On Aug 29, 5:42 am, Andrew VK3BFA wrote:
Hey good people - welding stuff first, as its driving me nuts........
...
Question - I finally used up a box of "El Cheapo" Chinese rods....

You have DC, so try 7018.

Another welding question - I am OK at horizontal welding, but this
limits what I can do - some things are just not able to be maneuvered
around to get this alignment. Vertical welding is a problem - is there
a "recommended" way, ie bottom of weld UP or from top DOWN. Molten rod
tends to flow and bugger up what you haven't welded....

Simple - don't design anything you can't pick up and rotate. Get an
engine hoist or break stuff up into boltable subassemblies.


And another....welding galvanized pipe/tube. If I grind off the gal,
welds like ordinary steel (yes, I know thats blatantly obvious) - if I
leave the gal coating on, get a yellowish fumes, and a white, cotton
like deposition on the surfaces,- is this a BAD THING or not?.....

Pure poison.

And I must read the bloody manual for the DRO on the Bridgeport mill -
was getting hopelessly confused on trying to mill to a length until I
figured out you had to factor in the diameter of the cutting tool...at
both ends of the cut.....dunno about you lot, but getting increasingly
reluctant to spend YONKS trying to read long complicated instructions
- it was easy to do it by eye to the witness marks, and check with the
micrometer as I got close. Figured out how to zero the thing and do
small increments via the DRO. Plus, the instructors turned the power
off at break time, so any readings on the DRO went back to zero at
power on.....Bugger .....

I double-check with a ruler marked in tenths.

...
and and and.....can anyone out there can point me to plans (free) for
a SIMPLE flat bar bender - ...
Andrew VK3BFA.

I have the Harbor Freight bender for more precise work but usually
clamp the sucker to the end of a big hunk of wide-flange beam and
whack it with a BFH.

Jim Wilkins KB1DAL