Hey good people - welding stuff first, as its driving me nuts........

My welding is getting reasonable, the welds don't break when I hit
them with a 5lb hammer. Slag (usually) chips off in one piece with
minimal effort. I reckon thats pretty acceptable - know bugger all
about stress engineering, so I cross brace everything I am going to
stand on 20ft up in the air so if 1 or 2 break, I don't go whoops....

Question - I finally used up a box of "El Cheapo" Chinese rods. Was
doing alright with them. Decided to damn the expense, and bought 2.5Kg
of "MUREX" GP rods. Their bloody awful - splutter, wont hold an arc,
hard to strike an arc, stick to the job. Thought it might be they had
gone hygroscopic, even though it was a sealed in plastic pack. So kept
em warm (on top of the PC monitor) for about a week now. Still weld
crap. Slightly better (but still crappy) results if I crank up the
current to 80 amps, the previous ones ran fine on 65 amps. So, what
gives - tonight, I got really ****ed off and rummaged through the
junkbox and found 2 CIG 'Satincraft" rods that had been sitting in a
damp garden shed for years, they welded real good. Lashed out a while
ago and bought a little DC inverter welder and a LCD helmet -
wonderful inventions, both of them. Highly recommended.

Any explanations on whats going on and how I fix it, or do I just bin
them and buy some more Chinese ones.....saw some at the markets on
Sunday, $4.50 for 2.5Kg - sounds too cheap to be anything but junk,
but I don't know. Tempted to buy some jsut to stuff around....

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....

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?.....

And and and.........finally found out what a "Dead Blow" hammer is
USED for - people here had kindly explained what it was, but last week
in Milling class was shown how to use it - used for setting job in
vice as it doesn't bounce and so the job doesn't recoil either....

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 .....

And milling machines are a pig to clean down after use - they generate
so many chips, and with coolant flooding a job, is messy as all hell.
Have to factor in extra time at the end of the day to do it, so loose
valuable "machining out of tolerance" time.....and those rubber
concertina guards over the table, best chip catchers ever invented I
reckon....

and and and.....can anyone out there can point me to plans (free) for
a SIMPLE flat bar bender - got some "honey do" projects, - (I thin
kit was Don Foreman who coined that phrase - very useful and
descriptive for the household projects) the ones I have seen have
been too complicated for a novice like me, they are adjustable for
different sizes of bar, either by different size dies or cam
adjustments - I am happy to make it "one size only" for the few things
I want to make...

regards,

Andrew VK3BFA.

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

Andrew VK3BFA wrote:

Their bloody awful - splutter, wont hold an arc,
hard to strike an arc, stick to the job.

Sounds like they are for DC and you are welding AC.

Nick
--
The lowcost-DRO:
http://www.yadro.de

Andrew VK3BFA wrote:

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....

You need sticks that can weld vertical. I can weld downwards *much* better.
Takes some practice to controll the puddle. :-)
Stick held flat, short arc, left/right weaving. No go without weaving.


And another....welding galvanized pipe/tube.

First: Don't weld over the galvanizing! Second, if you are too lazy you need
good ventilation and a hot arc. But I *really* don't recommend that.


finally found out what a "Dead Blow" hammer is USED for

I have two that are filled with lead shot. Nice tool. Couldn't live without
them. PB brand, Swiss made. :-))


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

No cutter diameter correction? Sh*t!


and and and.....can anyone out there can point me to plans (free) for
a SIMPLE flat bar Â*bender

OA-torch, hammer, vice. In any combination.


HTH,
Nick
--
The lowcost-DRO:
http://www.yadro.de

For vertical welds get some fast-freeze rods. 6010 for DC, 6011 for
AC. Rod perpendicular to work. Hold a short arc. I as taught bottom
to top. Tip motion is critical. You must keep the rod moving or the
puddle slumps to the bottom. Two techniques, up and down or back and
forth. Movement should be about the width of the puddle. The idea is
to get a puddle started then move over the edge of the puddle to to
promote penetration while allowing the back edge to freeze. Then
returning to the center, briefly, to fill. Then back to the edge.
Keep a close watch on the puddle and not the arc to assure that the
puddle is not getting to liquid or slumpy. When the puddle gets to
hot so that it wants to slump it's best to break the arc till the
metal cools before continuing. Don't hang around trying to get the
puddle to look right. It'll slump on you in a hot minute. Keep the
weld progressing at all times. Break the arc 1/2 inch from the edge
of the metal to let the metal cool before attempting to to finish near
an edge.

