Farside
Badly Welded Man
- Messages
- 5,458
- Location
- Ireland
Sealey 140XL...
After the flood, I'd dried out the old Sealey buzzbox, and didn't have any great hopes for it, as it had been under water for a few hours and wasn't dried out for a couple of days afterwards. I'd plugged it in, and the fan (added by me, years ago) sprang into life and the box buzzed a bit, but I hadn't tried it out, as I didn't trust it at that point.
Anyway, that was more than a week ago, and it's thoroughly dried out now, so I thought I'd give it a go.
I decided to treat it to a new earth lead and decent earth clamp, as well as doing the obvious, like cleaning up all the connections, etc.
Along with this, all the chat on here about heated rod ovens and storage inspired me to create a diy version, with a 60W tubular heater in the bottom of an old cash-drawer from a till. The rods have been in that for the past couple of days, and come to think of it, I've never really properly dried the rods out before, always assuming that if they weren't actually damp, they were probably ok. How wrong that was.
So, today; just to get my eye back in, I gave a couple of quick runs of 2.5 and 3.2 and holeey crap. I've never seen this box produce welds this good or this easily before. I wasn't aiming for perfection, just laying down a bead or several, and mainly just getting the feel of it again. The last time I used it, I was wrestling with bad leads, damp rods, too long an extension, sagging voltage, etc, etc. Not surprising I didn't have a great opinion of it then, but I knew it had been better than that when I got it, twenty years ago. I bought it second-hand, and it was at least ten years old then.
So, there's life in the old buzzbox yet, which comes as a bit of a surprise.
I still fancy something bigger and meaner, though
I've already been sniffing around a Transarc DC130, which appeals to me, and there's a bloke up Norf selling a BOC Transarc 400A single-phase 240V, which *really* appeals, for norralorra dough.
After the flood, I'd dried out the old Sealey buzzbox, and didn't have any great hopes for it, as it had been under water for a few hours and wasn't dried out for a couple of days afterwards. I'd plugged it in, and the fan (added by me, years ago) sprang into life and the box buzzed a bit, but I hadn't tried it out, as I didn't trust it at that point.
Anyway, that was more than a week ago, and it's thoroughly dried out now, so I thought I'd give it a go.
I decided to treat it to a new earth lead and decent earth clamp, as well as doing the obvious, like cleaning up all the connections, etc.
Along with this, all the chat on here about heated rod ovens and storage inspired me to create a diy version, with a 60W tubular heater in the bottom of an old cash-drawer from a till. The rods have been in that for the past couple of days, and come to think of it, I've never really properly dried the rods out before, always assuming that if they weren't actually damp, they were probably ok. How wrong that was.
So, today; just to get my eye back in, I gave a couple of quick runs of 2.5 and 3.2 and holeey crap. I've never seen this box produce welds this good or this easily before. I wasn't aiming for perfection, just laying down a bead or several, and mainly just getting the feel of it again. The last time I used it, I was wrestling with bad leads, damp rods, too long an extension, sagging voltage, etc, etc. Not surprising I didn't have a great opinion of it then, but I knew it had been better than that when I got it, twenty years ago. I bought it second-hand, and it was at least ten years old then.
So, there's life in the old buzzbox yet, which comes as a bit of a surprise.
I still fancy something bigger and meaner, though
I've already been sniffing around a Transarc DC130, which appeals to me, and there's a bloke up Norf selling a BOC Transarc 400A single-phase 240V, which *really* appeals, for norralorra dough.