Bruce
Yes Dear
- Messages
- 157
The brats last night were in a particularly belligerent mood. There was nothing for it but to make my excuses that the bike is booked in for an MOT this Saturday and to go hide in the garage for some relaxation therapy.
Now the bike is a bit of an old tractor and even more stubborn than the Boss to start, being an 80's Yamaha XT Tenere. Both these two aspects of which reminded me so much of the old Lister engines we had on the farm back in Africa that we used for pumping water and generating electricity, that when restoring her, I had no option but to respray her in Racing Green.
Typically, after turning the ignition on, 10 seconds later the fuse blows and none of the electrics work. Just brilliant! On Saturday just before the MOT station I'll have to but in some 3mm round bar in the inline fuse and hope for the best.
Anyway I digress, while pondering why it is that everything always seems to go wrong for me, my thoughts returned to Flander next door and my missing angle grinder. So I started hunting around for alternative means of cutting aluminium sheet. Now I read somewhere here that some Fella has had success with a circular saw, but that scares be a bit and I would like to inspect said Fella's fingers to make sure they are all there before I try that trick. That leaves the jig saw, which is great for compound curves especially when trying to cut a straight line, and my scroll saw, if I can ever find the bades after the last one snapped, flew off, and very nearly performed The Bris on old Sachmo
.
It was then that I remembered that on my Wenzhou Mao Electric Company's finest 160 Amp TIG unit, amongst the redundant dials that surround the amperage dial and next to the redundant MMA and AC /DC switch, there was a plasma doo daa that was still shiny and new. And better yet, alongside the accompanying spares, which included, as a reminder how far up the welders social circle I had bought into ... a mma harness, but more importantly a plasma torch thingamyjig
Well after starting up the compressor which caused Flanders to come scurrying out to do his chameleon trick, and the Boss to scream that I am waking the baby up, both of whom got the Queens wave while I mouthed "I cant hear you" I proceeded to light that sucker up.
Nothing happened.
OH FFS! Is there no HF start on plasma?
After lifting the welders mask to have a closer butchers she kicked into life on touch down. I was so suprised I forgot all about the mask.
Eventually when I could see again, the line I had cut looked like the jagged festering thigh wound I once got when jumping a barbed wire fence as a lad, arms laden with grapes, and an angry neighbouring farmer in hot persuit with his four-ten rock salt loaded shotgun. A game that was played before every harvest. John, my younger brother, got peppered once, but said it wasn't as bad as Dad's whippings and the rewards were justified and so the game continued until the holidays ended and were shipped back to boarding school.
Anyway, I also read on here that some fella or fellas used their straight edge to get a neat line. Fella or Fellas, you owe me a new straight edge please.
Things by now were deteriorating as quickly as my mood. Made more so by the fact that the plasma nozzle was filling with molten aluminium and blowing the arc out sideways. I tried using flat bar as a straight edge and raising the nozzle just a wee bit above the ali surface and the arc made a beeline for the flat bar, when it bothered to arc at all. Eventually I threw the useless piece of Chinese ****e plasma torch in sheer exasperation, but that didn't help either.
I think I'll have to brave Flanders next door and ask for my angle grinder back unless some kind fella here can pass on his wisdom with a thread. ... How to use a plasma cutter...because The Manual Doesn't Say.
Now the bike is a bit of an old tractor and even more stubborn than the Boss to start, being an 80's Yamaha XT Tenere. Both these two aspects of which reminded me so much of the old Lister engines we had on the farm back in Africa that we used for pumping water and generating electricity, that when restoring her, I had no option but to respray her in Racing Green.
Typically, after turning the ignition on, 10 seconds later the fuse blows and none of the electrics work. Just brilliant! On Saturday just before the MOT station I'll have to but in some 3mm round bar in the inline fuse and hope for the best.
Anyway I digress, while pondering why it is that everything always seems to go wrong for me, my thoughts returned to Flander next door and my missing angle grinder. So I started hunting around for alternative means of cutting aluminium sheet. Now I read somewhere here that some Fella has had success with a circular saw, but that scares be a bit and I would like to inspect said Fella's fingers to make sure they are all there before I try that trick. That leaves the jig saw, which is great for compound curves especially when trying to cut a straight line, and my scroll saw, if I can ever find the bades after the last one snapped, flew off, and very nearly performed The Bris on old Sachmo
.It was then that I remembered that on my Wenzhou Mao Electric Company's finest 160 Amp TIG unit, amongst the redundant dials that surround the amperage dial and next to the redundant MMA and AC /DC switch, there was a plasma doo daa that was still shiny and new. And better yet, alongside the accompanying spares, which included, as a reminder how far up the welders social circle I had bought into ... a mma harness, but more importantly a plasma torch thingamyjig
Well after starting up the compressor which caused Flanders to come scurrying out to do his chameleon trick, and the Boss to scream that I am waking the baby up, both of whom got the Queens wave while I mouthed "I cant hear you" I proceeded to light that sucker up.
Nothing happened.
OH FFS! Is there no HF start on plasma?
After lifting the welders mask to have a closer butchers she kicked into life on touch down. I was so suprised I forgot all about the mask.
Eventually when I could see again, the line I had cut looked like the jagged festering thigh wound I once got when jumping a barbed wire fence as a lad, arms laden with grapes, and an angry neighbouring farmer in hot persuit with his four-ten rock salt loaded shotgun. A game that was played before every harvest. John, my younger brother, got peppered once, but said it wasn't as bad as Dad's whippings and the rewards were justified and so the game continued until the holidays ended and were shipped back to boarding school.
Anyway, I also read on here that some fella or fellas used their straight edge to get a neat line. Fella or Fellas, you owe me a new straight edge please.
Things by now were deteriorating as quickly as my mood. Made more so by the fact that the plasma nozzle was filling with molten aluminium and blowing the arc out sideways. I tried using flat bar as a straight edge and raising the nozzle just a wee bit above the ali surface and the arc made a beeline for the flat bar, when it bothered to arc at all. Eventually I threw the useless piece of Chinese ****e plasma torch in sheer exasperation, but that didn't help either.
I think I'll have to brave Flanders next door and ask for my angle grinder back unless some kind fella here can pass on his wisdom with a thread. ... How to use a plasma cutter...because The Manual Doesn't Say.