As to galvanized pipe. We keep a jug of muratic acid for that purpose.
Soak the end to be welded in acid for 1/2 hour to remove coating.
Works like a charm. Grinding just tends to smear it. Don't breath
the zinc fumes from welding. it will give you a condition called
'welders flu'. Cold sweats, the shakes. It passes. Drinking milk
helps to flush the zinc out of your system.

Funny thing is I'd welded several quick and dirty projects using
zinc'd pipe without any problems. Then, one day, I was cutting some
plate and had put some sheet tin down to protect the concrete.
Didn''t realize till after I was done how bad an idea it was. The tin
had melted and there was white flakes everywhere. That night I had
the worst case of the shakes, for about two hours, couldn't lay down,
just paced about the dark house.

starbolin

On Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:42:33 -0700, Andrew VK3BFA
wrote:

Hey good people - welding stuff first, as its driving me nuts........

My welding is getting reasonable, the welds don't break when I hit
them with a 5lb hammer. Slag (usually) chips off in one piece with
minimal effort. I reckon thats pretty acceptable - know bugger all
about stress engineering, so I cross brace everything I am going to
stand on 20ft up in the air so if 1 or 2 break, I don't go whoops....

Good man! When in doubt, over-engineer it. And if you;re going to
be up in the air, rig a safety rope and a harness. Better to let the
Fire Department come get you down...

But think through the point failure mode and the load shifts that
will occur during the failure as you design anything that moves,
slides, swings or holds up people. If the weld on Mounting Tab A
breaks, you don't want the heavy item to move very far or gain much
speed before Tab B catches it, or you shock load Tab B and break it
off, then the load shifts to Tab C that fails... And it all unzips.

So kept em warm (on top of the PC monitor) for about a week now. Still
weld crap. Slightly better (but still crappy) results if I crank up the
current to 80 amps, the previous ones ran fine on 65 amps. So, what
gives - tonight, I got really ****ed off and rummaged through the
junkbox and found 2 CIG 'Satincraft" rods that had been sitting in a
damp garden shed for years, they welded real good. Lashed out a while
ago and bought a little DC inverter welder and a LCD helmet -
wonderful inventions, both of them. Highly recommended.

The top of your PC Monitor is NOT a rod oven - not nearly hot
enough, and not controlled humidity. And this only works for certain
flux coatings (cellulosic IIRC) where moisture matters, some rod
fluxes don't give a darn if they're dry, wet, or used underwater.

You can dry rods out in a repurposed electric kitchen oven, go find
someone doing a remodel and snag their old oven when they put it out
in the rubbish. Or build your own rod oven out of locally available
"field expedient" materials - an electric oven element and the ceramic
stand-off mounts, adjustable thermostat, sealed steel inner enclosure
long enough to hold your rod, fiberglass insulation, something for an
outer enclosure.

Any explanations on whats going on and how I fix it, or do I just bin
them and buy some more Chinese ones.....saw some at the markets on
Sunday, $4.50 for 2.5Kg - sounds too cheap to be anything but junk,
but I don't know. Tempted to buy some jsut to stuff around....

Buy known type and quality rod, it's not that much more. And you
don't have to wonder if the problem is you or the rod.

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....

I don't stick weld that much yet, almost all MIG with CO2. But it
can almost always be solved through a combination of technique, rod
selection and work positioning. Some rods burn great on dirty metal
or in odd positions, some don't. And there is usually a way to
reposition the work, or the worker, to get a proper angle on the
problem.

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?.....

Zinc fumes from galvanizing are very bad for you if you get a lung
full of them - Zinc Fume Fever. Grind off as much galvanizing as
possible to keep it out of the puddle, you can send the finished
weldment out to be galvanized again when you are done.

Always have the wind at your back when welding even cleaned-off
galvanized items, or a fan at your back, or a remote air feed
respirator system if you are working in a confined space.

