Why we don't fix stuff

[Breckinridge Elkins]

Looks like the problem has been solved but did you check Harbor Freight?

 

[pdqdl]

plasma is really nice for cutting sheet metal and expanded metal.

I hate it when my sheet metal warps. Get a big cutoff saw for expanded metal. So fast, so strait the cuts.

 

[aokpops]

I just fix my own stuff. We reach the advance teacher age. I only see if you are not smart. The only gift they have is call you out you writing skills. They fell happy . How about figure building a rafter truss. When lives and effort are put on the line. For the most part people get happy when they trash people.A system that is going . Not to far in the future there will be big trouble on getting any thing fixed .

 

[kanga kuta]

I am as good at welding ox-acetylene as anyone I have met, and I have used the coat hangers and the purchased rods, side by side. I like coat hangers better. The fancy rust resistant plating on the rods doesn't help fuse the metals, in my opinion. Plus, it kinda sparkles up a bit when heated. I don't use that method except where I cannot do arc welding, though. Arc welding sucks on rusty gas tanks and exhause systems. Yes. I have welded up lots of gas tanks with pinhole leaks and rusty spots. It's a specialized skill that most welders won't touch.

I have yet to see a plasma cutter that can match the capacity and versatility of my cutting torch. Plasma cutters are great for manufacturing processes. The cuts are remarkably clean and don't contract as much, they gnaw right through any metal they come to, even stainless. They are totally worthless down the square hole from a two-speed shifter in a differential, cutting off a stripped axle that cannot be pulled out. Ohhhh yes! That was a fiery, smoky mess. I even had to by a new torch handle, so as to accommodate a new straight-cut torch tip. Almost all of 'em are set at 90°.

Plasma cutters are not worth a crap on a 2" diameter bolt holding a blade carrier on the bottom of a brush mower on a tractor, either, and pretty useless for anything more than 1/2" thick, too. I'm sure there is a plasma cutter for nearly any situation, but the average guy doesn't have the means for lots of fancy welding stuff.

BTW: acetylene is a bad plan for soldering, too. It's much too hot.

The manufactured welding rods chemical composition is designed to assist replacement of elements that are "burned up" in the welding process.

 

[Mad Professor]

I am as good at welding ox-acetylene as anyone I have met, and I have used the coat hangers and the purchased rods, side by side. I like coat hangers better. The fancy rust resistant plating on the rods doesn't help fuse the metals, in my opinion. Plus, it kinda sparkles up a bit when heated. I don't use that method except where I cannot do arc welding, though. Arc welding sucks on rusty gas tanks and exhause systems. Yes. I have welded up lots of gas tanks with pinhole leaks and rusty spots. It's a specialized skill that most welders won't touch.

I have yet to see a plasma cutter that can match the capacity and versatility of my cutting torch. Plasma cutters are great for manufacturing processes. The cuts are remarkably clean and don't contract as much, they gnaw right through any metal they come to, even stainless. They are totally worthless down the square hole from a two-speed shifter in a differential, cutting off a stripped axle that cannot be pulled out. Ohhhh yes! That was a fiery, smoky mess. I even had to by a new torch handle, so as to accommodate a new straight-cut torch tip. Almost all of 'em are set at 90°.

Plasma cutters are not worth a crap on a 2" diameter bolt holding a blade carrier on the bottom of a brush mower on a tractor, either, and pretty useless for anything more than 1/2" thick, too. I'm sure there is a plasma cutter for nearly any situation, but the average guy doesn't have the means for lots of fancy welding stuff.

BTW: acetylene is a bad plan for soldering, too. It's much too hot.

I'll agree with most of the above. I've welded thin sheet with a torch and even with a stick welder. Put whole quarter panels in seamless, with bronze braze. Done lots of braze on exhausts. Gas tanks gotta be sure to get all the fumes out first.

You can solder with them if you have a tiny tip. I've done radiator repairs.

I too have cut the rusty bolts on my rotary cutter blades that were 30 years old, and rusty u-bolts that hold rear ends in. Only thing about cutting, is I don't have full size tanks and it uses up a lot of gas. I had a good friend who owned a junkyard that would let me pull my own parts. I used his torches. His tanks were huge but he moved them around with a loader.

