

 

Yeah the looks fine. I take it you're not rolling up that hose reel?

 

As far as chip trays go, just epoxy seal the floor under the lathe and put some sheet metal up the wall behind the lathe, especially in line with the chuck so the spray of chips and oil that goes up the wall in an arc can be easily wiped down and swept off the floor. I used some white plastic coated Colorbond steel from floor to ceiling. Also a ball valve rigged to the bottom of the compressor tank and venting the water outside via copper tube is handy for draining the water from the tank often in humid weather.

 

I've got a 3ft tall vertical piece of plastic about 8 inches wide on the back of my splash shield. Lined up with the chuck, it does help keeping crap from ending up on the wall.

 

Solid. I'll see what I can do with the chip pan.

I tried a few passes with 1/8" rod aluminum on a 1/4" thick aluminum and this is what I got. I've had trouble in the past with aluminum. Always comes out like crap. Any ideas? What settings need changing? 14 on the flow meter argon with 100% tungsten tips.

 

CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!!! Here is what might be happening. After you light up. DONT FKING MOVE! Just stay there and WATCH the puddle. Look for black shit floating in the puddle. Be patient and burn all that crap out of the puddle. You'll see it, I promise. Regulate the heat with your foot to keep from going all the way through your piece...After it's gone, take one dip and slowly let off and circle the torch as the power slowly comes down. (this prevents a crack) I bet you see a different animal. 70/30 is a good place to start on cleaning vs penetration. What you are doing is getting through the protective layer aluminum forms on it's own (~6000degrees) and then you will melt the material under that layer with way less heat. Practice making just clean spot welds.

When I say clean, I mean spotless. Scotchbrite EVERYTHING, aluminum, filler rod AND tungsten! Wipe with clean paper towel with acetone... Always start with a freshly ground tungsten, scotchbrite it and wipe with acetone also.
I do not like 100% tungsten, probably because I have an inverter machine. I do the 2% thoriated or 2% lanthanated tungstens. Try my simple tip and report back.

But seriously, DON'T MOVE UNTIL THAT PUDDLE IS SHINY! Or else you just drag all that shit along in your weld bead. You have to burn through that tough oxide layer and burn it outta there before you can start adding filler. The trick is not burning through thinner material. That's where you foot earns it's keep. Always think of your foot as the gas pedal.

 

Remember when I started Tig, I started with Aluminum. I'm no Jodi, but I can get the job done now with minimal grinding.

These three shots are from my first day teaching myself to tig aluminum. Crawl, walk, then run.

First JUST spots... I first did these with no filler. Then went over each one with a dab or two of filler. Gets the feel of lighting up,
cleaning out the floating crap, making the dab without sticking to the torch and then trying to control the heat as you get out.
The goal is no crater (like I have on most of these) and NO CRACKS! Craters I can live with. Cracks are a no no.



Then walking with no filler. Learning how fast to move and control the heat. Playing with cleaning settings too.



Finally adding filler. Not too shabby for a first go.

 

Hey Zap... Watch John weld in this plug on this aluminum thermostat housing. Note how he waits before adding the filler. He also moves the torch around too. He's burning out the
black crap.
Start at 9:00 mark.

 

I think I need better filler rod. Mine is too thin I think. Maybe the alloy is shit too. Not even sure where i got it or what it is. It just bends easy so I assume its aluminum. Will see about stopping at the air gas place and getting some new material. I bet thats half the issue...

 

Zap.. 4043 is good all purpose aluminum filler wire. Get a pound of 3/32" and 1/16"

Thickness really doesn't have any bearing on this until you are using it to cool the puddle as you dab for appearance sake. That's another lesson which I'm definitely not qualified to teach. You might try that E3 tungsten too. It's suppose to be the new all purpose electrode. There was something not kosher about pure tungsten, but I'm pretty sure that applied to inverter guys.

 

I'm sketched out about radioactive tips. Will need to look into that E3. I don't want lung cancer from sharpening it in 30 years.

The rod I have is very thin and melts before getting to the puddle. Thicker may be easier to weld with.

I want to make myself a fishing boat over the next 2 years but I'm thinking tig may not be the way to go for that project. I may need to invest in a better mig welder that can do aluminum. I can't see myself tig welding thousand of feet of weld to make a boat. And I'd want to go aluminum to stop corrosion.


I'll see if I can steal a stoppy sign at some point to practice on. Tho there's a super cheap scrap yard nearby that I can actually go dumpster diving in without them having to worry about legalities if I scrape my finger in the metal piles. I love living here so much.

 

You get the right mig and you'll weld that aluminum boat without some pain in the ass spool gun. psst.... HTP PRO PULSE 200!

 

not sure what size your lathe is. But these things are 21"x15"....and way cheaper than making one. Baking Sheet These are 18"x26" Industrial Baking Sheet
Fab up a little L braket to hold them up. I see folks using baking sheets on machines that have chip trays because they are removable and make it easy to clean the tray....pull, dump, replace.