On Thu, 12 Oct 2017 22:28:27 -0500, Terry Coombs
wrote:

On 10/12/2017 10:04 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 12 Oct 2017 20:58:39 -0500, Terry Coombs
wrote:

On 10/12/2017 4:56 PM, dpb wrote:
On 12-Oct-17 3:45 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
...

** Well , it's too late ... this thing was homemade to fit the fixture
that mounts to the bucket mount points . That spear is not hardened
steel but I don't know what it is. It's being stuck together with the
7018 I have on hand . If I run out I'll buy more ... I started with some
6013 , beads looked like crap . The 7018 looks better , but not much .
Some days I wish I had a 300 amp MIG machine ... others I wish I had a
new Harley . Chances of either happenin' is about even . Somewhere
between zip and zero .
...

I hear ya' on the latter; all I've got is Dad's old (it's Marquette
which is a klew ) stick and I'm g-awful at best...I see HF has one
of their wire w/ MIG attachments on sale for pretty doggone cheap --
I've thought last two days of driving to Garden and looking but didn't
do it...

How big of bales and bales of what?* With big ones here and hauling w/
flatbed semis I'm awful nervous about spear breaking just when I
wouldn't want it to do so...a lot bad can happen in a hurry that
way...just toting a small one around the lot is pretty much ok, it
isn't nothing but a nuisance most likely...

--

* These are grass hay , probably about 5 feet or a bit more in diameter
and 4 feet "long" . Just a guesstimate from my hay haulin' days of youth
I'd say the weight is well under a thousand pounds . That spear is 2" in
diameter and will be welded at the butt and again at 3" , and there will
be gussets .* I'm using a Lincoln Tombstone 225 amp AC welder , but have
a baby MIG too - it just ain't got the ass for 1/2" plate . Got a 250
amp TIG welder too , but that ain't happening . By the time I finish
this I may even be able to make a bead that doesn't look like a string
of pigeon droppings . I've never been all that good with stick ,
probably because I do it so seldom .

* --

* Snag
Too bad your little lincoln isn't the DC model - then at least it
would look a bit more like goose poop.. . . .

* Ya know Clare , I built a 300 amp/800 volt full wave bridge rectifier
for that tombstone . Couldn't find a suitable inductor to stabilize the
arc though so I let the project die .The baby MIG is also* Lincoln , a
Weldpak 100 , and it is DC . If I need DC SMAW now i just use the
inverter TIG machine . If the leads were long enough I might be using it
for this project .

* --

* Snag
I have a good welding inductor in the cupboard in my garage that
I've had for years - came with the aircraft generator I used as the
motor on my electic Fiat "Electra-Mobile" (to use the generator as a
welder) Too bad the darn thing's so heavy - shipping it would cost
more than it's worth.