I just disconnect stuff until there's an open circuit between the electrics and the frame: on the XLV, that's the battery -ve cable and the loom to chassis lug, plus a couple of assorted sensors (oil pressure, neutral switch, CDI sensors) ... no problems after building up a good fat bit of weld...
Here's my one, first welding project so it's all a bit crap.
The only thing I'd change if I was going to start over is to keep the front of the frame open to make it easier to stash stuff underneath. Eg: the angle grinder which follows the welder everywhere :-).
Pneumatic tyres off a...
My first welding project ... it's only a little beast, but it does the trick ... the flow meter is just high enough to see over the top of the welder. CoG is over the wheels when you lift it to "rolling" position.
I'm adding a bit of pipe as a gun holder, one on each side, and no the...
Warm is okay, but "almost burnt my hand" is HOT.
I'd agree with the other replies, if the clamp is a cheap sheet-metal construction, replace it with a proper one, you'll get a much better connection.
The other thing to remember is to make sure the metal where you're clamping is nice and...
I normally tie down from each handlebar to the side rails of the trailer, compress the suspension in a bit while ratcheting the straps in, another tiedown across the back rack and pull the rear suspension down too. You could make a little tyre ramp on the drawbar, or even just a triangular...
Bike's probably about 7' long, so I'd make a little tray thingy for the drawbar and roll the front wheel into that. That'll keep the weight forward.
-----sharks
Now, I'm no expert, so I may be dead wrong about this, but I'd think it'd be best to keep the "welding earth" disconnected from the "mains earth", to prevent a situation where the mains earth might end up carrying some of the welding current.
I ended up making a bit of an oops with my one...
I think I've seen electrolysis oxy/hydrogen welders around on eBay ... some Russian brand perhaps? Can't seem to find them now, weird. No idea if it's practical, but its a cute idea.
-----sharks
Mine (Weldmate T150P) came with a steel wire liner in the first place, and seems to feed pretty well ... even with a 5kg spool of 0.6mm wire. I don't use much pressure on the idle roller. I marked the speed dial 1 .. 9 and it seems to be pretty consistent between uses too.
I've only run a...
Yeah, they're itty bitty pneumatics, but I think they've got tubes in them, they don't seem to go flat too quickly. Lurking out of frame somewhere is a 3HP compressor in any case :-).
Yeah, my extensive testing procedure for the girder trolley consisted of bashing with a hammer a bit to make...
I hope they will! They seem to work okay, when it's under any much load the tyres compress a couple of mm which improves the clearance. I was originally going to leave room in there for nylon sliders, but forgot ... the RSJ is only 7' off the ground, so it's no problem to reach up and pull the...
Thanks! It's not quite as bad as it looks from that camera angle, but yeah the plan is to put a bit of pipe sticking up to holster it in such that the lead curves gently over and down through the front handle.
It was originally going to have four castors, but it's pretty narrow and I thought...
Welding Cart for SIP weldmate:
Made out of bits of square and angle stock and a trolley I got for $17 and cut to pieces. The regulator is at just the right height to read the gauge over the top of the welder, and the axle runs through one of three tubes under the gas tank so I can get the...
I was thinking of making a thing like that ... a 2' arm welded out of 3/4" square tube, picking up on the 3 handle threads of a big angle grinder, attach the whole thing to the workbench & pull down the handle to cut.
Then next to the $90 9-inch angle grinder I found a $99 abrasive miter saw...
As the SIP manual says, If the switch is on 'MAX', the 'MIN/MED' switch doesn't do anything. SIP specify LOW for 0.6 to 1.3mm but I suspect that's pretty nominal.
You can measure the open circuit voltage for each setting with a multimeter, the order is LOW-MIN, LOW-MED, LOW-MAX, HIGH-MIN...
Okay, thanks. Not as open as the SIP design, but it looks like there's a drive roller underneath and then a idler roller on top, on a little cantilever arm which is pushed down by a spring in that adjuster. Rather than the SIP's admittedly rather shoddy springy arm pushed down by a screw...
:-) It doesn't seem that bad (but then it is still brand new, maybe it'll get worse). I guess it'll wear the knurls off eventually.
There's some instructions (on this site somewhere I think) about setting up the feeder and spool tension and they seem to work ... not much tension needed on...
Any Aussies reading this thread, I'm really happy with Supagas http://www.supagas.com.au/ who are cheap(er than the competition), and are friendly and easy for a "driveway customer" to do business with.
-----sharks [just a happy customer]