And and and.........finally found out what a "Dead Blow" hammer is
USED for - people here had kindly explained what it was, but last week
in Milling class was shown how to use it - used for setting job in
vice as it doesn't bounce and so the job doesn't recoil either....

Moves really heavy things without a lot of effort expended or
wasted. ;-) Where you used to have to whack with all your might with
a rubber mallet (and mind the recoil!!) to get motion, you only need a
few taps with a deadblow.

and and and.....can anyone out there can point me to plans (free) for
a SIMPLE flat bar bender - got some "honey do" projects, - (I thin
kit was Don Foreman who coined that phrase - very useful and
descriptive for the household projects) the ones I have seen have
been too complicated for a novice like me, they are adjustable for
different sizes of bar, either by different size dies or cam
adjustments - I am happy to make it "one size only" for the few things
I want to make...

Don't they have a "Harbor Freight" clone over there selling Chinese
made tools? Sometimes it's a Lot easier, less expensive and faster to
buy it pre-made than try to reinvent it - spend your time making the
project, not the complex one-off tooling to make the project. They
churn those benders out by the thousands, for pocket change.

-- Bruce --

There's a lot of ****ty rod out there. Some, like Lincoln, should not
be, but are. Strangely, the Very Best 6011 and 6013 rod I've found is
Pacific Industrial Supply bulk rod-soory, for local guys only. Grab a
couple handfuls every time I'm there.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

Andrew VK3BFA wrote:
Hey good people - welding stuff first, as its driving me nuts........

My welding is getting reasonable, the welds don't break when I hit
them with a 5lb hammer. Slag (usually) chips off in one piece with
minimal effort. I reckon thats pretty acceptable - know bugger all
about stress engineering, so I cross brace everything I am going to
stand on 20ft up in the air so if 1 or 2 break, I don't go whoops....

Question - I finally used up a box of "El Cheapo" Chinese rods. Was
doing alright with them. Decided to damn the expense, and bought 2.5Kg
of "MUREX" GP rods. Their bloody awful - splutter, wont hold an arc,
hard to strike an arc, stick to the job. Thought it might be they had
gone hygroscopic, even though it was a sealed in plastic pack. So kept
em warm (on top of the PC monitor) for about a week now. Still weld
crap. Slightly better (but still crappy) results if I crank up the
current to 80 amps, the previous ones ran fine on 65 amps. So, what
gives - tonight, I got really ****ed off and rummaged through the
junkbox and found 2 CIG 'Satincraft" rods that had been sitting in a
damp garden shed for years, they welded real good. Lashed out a while
ago and bought a little DC inverter welder and a LCD helmet -
wonderful inventions, both of them. Highly recommended.

Any explanations on whats going on and how I fix it, or do I just bin
them and buy some more Chinese ones.....saw some at the markets on
Sunday, $4.50 for 2.5Kg - sounds too cheap to be anything but junk,
but I don't know. Tempted to buy some jsut to stuff around....

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....

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?.....

And and and.........finally found out what a "Dead Blow" hammer is
USED for - people here had kindly explained what it was, but last week
in Milling class was shown how to use it - used for setting job in
vice as it doesn't bounce and so the job doesn't recoil either....

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 .....

And milling machines are a pig to clean down after use - they generate
so many chips, and with coolant flooding a job, is messy as all hell.
Have to factor in extra time at the end of the day to do it, so loose
valuable "machining out of tolerance" time.....and those rubber
concertina guards over the table, best chip catchers ever invented I
reckon....

and and and.....can anyone out there can point me to plans (free) for
a SIMPLE flat bar bender - got some "honey do" projects, - (I thin
kit was Don Foreman who coined that phrase - very useful and
descriptive for the household projects) the ones I have seen have
been too complicated for a novice like me, they are adjustable for
different sizes of bar, either by different size dies or cam
adjustments - I am happy to make it "one size only" for the few things
I want to make...

regards,

Andrew VK3BFA.



--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me
No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dependence is Vulnerability:
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal"
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

In article om,
Andrew VK3BFA wrote:

Hey good people - welding stuff first, as its driving me nuts........

