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  1. #16
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    Ross
    I managed to give my new Miniarc 200stl inverter welder a quick go this arvo. Only used not quite a full rod (3.2 GP rod) but so far I am impressed with it.

    These are the same rods I had all sorts of problems with when I was using the old welder recently. On that occasion I had even had some in the oven for an hour or so to make sure they were totally dry. Today I just grabbed one straight from the packet (which is at least 15 years old) and laid down a couple of reasonable runs considering I haven't really used a stick much for over 20 years. was using it on around 75 amps
    So far so good.

    peter

  2. #17
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    Peter, fancy ever having to dry out electrodes in an oven.....I've got a lot to learn about this game ! I assume this is the unit you're referring to, and if so, I'll further research its potential reliability and suitability for my tinkering purposes, refer; https://weldingstore.tokentools.com....iniarc-205-stl
    Ross

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chimbu View Post
    Peter, fancy ever having to dry out electrodes in an oven.....I've got a lot to learn about this game !
    yes - standard procedure. in fact you can buy electrode ovens for the workshop. Keeps them hot all the time.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chimbu View Post
    I assume this is the unit you're referring to, and if so, I'll further research its potential reliability and suitability for my tinkering purposes, refer; https://weldingstore.tokentools.com....iniarc-205-stl
    Ross
    Yes thats it. So far (after only using 1 rod so early yet) I'm impressed with it.
    peter

  4. #19
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    only low hydrogen rods need drying or keeping dry. 601x (6011, 6012, 6013) don't. in fact I've heard of people deliberately wetting them - can't remember why though.
    Cheers, Joe
    retired - less energy, more time to contemplate projects and more shed time....

  5. #20
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    There you go Joe.
    I'm just thinking back to when I worked in the real world and the Boilermakers used to keep all their rods in the electrode oven. In light of what you say, then maybe they did that just to keep all the rods in the same place. With the general purpose rods I have I have never bothered to put them in an oven until recently when I was having a lot of trouble with the old welder. Thought that maybe at their age maybe the rods I had, had a bit of moisture in the flux.

    peter

  6. #21
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    I found some references to wetting 601x rods: when they are wetted, you can use them for CUTTING steel or cast iron with the amps cranked right up
    So NOT for welding! Although a certain moisture content is apparently required to produce the shielding gas from the flux - something to do with the water vapour driving out the other parts of the CO2 producing chemicals.....
    Cheers, Joe
    retired - less energy, more time to contemplate projects and more shed time....

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by jhovel View Post
    only low hydrogen rods need drying or keeping dry. 601x (6011, 6012, 6013) don't. in fact I've heard of people deliberately wetting them - can't remember why though.
    To elaborate further on Jim's points, indeed some of the old timers on pipeline jobs had a glass milk bottle ( if you can remember them ) filled with water and dipped the electrode then flicked off the excess.
    The reason was that in the hot desert-like areas, the dry heat sucked out the natural moisture designed to make the electrode fire up.

    Know that 6010 & 6011/ 4110 &411 series electrodes already came from the factory with almost 2% moisture content in the cellulose (wood pulp) flux.

    GP electrodes will survive nicely in an appropriate length of PVC plumbers pipe with a cap on each end.One is glued the other a snug to push fit. With some silica gel pkts (from my meds) I have electrodes over ten years old that still ignite well.

    The home diyer won't need an oven unless he is using Hydrogen controlled electrodes on high tensile steel.

    To explain, the moisture ( H2O ) from moist airsucked up into the Hydrogen controlled electrode breaks up under heat of the arc into oxygen and hydrogen. On construction with high tensile steel the hydrogen lays at the bead root and expands causing cracking and subsequent failures.

    Some the Americans incorrectly think that using hydrogen controlled electrodes makes the mild steel weld stronger.This is untrue on mild low carbon steel as the LC steel is the weak link,having a lower tensile failure point than the higher tensile steel for which the low hydrogen electrodes are the correct application.

    What do you say guys,can we move this thread over to welding as its getting longer than ben hur and will be more appropriate there.

    Grahame

  8. #23
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    Grahame.,
    Thanks for the info. Now that you have mentioned this I have vague memories of one of the old Ace boilermakers patiently trying to instil a lot of this into me when I was a young fitter. Unfortunately he forgot to to plug up one of my ears so most of this ran out as quickly as he tried to put it in.

    Re moving this to the welding forum. I'm cool with that.
    thanks
    peter

  9. #24
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    Guess who’s happy !? Rather than potentially wasting $200 on 20L of Benzoil’s transformer oriented oil in the process of undertaking a complete oil change I elected to follow the advice of a couple of folk to simply top up the Oxford’s tank with synthetic engine oil. Well, after adding about 2.5L of Castrol Magnatec 5W-30 (in addition to replacing the slightly melted 10 Amp plug with a 15 Amp unit and installing a dedicated 15 Amp power point in my workshop) I fired up the ancient Oxford and was pleasantly surprised to readily produce a rather pleasing weld. So, hereafter, I’m keen to seek further welding related advice from experienced members on this forum in addition to most likely undertaking a related course at my local TAFE.

  10. #25
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    Chimbu,
    That is very good news indeed. My money is on your first project being a welding bench.

    Some members post a photograph of their weld.

    A number of the blokes on the forum are able to "read" the weld and offer constructive advice on how to improve.

