Got me a stick welder!

[jasonf]

When Farm Family was still around I got 2 rod cases. These were about 2 feet long 4" cylinders, made of plastic, and had screw tops on them that had gaskets under the cap. When screwed down tight it made a nice moisture proof seal. I don't think they were very expensive and, since I got a few, I am able to store the rods by grade. I'm sure they are commonplace in the welding supply stores.

One day when I get my shop I will have everything set up properly. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] (I have been saying this since I was 12 Yrs old, but it will happen one day, really it will [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] ) [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[AndyF]

>> The jointer sounds like a great buy. Congrats!

I think it'll do some good work for me once I get it running. It came with a 3 phase motor and I don't have 3 phase in the woodshop. I've pulled the motor out and can't figure out how to get the pulley off. It's a two belt pulley and has what looks like an inner hub and the outer pulley pressed together with two set screws threaded between them. This isn't a good description, but its a different type of pulley than I've ever seen. Once I get the pulley off, I'll install a 1 hp single phase motor and be in business.

Anyone have any ideas how to get the pulley off?

[bigbukhntr]

the pulley has whats called a tapered lock bushing on it...very common place in the industrial world.....take the bolts out of the holes they are in now, and screw them into the threaded holes...it will push the bushing off of the pulley, thus breaking the taper loose and allowing you to remove the pulley and the bushing...if the bushing is too tight (rusted)to get off the shaft, , there will be a slot in the bushig in which you can drive a small chisel into, which will spread the inside of the bushing enough for it to slide right off the shaft....reinstall just the opposite way, spreading the bushing, puttting the 3 screws back into the clearance holes and thread them into the pulley, thus drawing the taper back up nice and straight and very tight!...
it may sound complicated, but it actually takes longer to tell you how to do it than it will take to actually do it!

good luck!

[AndyF]

>> the pulley has whats called a tapered lock bushing on it

Thanks for the step by step directions. The pulley came off pretty easily so now I'm ready for the next step - chasing down a single phase motor for the jointer.

[Pat]

I got some Army surplus cylindrical tubes with O-ring gasketed screw on lids. They have handles on the sides. I think they were for mortar rounds or some such. They are a little longer than needed for standard length welding electrodes but are handy with the handle, air tight with O-ring, and were a lot cheaper than the stuff sold at wellding supply houses. The only downside is that the O-ring tends to fall off easily as the Army probably didn't care what happened after the round was removed.

Here is a design that I did for rod storage that is easy and cheap to build, works fine, lasts a long time, and no animals were injured in its development. Select a piece of PVC pipe (scrap or...) and glue a cap on one end. Near the other end cut a grove to accept an O-Ring (only an itsy bitsy part of the O-ring sticks up beyond the OD of the pipe.) Another pipe cap is slid onto the O-ring end and seals air tight on the O-Ring.

If you sand the OD of the pipe down a little or sand the ID of the cap for more clearance it will go on and off easier. Of course you use course to remove material but need to go through the grits a bit to end up with a fairly slick surface. If you chuck the pipe in a lathe before gluing the one end cap on it is easy to sand or turn the other end down a bit and to cut the O-ring grove.

The quick and dirty version is just glue a cap on one end and wax the other end to reduce friction and just push the lid on and off.

About using a microwave for rod storage... They are NOT air tight and probably won't work very good unless sealed up a lot. Rod can be baked a bit to remove moisture, if needed, and then sealed in freezer bags for storage. I usually buy my 6011 rod in 50 lb boxes and xfer a lot of it to home made or surplus containers. Ammo boxes with gasketed lids are good.

Just keeping rod hot as in a sealed frige doesn't dry it out much. Heating the air in the frige reduces the relative humidity some but drying the rod by proper heating and then sealing it in smaller quantities (1-10 lb sub units) in freezer bags results in much dryer rod. If you are a belt AND suspenders person, place some silica gel packets in with the rod. These packets can be baked out and reused many times.

Sometimes on really hot and relatively dry days when I happen to be welding and handling rod storage containers, I open the lids and leave them in the sun for a couple hours, then reseal the lids. I know this drives out moisture because I have seen clear plastic tubes of rod "sweat a lot when laying in the sun with the lids on. Taking the lids off lets the water vapor out. Just be sure to reseal before it cools off.

Oh by the way, ever notice how the EXPERT welders talk about straight and reverse polarity A LOT but rarely ever say which is straight and which is reversed...

Correct me if I am wrong but straight is minus (-) and reverse is plus (+) which seems somehow counterintuitive and backwards but then that should fit me fine as I am sdrawkcab (backwards?) a lot.

As to why the penetration is different... I'll take a stab without reference to any books AND working without a safety net or insurance... The arc current is not just electron flow through space but is a plasma containing ionized gasses (molecules with some outer electrons stripped off leaving them with a net positive charge). These positive charged members of the plasma physicaly move in a different direction (opposite) to the direction of the electron flow (electrons are negatively charged).