My welding is getting reasonable, the welds don't break when I hit
them with a 5lb hammer. Slag (usually) chips off in one piece with
minimal effort. I reckon thats pretty acceptable - know bugger all
about stress engineering, so I cross brace everything I am going to
stand on 20ft up in the air so if 1 or 2 break, I don't go whoops....

Question - I finally used up a box of "El Cheapo" Chinese rods. Was
doing alright with them. Decided to damn the expense, and bought 2.5Kg
of "MUREX" GP rods. Their bloody awful - splutter, wont hold an arc,
hard to strike an arc, stick to the job. Thought it might be they had
gone hygroscopic, even though it was a sealed in plastic pack. So kept
em warm (on top of the PC monitor) for about a week now. Still weld
crap. Slightly better (but still crappy) results if I crank up the
current to 80 amps, the previous ones ran fine on 65 amps. So, what
gives - tonight, I got really ****ed off and rummaged through the
junkbox and found 2 CIG 'Satincraft" rods that had been sitting in a
damp garden shed for years, they welded real good. Lashed out a while
ago and bought a little DC inverter welder and a LCD helmet -
wonderful inventions, both of them. Highly recommended.


Murex is not a quality rod.
They are just slightly better than the chinese stuff.
To drive moisture out of low-hydrogen rod takes closer to 300 degF for
several hours.

Cellulosic rods like 6011 and 6010 don't really mind a little moisture.
If these are something close to 6013 then they just need to be dry, but
not heated.

No listing of GP rod on their website.

The basic flux formulas are pretty old and there is massive variation
between makers.

Not sure what is the most common rod in Australia, but you should try
for something like a 6011 rod.
Good penetration, ductile weld and very forgiving as to machine.


Any explanations on whats going on and how I fix it, or do I just bin
them and buy some more Chinese ones.....saw some at the markets on
Sunday, $4.50 for 2.5Kg - sounds too cheap to be anything but junk,
but I don't know. Tempted to buy some jsut to stuff around....

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....


Vertical down for thin stuff, vertical up for heavy stuff.
The transition point is around 1/4" thick.


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?.....


Zinc oxide fumes.....BAD.

And and and.........finally found out what a "Dead Blow" hammer is
USED for - people here had kindly explained what it was, but last week
in Milling class was shown how to use it - used for setting job in
vice as it doesn't bounce and so the job doesn't recoil either....

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 .....

And milling machines are a pig to clean down after use - they generate
so many chips, and with coolant flooding a job, is messy as all hell.
Have to factor in extra time at the end of the day to do it, so loose
valuable "machining out of tolerance" time.....and those rubber
concertina guards over the table, best chip catchers ever invented I
reckon....

and and and.....can anyone out there can point me to plans (free) for
a SIMPLE flat bar bender - got some "honey do" projects, - (I thin
kit was Don Foreman who coined that phrase - very useful and
descriptive for the household projects) the ones I have seen have
been too complicated for a novice like me, they are adjustable for
different sizes of bar, either by different size dies or cam
adjustments - I am happy to make it "one size only" for the few things
I want to make...

regards,

Andrew VK3BFA.

On Aug 30, 3:24 pm, Ernie Leimkuhler
wrote:
In article om,
Andrew VK3BFA wrote:



Hey good people - welding stuff first, as its driving me nuts........

My welding is getting reasonable, the welds don't break when I hit
them with a 5lb hammer. Slag (usually) chips off in one piece with
minimal effort. I reckon thats pretty acceptable - know bugger all
about stress engineering, so I cross brace everything I am going to
stand on 20ft up in the air so if 1 or 2 break, I don't go whoops....

Question - I finally used up a box of "El Cheapo" Chinese rods. Was
doing alright with them. Decided to damn the expense, and bought 2.5Kg
of "MUREX" GP rods. Their bloody awful - splutter, wont hold an arc,
hard to strike an arc, stick to the job. Thought it might be they had
gone hygroscopic, even though it was a sealed in plastic pack. So kept
em warm (on top of the PC monitor) for about a week now. Still weld
crap. Slightly better (but still crappy) results if I crank up the
current to 80 amps, the previous ones ran fine on 65 amps. So, what
gives - tonight, I got really ****ed off and rummaged through the
junkbox and found 2 CIG 'Satincraft" rods that had been sitting in a
damp garden shed for years, they welded real good. Lashed out a while
ago and bought a little DC inverter welder and a LCD helmet -
wonderful inventions, both of them. Highly recommended.

