Nice man even delivered it practically to the farm! Its a swivel base jobbie with an anvil flat on the back. Needs some soft jaws but other than that its great, i feel like a proper man now and for only £25 (which i guess is a lot, but i've been after one for ages and this is near enough new.
next i moved the gas bottle to the farm today (big fat fucking thing);
Had to put it on the cabinet as the air hose is too short. It also wont fit on the trolley very well (which was made for a 3/4 bottle). Found that some tit (previous owner called Mike) had put the spindle bobbins on the wrong wayaround so there was no tention on the wire spindle and it was jammed against the case and wouldnot turn. Now fixed!
here is the first play with it;
started on the left and worked to the right. I'd say thats pretty quick setting up for me? started with too much line speed, WAY too much gas (halfed what i started with from left to right) and not quite enough juice.
The stuff on the right has pretty good penetration i reckon;
and the last settings i messed with gave me this;
I'm quite happy all in all but relise i SO need a decent pillar drill now, can't be bothered with plug welding if i have to drill all the holes by hand. God knows what i'm gonna do if i have to move down s***h though, where will i put all my shit
Right questions for Phil time;
- How do those welds look and what do i need to improve it, at the moment i'm trading off speed of torch movement for power as the electics at the farm are erm interesting!
- Just to check the wire spindle should rotate freely and NOT be stuck stiff against the side of the machine?
- Where can i get longer gas pipe from and is there anything specific i should be looking for in the pipe (clear, braided etc)
- How much different will welding stainless be other than needing stainless wire?
- What guage metal should i be looking to use for building the trailer? I'm half tempted to see if a scrappy will sell me a couple of BX/Xantia/Xsara roofs cut with the stihl!