So with one polarity (straight) the electrons are leaving the negativly charged rod or welding wire and hitting the workpiece while the ions in the plasma are hitting the rod or wire.

With the other polarity (reverse) the electrons are leaving the workpiece and hiting the electrode or wire and the ions in the plasma are impacting the workpiece.

The heating effect of the two streams of charge carriers, electrons going one way and positively charged ions going the other way, are not equal. In the one instance max heat is on the electode which melts the rod or wire faster, supplying more melted metal to the weld but at lower weld temperature and in the other case max heat is supplied to the weld but less rod or wire is melted and deposited. In this later case more penetration results as there is more heat for the amount of deposited material.

About those "old" welders (not weldors), unless they are overheated till the wire insulation breaks down and shorts there isn't much to go wrong. The crank physicaly changes the transformer winding's coupling but is not an electrical connection, it is mechanical. Except for overheating causing insulation breakdown, about the only failure points are switches, plugs, connections. A good welder (Lincoln is a top name) should last indefinitely. I wouldn't be suprised if a Lincoln buzz box lasted generations and generations. It is essentially a transformer and except for moving mechanical parts (switches etc) to wear out there isn't much to go wrong. Untill the transformer gets fried, you could always jury rig or replace switches and conections.

So much for the collective intelligence of the auction attendees who were looking for antiques and collectibles and showed no interest in the welder tool.

Pat P.S. Regarding Egon's disclaimer about being a weldor, methinks he protests overmuch. He knows which end the sparks come from!

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] There's a heap of good info there, Pat. I always knew that Reverse Polarity was DCEP, but I never understood the flow (+) to (-) thing and always thought it SEEMED backwards. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I just love this Lincoln crank-front welder. It's nicer to operate with the infinite crank than the detent type which uses the famous Lincoln "pineapple" inside the machine that everyone screws up by not getting it set exactly on the contact point when they adjust amps. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

CJDAVE, The non-contact infinite variable adjust LIncoln welders also did not allow "hot switching" which "eats" the contacts on the pineapple.

As far as the math goes, there is absolutely no difference in current flow whether the charge carriers are actually negative charges flowing from the negative terminal toward the positive terminal or positive charges flowing toward the negative terminal or as in the real world a combination of both. (Ask any lightning victim if they thought it made a difference whether the current flowed up through the ground through them to the cloud or the other way around.) A real world observable difference is the heating effect at the positive and negative ends of the arc. More often than not, I just use AC and try not to worry about it but sometimes I "experiment" with DC +/- .

I use a lot of 6011 and 6013 compared to the amount of 7018 or other rod. If I were really INTO welding I would probably do better matching the rod, polarity, and heat to the job. I do OK on a lot of stuff but when it really matters and the material is not mild steel (such as my recent tractor lower 3PH arm repairs), I hire a pro. My moment of glory was successfully repairing a broken off cast aluminum leg on a decorative garden table. I welded it back virtually perfectly with aluminum welding rod in my Lincoln stick welder. It was probably a lucky accident, never to be repeated. I used a second aluminum welding rod as a filler like with brazing to get extra material and even included some aluminum window screen frame scraps as filler. ...and then magic happened and it worked!

Pat

[CJDave]

Pat.....are you saying that our ball-handle crank-front Lincwelder can or CAN NOT be adjusted under load. I have used these welders before way back in hi skool, but I cannot recall if the infinite adjuster type will move under load without wrecking something. There is absolutely NO detent to it at all, as opposed to the "pineapple". [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

CJDave, The pineapple has switch contacts that "make" and "break" and will arc like crazy if switched under load. Likely destroying the contacts pretty quickly.

My understanding of the infinite adjustment is that it is a non-contact adjustment, that you are changing the physical relationship of transformer components and aren't making "sparks" inside the box by changing something. Look inside the box to be sure.

Although I can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time while simultaneously patting my head and rubbing my tummy, I feel no need whatsoever to adjust any welder controls while I have an arc struck. I have enough trouble keeping a correct arc while paying attention to the arc so don't have any desire to try to reach out and adjust the machine while running a bead (I call it that 'cause others do even though much of my welding DOES NOT RESEMBLE THE "BEAD" real welders get.

If you can weld AND adjust the machine at the same time, you are to be admired (or admitted).

Pat

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Pat, I cannot imagine adjusting a welder under load unless you had a "helper" who was standing by. When I did a lot of welding off of a service truck, mostly on piping systems we would use a divider inside the rod pouch that could hold a slightly larger or slightly smaller rod. By switching back and forth, we could effect small variations in heat without climbing up out of the hole and getting up on the truck to adjust the machine. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]