Murex is not a quality rod.
They are just slightly better than the chinese stuff.
To drive moisture out of low-hydrogen rod takes closer to 300 degF for
several hours.

Cellulosic rods like 6011 and 6010 don't really mind a little moisture.
If these are something close to 6013 then they just need to be dry, but
not heated.

No listing of GP rod on their website.

The basic flux formulas are pretty old and there is massive variation
between makers.

Not sure what is the most common rod in Australia, but you should try
for something like a 6011 rod.
Good penetration, ductile weld and very forgiving as to machine.

Any explanations on whats going on and how I fix it, or do I just bin
them and buy some more Chinese ones.....saw some at the markets on
Sunday, $4.50 for 2.5Kg - sounds too cheap to be anything but junk,
but I don't know. Tempted to buy some jsut to stuff around....

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....

Vertical down for thin stuff, vertical up for heavy stuff.
The transition point is around 1/4" thick.

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?.....

Zinc oxide fumes.....BAD.

And and and.........finally found out what a "Dead Blow" hammer is
USED for - people here had kindly explained what it was, but last week
in Milling class was shown how to use it - used for setting job in
vice as it doesn't bounce and so the job doesn't recoil either....

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 .....

And milling machines are a pig to clean down after use - they generate
so many chips, and with coolant flooding a job, is messy as all hell.
Have to factor in extra time at the end of the day to do it, so loose
valuable "machining out of tolerance" time.....and those rubber
concertina guards over the table, best chip catchers ever invented I
reckon....

and and and.....can anyone out there can point me to plans (free) for
a SIMPLE flat bar bender - got some "honey do" projects, - (I thin
kit was Don Foreman who coined that phrase - very useful and
descriptive for the household projects) the ones I have seen have
been too complicated for a novice like me, they are adjustable for
different sizes of bar, either by different size dies or cam
adjustments - I am happy to make it "one size only" for the few things
I want to make...

regards,

Andrew VK3BFA.

Thank you to all who replied. The MUREX rods I am struggling with are
grade 6013. From the recommendations here, will try some 6011 if I can
track them down. Locally, (here in OZ) CIG "Ferrocraft" are 6011. Used
the MUREX ones again today, getting better but do need upwards of 80
amps , even then the arc is "growly" - but it does give good
penetration - I mainly weld 1.6mm square section tubing. Thanks too
re the galvanizing warnings - will definitely grind it off in
future....

Sigh....every time I ask a question, get lots of answers so I wind up
doing research and finding even a simple query on some aspect of
metalworking can fill an encyclopedia! But thats fine, appreciate the
time and effort you people put in....

Andrew VK3BFA.

"Andrew VK3BFA" wrote in message
ps.com...

Thank you to all who replied. The MUREX rods I am struggling with are
grade 6013. From the recommendations here, will try some 6011 if I can
track them down. Locally, (here in OZ) CIG "Ferrocraft" are 6011. Used
the MUREX ones again today, getting better but do need upwards of 80
amps , even then the arc is "growly" - but it does give good
penetration - I mainly weld 1.6mm square section tubing. Thanks too
re the galvanizing warnings - will definitely grind it off in
future....

The muriatic (dilute hydrochloric) acid treatment works very well, and saves
work. I ran an experiment four or five years ago, dipping the last six
inches of some tubes in muriatic for around 20 minutes, until the zinc was
gone; rinsing them in plain water very well; and then putting them on a
shelf in my humid basement. There's still no rust on them. Concerns about
retained salts seem to be overstated.

I've also welded a number of such tubes without producing any zinc fumes. I
weld with O/A, which should require a longer span without zinc than other
welding methods.

However, I also wear a disposable 3M mask made just for preventing zinc-fume
fever whenever I weld the stuff. I got a dose of the fever once and I don't
ever want to get it again. As others have said, it's like a nasty dose of
the flu. And the milk recommended here is the recommended medical treatment.
It's not an old wives' tale.

Have fun. It makes for some cheap welding, which is what I am -- a cheap
welder. g

--
Ed Huntress