"Suitcase" Wire Welder

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I'm in the process of constructing a breakfast "booth" in our newly-reconstructed kitchen. The booth is dimensionally the same as a restaurant booth except a little wider; we will have a 28" X 6-foot table whereas most restaurants have about four feet of table. I'm putting the whole thing up on a six-inch deck so I don't have to get up and down to slide in and out of the seats. The seats are a church pew sawed in half. I have been fabbing the metal that supports the table and am using the deck to hide the steel member that goes under the floor. The steel goes across the floor.... into the wall.....and up the wall terminating in a surface flange. The horizontal arm that supports the table flanges onto the flange that is flush with the wall. So.....in order to make fit-up easy, I tacked all the pieces together that comprised the lower and vertical support members while they were in place, and then slid the assemby out and took it outside for total weld-up with my Millermatic 35 DC wire-feed welder. For tacking everything up, I borrowed my neighbor's EASY MIG 100 made by Chicago Electric; a welder he bought from a farmer buddy for 100 bucks, This welder has never actually been used much by either owner because it didn't work very well. This is one of those: "I'll get this welder and go home and build a boat trailer in my garage." type of homeowner-grade buzz boxes, except it has inner shield wire instead of stick electrode. It runs on 115V current. It's been three days now and I THINK I may have at long last corrected the last of the bugs that were keeping that welder from working right. As is so often the case, initial setup and assembly isn't done right and the box won't weld right, but the novice welders who buy these things don't know that it isn't working right, they think the problem is with them. The 115V thing is kind of wishful thinking BECAUSE it pulls 29 AMPs on high range, and few, if any, household or garagehold plugs will support that kind of current. The other thing is that it's AC. Between the AC and the inner shield wire, it is anything but clean. Don't get me wrong, it was a life saver to use that little machine to tack everything up here in the kitchen, but I would really hate to have to build anything with it. It's little and kind of cute sitting there, but it's just a toy. If you are considering a suitcase welder, be SURE to get DC.!!!!![img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, As I may have mentioned before... My little "lunchbox" Lincoln 120VAC welder is DC and welds really good. My eledctricians have a brand X dc MIG and didn't know how nice one of those could be in 120VAC till they used mine.

I have been building piano hinges from 1 inch black iron pipe and 3/4 inch solide rod. I attach 1/4 X 2 1/2 flat bar to the "odd" numbered pieces of pipe and a 3/16 X 20 X 72 sheet to the even numbered pieces. I cut the pipes into 3 inch lengths so each 6 ft long hinge has 23 pieces of pipe. I use the thin flat wooded tooth picks as spacers between the pieces of pipe.

The Lincoln welds it all together just fine, especially since I moved the operation indoors into my air conditioned shop and out of the 100 F heat. The overtemp protection circuit tripped a lot more when I was outside and my personal situation got uncomfortable too out there. I'm at the upper limit of what this little "hobby tool" can do but after aboujt 10 years or so it still keeps taking a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

Pat ,

Are these the hinges for your saferoom shutters?

[Pat]

Gary, Right again! It took me about 2 days to build the first shutter, a day for the second, and 1/2 day for #'s 3 & 4. I have designed it so that I can pick up any piece of the assembly. The heaviest piece is a 6 ft by 20 inch by 3/16 inch plate with 12 each 3 inch sectioni of 1 inch black iron pipe welded along the edge. Next heaviest is is a 6 ft rectangular tube of 3/16 wall in 2X8 inch dimensiion with the other half of the hinge welded to it. I will hang the shutter on the pre-mounted rectangular 2x8 which is bolted to the wall with 6 each 3/4 inch bolts cast in place in the concrete wall. After pinning the hinge halves together I will then add 2 more 6 ft by 20 inch laminatioins of 3/16 inch thick steel plate to each shutter.

