The Home Machinist!

Here's a pic of my root and face bends I did today. They are in 3/8" plate with a 60 degree V-groove joint. I ground a small land on it and the root opening was a 1/4" opening with a back up bar on it. The welds were all layed with 1/8" 7018. Umm I think that's all I have to say about...

I was using about 80 amps give or take ten amps. My Squarewave 175 doesn't have any exact amperage indicators sense it is mainly a TIG machine, so I just get it close and then fine tune it until it feels good. As for the electrode, I was using 1/8" 6013. Thank you for you comments!

I got bored the other day and went out and practiced some stick on my Squarewave 175. I wanted to do TIG but my grinder pooped out /ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif"%20alt=" . Anywho, here are a few on about 1/8" or a little thicker plate with 6013. These were all done in the horizontal...

Planet X, I agree, I'm just gonna hang onto my 175 because I don't have much n eed for the few extras on the new 185 or the need to weld 3" bars together [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif"%20alt="[/img]. I'm still chuckling at the wife comment, I think I'll need to wait on that one...

Planet X sounds awesome. Post some pics of stuff when you get it going man, can't wait to see! I hear ya on that new 185. It kind of ticked me off becuase I had such a delay on getting my 175 Squarewave, and about a half month after I bought it, they put out that new machine...grrrr...Oh well, my 17...

Amen brother! Haha. I know how you feel about the blue boards too. They are getting a few more of us red guys though. For what it's worth, I've had my SW175 for over a month now, and it's never even gotten close to getting in it's duty cycle...or anything even close to less than awesome performance....

Let's see the backside of the gap! That's the side that shows if ya know what you're doing! haha, I have a feeling you do, i'm just playin, wouldn't mind seeing the back of the groove though. PS Did you get that set-up for practice from a student book? It looks just like the steps i had to do to pas...

Jeeze! The list of features on those machines never end! Sounds like they would almost do everything for you. They look like they are built to take industry stuff, specially because of the arc length meter and things like that. I doubt many home welders will have someone stand there and watch the me...

Jacin, I'm a newcomer to lathes and mills. I've been in welding a while and hammer forming sheetmetal. My question is, would you deem it safe for a begginer machinist to try spinning? Any advice for starting out would be appreciated. Those bells, by the way, look like they could be professionally ma...

Just in case, Sometimes a welder can weld stagered beads and reduce the distortion of the weldement. I.E. one inch on this side, and inch opposite, one inch here, one inch opposite, etc etc...I can't speak for you exact application though. Just a thought [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif"%20...

Heliarc is an older term when the shielding gas was exclusively helium I thought Heliarc was actually a brand name a long time ago, and people stuck calling TIG welders Heliarcs...Just trying to learn which is right, not trying to criticize! Sort of makes me think of "Lincoln Lockers" in ...

I imagine you should be alright with that, 16 ga. isn't bad at all to weld with mig, just go as slow as you need to and no less. Just watch for burn through and warpage and you should be okay. Just have fun and watch carefully. It seems like you are pretty experianced and smart, so I don't doubt tha...