They are also wonderful for heating up rusted on frozen nuts, that would snap the bolt/stud if twisted otherwise even when treated with the best penatrating oil.

 

[cookies]

Anyone price out acet/oxygen tank refills lately? its friggen nuts! It's doubled in the last year and a half here!

 

[northmanlogging]

My muffler cover has some small cracks and I wanted to braze it. I had no rod so called around and the hardware stores don't carry it. The welding supply place requires you to buy one pound for $30. The aftermarket covers are less than that.

couple years ago, broke a fuel line on a cummins getting off a ferry (kingston WA) luckily I was in a Service truck, so all the tools you can shake a stick at, but no brazing rod.
There is a hardware store a few blocks from the ferry terminal, called them up, they brought me 3 sticks of prefluxed rod. brazed the damned thing back together right there on the dock with a crowd watching... (last I checked its still brazed and still running just fine 4? 5? years now)

Anyhow, if yer hardware store doesn't have at least 1 pound boxes of various welding and filler rods, find a different hardware store. The weld shops are catering to professional welders, I wouldn't expect them to sell single sticks of any filler material. Besides its not like the stuff goes bad.
Also, in a pinch you can use just about any brass to braze with, just use a little borax for flux and away you go, I've used broken Cymbals, belt buckles, scrap parts from when I was a machinist, its just metal and yer melting it anyway. (nails, coat hangers, lots of stuff make decent filler materials in a pinch)

 

[ATpro]

Convert over to propane, much better tip life, cheaper to operate, safer, and you can buy fuel gas almost anywhere. Most scrap yards use propane for fuel gas for cutting and heating.

 

[northmanlogging]

I'd like to see someone demonstrate a high quality weld done with steel rods under an acetylene flame. I think it's pretty well established that there are much better ways to get a good weld. You can call it a "reducing flame" until you are blue in the face, but that cannot compare with MIG, TIG, and flux shielded welding.

That being said, many of the early battleships were constructed with gas-welded steel, using sophisticated acetylene generators and a regulated water drip falling on "carbide" (calcium carbide). Still, the strength of the welds simply wasn't as good as arc welding, nor as fast. That technique was abandoned long ago.

I've done good enough with steel. Made a more or less matches set of hand axes out of circular saw blades with mild steel hoops for the handles to attach, the blades broke long before the welds did (these were hellasiously good throwing axes, would stick 90% of the time no matter who threw em, and would punch through sheet steel like butter, I gave them away, and they got stolen...)
But in a pinch you can use oxy/fuel to weld aluminum as well, works really good on thin stuff. Easier then TIG cause it doesn't necessarily need to be clean clean, and a little flux goes a long ways.

 

[.358 win]

I learned brazing in high school, but that was over 20 years ago.

Even today, I don't do any torch brazing, only TIG brazing. Not sure how well silicone bronze would work for torch brazing, I might not have had a rod I could give Rupedoggy after all, even if we were neighbors.

Last time I ran out of wire for brazing, I used a piece of coat hanger.. Don't laugh ,, it works.

 

[TN Cattleman]

Convert over to propane, much better tip life, cheaper to operate, safer, and you can buy fuel gas almost anywhere. Most scrap yards use propane for fuel gas for cutting and heating.

Plus one on this, went to propane/oxygen around 15 years ago, works well for what I do.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Last time I ran out of wire for brazing, I used a piece of coat hanger.. Don't laugh ,, it works.

Yep, been there too.

I need a plasma cutter. Just need power, no running out of gas and having to run to town.

 

[ATpro]

Plus one on this, went to propane/oxygen around 15 years ago, works well for what I do.

With tig/mig/stick not much use for brazing, the only reason for using acet/oxygen is it get hotter, up to 6296 °F, propane 4,600 °F. For heating and cutting propane at 4,600 °F will do the job but may take a little longer to pre-heat and a little slower in the cut.

As far as MIG, the gas and wire properties determine weld quality, and the properties of the metal determine what process to use, as in the combination of wire and gas.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I have a Miller Mig Welder, a Lincoln stick welder, two each oxygen acet tanks with Victor Journeyman regulators.

And, I'm not worth a damn with any of it.

 

[Franny K]

Plus one on this, went to propane/oxygen around 15 years ago, works well for what I do.