The shutter pairs overlap at the 16 inch point, giving a 4 inch overlap. The additional layers bring the total thickness of steel up to 9/16 inch. The additional laminations will be applied to the side of the shutter facing the outside when the shutters are closed. These laminations only need medium small bolts to hold them in place as the force of impact will only compress them into the inner most laminatiion which is on the hinge.

This is the design I worked up so that I could carry any of the pieces, although with difficulty, but still I can carry the major components one at a time.

I simplified my lockinig mechanism. It is a row of bolts down the center of the overlap. ONe shutter will always have to be closed first. This one has the bolts through it with their heads welded to the plate. When the shutter is open you won't see the bolts and when it is closed the bolts will project through mating holes in the other shutter. They are secured with hex nuts with welded on "wings" that you spin on to finger tight. The force on the bolts will be a shearing force not a tension force so tightening the nuts more than a loose and eash snug fit is not required.

When taking a powerful blow from debris the bolts will try to migrate sideways through thte 9/16 inch of steel and or be sheared in two by the steel. Neither is very likely, even in an F-5 tornado. If for some reason both bedroom doors were fully burried by debris and prevented egress the winged nuts would be removable so you could go out one of the windows. It is not likely that all 4 egress paths would be impassible.

Decorative cloth covers will be used over the shutters. Button holes will be used on both sides to let the bolts pass through. Ruffles will hide the button holes as well as the winged nuts.

I have evolved the design of these shutters quite a bit before cutting steel but I think I have a good design now from several perspectives: 1. I can pick up and carry the components, 2. It will be stronger than an F-5 tornado, it will be dead simple to use with no complicated moving parts, and 5. It will look good. We plan to make multiple sets of shutter covers (a lot like pillow cases) to color coordinate with varioius bed spreads and such.

At first I was concerned that some inaccuracy in my tooling which had cut the pipe a llittle bit on the bias (not perfect 90) might make a "ghost door" but the friction of these huge hinges is such that they will stay where you leave them, even with heavy shutters attached. If I guess wrong, I will install magnets or some such to hold them in the open position.

I'm sure glad I can do this job as it is a MUST DO as it was promised to my wife prior to moving to ground zero of tornado alley AND if hired done would cost several thosand dollars. It gave me an excuse, err ahh I mean a good reason to buy a plasma cutter. The savings in labor would have bought me another welder and lots of other stuff too if it were needed but it isn't.

I have the materials to make shutters for the basement guest room/safe room but they will be less complicated since there is no sheetrock and no styrofoam. I'm still thinniking on the master bath window... whether to make it a vertical slide supported by a spring like an overhead door or a pair of tri-fold shutters, again, covered with cloth and using tghe same locking mechanism. I'm leaning toward the tri-fold. With tri-fold the shutters will not stick out too far. There are obstructions near the windows so the shutters can't just lay back against the wall like in the bedroom.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] My latest "discovery" while attempting to make a welder out of this "suitcase"; actually "lunchbox" IS a more descriptive term; was that the drive feedroll was installed upside down. That caused intermittent wire feeding and was, I am sure, very frustrating to the not one, but TWO previous owners. My neighbor is the THIRD owner, not the second as perviously thought. None of the previous owners had been able to weld squat with this machine. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] No big mystery there. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] So, Pat....how much clearance IS there on those hinges.....bore clearance that is? [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, I'm using 1" black iron pipe and 3/4 round bar pins. The 1" pipe isn't particularly uniform in ID and the round bar is NOT highly polished or perfectly straight. Given my crude "by guess and by gosh" welding with mediocre pre-weld fitup (I hold the 3" tubing where I think is a good position and tack it) it may be no less than a minor miracle that I can swing the completed 6 ft hinge with 23 sections of pipe with one hand and not require a troup of boyscouts and hydraulics.

At first a friend was concerned about "Ghost Door" if all the errors accumulated. No way! Plenty enough sticktion (AKA static friction) to hold a shutter where you leave it but not enough to makek it difficult to use the shutters.

