The Home Machinist!

If you can find a autodark welding helmet that is dead - odds are great that one of the batteries had died. After 4 or 5 years that is what happened to mine. My posting in a different group: http://groups.google.com/group/sci.engr.joining.welding/browse_thread/thread/f7eec9722162d765/6a25ac5f0c1b797...

My memory is not what I remember it to be. The Tinman's spool of welding wire was ER1100 - a rather thin diameter - probably good if you are welding wheetmetal. The AL welding rod that I bought was ER4043 (not a 5xxx). The 4043 has silicon added to it to improve wetting/flow and to minimize cracking...

I am very much a self taught welding novice (with much more steel than AL experience). I first TIG'ed a few AL projects and then switched jobs and no longer have TIG access (really sucks!!) so I have been forced to do a few projects using Oxy-Acet. The largest difference bwtween TIG and gas welding ...

PeteH:

Thanks for the heads up. I was changing the filter frequently (as soon as the filter gauze was paint colored) when painting - just to keep the efficiency of the filter up.

I had garbage picked a rack with small metal drawers - it was too good to pass up but I had no idea where to mount it and what to put into it. Then a couple of months later I saw an image on another list where someone mounted drawers under their lathe and suddenly I knew where to mount my drawer rac...

I have a general paint fume / smoke extraction set up in my workshop garage. I removed a squirrel cage blower from an older furnace (decades old furnace where the squirrel cage blower motor is belt driven). I cut a hole in the ceiling of the garage and fabricated an enclosure above the pass thru hol...

Lacking TIG access (always used the shop at previous employers) for the last 4 years, I bought the Tinman's lenses - I figured my eyes are worth it. My opinion is that looking thru the Tinman's lenses was the same as looking thru the welding hood lens while using the TIG. I've only done a few pieces...

Thank you to all of yoiu that posted safety related information. I have considered getting a small grinder, bid on a couple of them but they did not sell at my pricepoint at the time. I am very glad to have read this thread before owning a grinder.

Thanks to both of you for posting your gear making information. I attended a gear cutting seminar at NAMES this Saturday and bewteen the lecturer's talk/video/handout and your postings here I feel that I now 'could' make a simple gear!