What you do isn't to put a steel torch weld tack and then do the repair or work with the capillary action of brazing. Occasionally oxy propane or oxy natural gas is preferable but usually the smaller more precicse flame with acetylene (sets now come with very few tips) is worth it.

 

[Mad Professor]

Anyone price out acet/oxygen tank refills lately? its friggen nuts! It's doubled in the last year and a half here!

I did for my small ones. If I remember about $80 for both.

 

[TN Cattleman]

With tig/mig/stick not much use for brazing, the only reason for using acet/oxygen is it get hotter, up to 6296 °F, propane 4,600 °F. For heating and cutting propane at 4,600 °F will do the job but may take a little longer to pre-heat and a little slower in the cut.

As far as MIG, the gas and wire properties determine weld quality, and the properties of the metal determine what process to use, as in the combination of wire and gas.

I agree with you on propane/oxygen being slower at heating and cutting and you will notice the slowness for sure on larger steel. If I worked steel for a living I would have acetylene, but for my use on the farm propane serves the purpose.

 

[Mad Professor]

I have a Miller Mig Welder, a Lincoln stick welder, two each oxygen acet tanks with Victor Journeyman regulators.

And, I'm not worth a damn with any of it.

Did they have industrial arts programs in your HS? Should have taken them.....

When I was in HS I was taking all the college AP courses: biology, chemistry, physics, full year of calculus.....

Guidance counselor asked why I was taking metal fab/power mechanics? Like those were "inferior" courses. Reply, "I needed electives, the teacher is wonderful, and I learn a lot of useful stuff....". I was building my own dirt bikes/hot rods at the time.

We were fortunate to have a great IA teacher. Knew his **** and passed on what he knew. You could bring in your own stuff as a project for the semester.

I took all the AP courses and metal fab/power mech the HS offered. Graduated with highest honors in my class math/science (99% on Physics AP test), never got less than an A in the industrial arts either.

I'm using those industrial arts skills still more now than ever.........never regretted taking them

 

[Sidecarflip]

but that is about the only place it offers advantages with handheld rigs in my experience.

I use my Hypertherm more on my CNC plasma table than anywhere else. I cut my own parts for my steel motorcycle accessories. Much less than having it jobbed out.

I started out with a gas axe and I've welded more stuff with old metal coat hangers than I can recall and some of that is still out there in wonderland. OA welding is an excellent leadup to TIG because it's a 2 handed operation. Only difference is the filler rod has to be kept in the shielding gas envelope. I do SMAW as well. Have an engine drive Lincoln and I do in field work with that. Of course my favorite welding discipline is MIG (solid wire with shielding gas). and Spray Arc transfer. Easy, no learning curve other than good penetration and it's quick and the newest MIG welders (pulsed MIG) give a TIG appearance to the weld in about 1/3 the travel time. ESAB makes a nice outfit.

 

[ZeroJunk]

Did they have industrial arts programs in your HS? Should have taken them.....

When I was in HS I was taking all the college AP courses: biology, chemistry, physics, full year of calculus.....

Guidance counselor asked why I was taking metal fab/power mechanics? Like those were "inferior" courses. Reply, "I needed electives, the teacher is wonderful, and I learn a lot of useful stuff....". I was building my own dirt bikes/hot rods at the time.

We were fortunate to have a great IA teacher. Knew his **** and passed on what he knew. You could bring in your own stuff as a project for the semester.

I took all the AP courses and metal fab/power mech the HS offered. Graduated with highest honors in my class math/science (99% on Physics AP test), never got less than an A in the industrial arts either.

I'm using those industrial arts skills still more now than ever.........never regretted taking them

I'm actually a fair stick welder because I have done a lot of it. But, typically it is on farm implements where you are looking at 1/4 inch thick stuff up. Get your heat right and go.
Mig is new to me. I put patch panels on my Ford truck. Basically spot, cool, spot, cool, and grind it down.
Looks better than it did rusted out is about all I can say.

I really don't see why he can't Mig his muffler the same way.


My father taught carpentry in high school for 30 years or so. They did carpentry, brick laying, drafting, agriculture. At one point electrical wiring, but the apprentice program overtook that.

Never any welding