Yeah, I know I didn't give a decimal inch answer to the nearest 0.0005 (half thou) so sue me! Let me put it this way, it makes a good fit, not too tight and not too loose. This was recommended to me by the supplier of the metal and they are a fab shop too and use these same materials when they need HD hinges. They have never made hinges this long or with so many pieces. Theirs, because of being shorter (and maybe better fitup) have looser fit.

I am well pleased with the results even though I had to mark a few places where because of my lazy approach there was significant interference and grind come clearence. I may or may not have saved time going fast and lose but worst case may have broke even.

I thought of yet another way to make a better fitup. Set out and brace a piece of angle iron horizontal (concavity up) on the bench and place the "shish kabob" of 3 inch sectons of pipe on a skewer (3/4 rod) on the angle iron and then put the 3/16 sheet down on that with bracing to hold it vertical. The angle iron should hold all the little pieces of pipe parallel AND concentric, i.e. colinear with one another and not depend on the pin and my eye.

After tacking all the pieces to the sheet I could put the sheet flat on the table and finish the welds or weld it as it stands instead of just tacking. I still think the thin flat toothpicks are about right for spacing the pieces of pipe.

I weld the odd numbered pieces of pipe first and then the evens. After welding the odds I remove the toothpicks (part not burned up) and put a toothpick between the even numbered pipe I'm about to weld and the adjacent lowered number even pipe. This assures all the slop is in one direction and doesn't cancel each other out. Works so far. I have only welded (so far only tacked) a pipe to the wrong hinge plate or sheet 5-6 times and it was easy to get it apart with a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder.

Oh, did I forget to mention I am strictly a self taught so so welder and make no claims as to being very good at it? When I had something I wanted done really right (lift arm of 3PH broke clean off in the middle at 500 total tractor hours) I hired a WELDER.

Oh by the way... I think it is funny that it tood 4 guys to note the roll of wire was on backwards but to your credit you are THE ONE!

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Actually, Pat it was the little roller that PUSHES the wire that was upside down. Apparently this machine has an alternate wire size that it is capable of handling, so the feed roller has two different grooves in it; you remove the roller and flip it over to get the alternate size. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Piano hinges are notorious for siezing up; especially the ones that have to be outdoors. Clearance is good, lots of clearance is better. Outdoor hinges should have stainless rod if possible. Luckily, your application is indoor. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, What is the big deal about the two common sizes of flux cored wire? They are pretty close in size so why two sizes. Is it just to keep you on your toes when buying a new tip?

For some odd reason the other day in the middle of an 11 lb roll of flux cored there wre overriding turns and the wire janned and stoped. I had to fuss a bit and do away with a few feet of wire but now all is well. Never had that happen before.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Actually, Pat, I'm kind of new to flux-cored wire, since I have always used shielding gasses on my stuff. If the wire rolls have a vertical spindle, the "tanglement factor" seems to increase. Once in a blue moon I might have that happen on my Miller with the roll mounted on a horizontal spindle, but it is very rare. Between having the spindle vertical and the frequent movement of the "lunchbox" from one location to the next, I can see where it would be easy to get an overlap on the spool. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Let X= the number of feet of wire we threw away trying to get my Miller to weld with the stock Miller gun. Wot a piece of crap! [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Once we put a TWECO on it, it finally acted like a welder. Most guns now are a TWECO clone, or are made as close to the Tweco design as possible. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, I have had excellent service and usability with my Lincoln "lunch box" MIG (Weld Pak 100) stock OEM gun. I may not change tips as often as I should but they seem to last forever and I have been known to "dress" one up on the grinder. The plastic refractory material of the next item in line after the tip (would be a gas shield if I were using gas) has been replaced once in 10 years and may be due again one of these days. The heat eventually eats it. I think I have a spare around somewhere that I bought when I replaced the original. Big expense, about a buck.

Making the spool harder to rotate and then increasing the pinch roller's tension to get more traction on the wire seems to cure the problem with wire getting messed up on the roll, pretty much.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]