    Grahame

  11. #26
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    Grahame, regarding a welding bench - some time ago I constructed a relatively sturdy but readily portable bench for working on odd projects outside my workshop (1.8 x 1.2m sheet of 17mm Formply, with 90 x 45mm laminated Solidstart LVL beams forming an underside perimeter, plus 2 supportive middle oriented cross beams, in addition to end pairs between which height adjustable 'Toughbuilt Sawhorse C700' stands readily slot. Accordingly, this ‘bench’ will now also be used for welding purposes as I don’t fancy being directly exposed to the associated harmful fumes inside my 4.4 x 3.8m workshop (regardless of having 2 powerful wall mounted fans) – I’ll post some related pics tomorrow, including my crude / novice attempt at welding, for optional appraisal by whoever ! Some additional notes about the old war horse Oxford - the earth & arc leads are 10mm by about 4.5m, the electrode holder's a 'MYKING' unit / made in Norway. For better or worse, I acquired a UniMig RWX 6000 Automatic Welding Helmet, refer; RWX6000 UNIMIG Automatic Welding Helmet - Unimig[/h]

  12. #27
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    Hi Chimbu
    It looks like you are up and running then. The Norwegian electrode holder will be good quality as are your leads. One area to check for is dirty output terminal connections.

    Unbolt them ( machine switched off of course) if you can and give the contact faces a bit of a buff up with a wire brush.

    After years of storage the faces crud up with verdigris or similar reducing electrical contact. The corrosion reduces electrical contact and makes the electrode harder to strike. A dead giveaway is the connections becoming hot after a bit of welding.

    Treat the earth clamp in a similar manner and don't miss the brass jaw contacts where they contact the bench.

    It not so much of a problem with the modern Euro connectors but the old bolt together jobbies need maintenance every once and a while. If you have some Neversieze it works well in preserving corrosion in the bolt up connections.
    The welding helmet is a good mid range unit .A tip on that one is to hang it on a wall hook covered a clear plastic bag when not in use.The battery can still be charged by the available light through the sensors,but the clear bag keeps the dust and muck thats in the air from coating the clear cover lense. The coverlenses are replacable but worth a few dollars.

    Bollie7.
    I have the earlier model to yours - the Metalmaster 180 a great little welder through the bloody leads are too short.

    Grahame

  13. #28
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    Hi Grahame, sincere thanks for the sound advice about carefully cleaning the no doubt dirty output terminal connections and the earth clamp - the associated bonuses being potentially increased electrical contact, easier electrode strikes and less readily hot connections. Fantastic !

    Similarly, the notion of wisely storing the helmet in a clear plastic bag such that the sensors are exposed to the light, thus effectively charging the battery and, in the process, protecting the cover lens from all manner of airborne matter in my workshop.

    I greatly appreciate folk like yourself passing on their related expertise, for the benefit of all members - particularly novice tinkerers like myself. Keep it up !
    Ross

  14. #29
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    Grahame, the output terminals were surprisingly not overly coated with crud, regardless, I thoroughly cleaned all related contact points. Thereafter, in the course of having another tinkering session, the workshop's dedicated Clipsal 20A 30mA safety fuse questionably tripped twice. Note, as mentioned, I've replaced the previous owner's slightly melted 10 Amp plug with a 15 Amp unit. In turn, I elected to check and tighten the Oxford's input terminals - thankfully it hasn't tripped since (here's hoping I've permanently fixed the issue). Otherwise, I've attached a couple of pics of my 'stored' outside work bench plus my not so pretty first attempt at welding with the old beast. Yes, it's certainly a somewhat crude and unsightly weld but I'm for any critiques.......accordingly, I'll hopefully improve my absolutely novice technique !
    Ross
    Attached Images Attached Images

  15. #30
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    You might want to throw a sheet of thin MS onto the form ply before using it as a welding table. I had a 900 x 900 x 50 mm jarrah topped workbench welded up from an old bed frame I used occasionally as a welding table for years and when I did so I covered it with a piece of 2mm thick MS.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chimbu View Post
    . . . as I don’t fancy being directly exposed to the associated harmful fumes inside my 4.4 x 3.8m workshop (regardless of having 2 powerful wall mounted fans)
    Good to see you are taking fumes into consideration and working outside is one approach.

    As your workshop is small your fans might have enough grunt to cope with welding inside it.

    A fair criterion to use for fine dust (which behaves the same way as fumes) extraction for a DIY is around 20 room air changes per hour (RC/hr).

    Assuming your shed is 2.4m high internally, that makes your shed volume 40 m^3 and this means to meet the 20 RC/hr the fans have to have a capacity of about 800 m^3/hr.

    Budget level (ie $20) 250mm bath room fans typically have a claimed capacity of 300-400 m^3/hr hour while the more expensive one claim up to 500 m^3/hr but the claims are generally overstated by as much as a factor of 2. Nevertheless, 4 budget level bathroom fans would be enough for your shed.

    The positioning of the fans is important, eg it's not much use having the fans near to the main opening where air comes it. Fans can be wall mounted as long as they are high up on the wall above the work area. Because welding fumes are hot they rise up to just under the roof and spread along the air up near the roof and then the dust rains down all over the shed as it cools.

    FWIW have 2 variable speed fans in my shed that can extract up to 48 RC/hr. One fan is inside a dedicated welding bay / fume hood/canopy and the other fan is located at the highest point in the shed ceiling in the middle of the shed. I can also extract shed air by turning on my wood dust collection system this then gives me a total of 65 RC/hr although this does not collect from up near the roof line.

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