Stuff you have fixed today

[Luggsey]

I actually fought with my demons today and set about determined to get my late Dads SIP Mig to actually work!
It has caused us much grief over the years and ended up languishing at the back of the shed slowly rusting away.
It would never happily weld, always spitting and poping no matter the setting.
Today I stripped it down and cleaned it out.
Took corrosion off the wire feed bearing which is dry and rumbly after about 10 years of no use...
I throughly cleaned out the wire sheath and got ready to go!
Wire motor refused to go initially but gave in and runs ok now.
I think I finally realised why the wire feed never worked properly.
The 0.6mm wheel doesn't grip 0.6 wire! (The 0.8 grips 0.6 fine later on)
The wire feed mechanism is out of whack and the tension bearing must sit dead centre of the groove in the wheel. These SIP welders also allow the whole wire feed to 'bow' slightly under tension load.
So half a dozen copper washers packing the bearing and wheel until dead centre under load and presto! Good clean mig welds!
I'm happy and I'm sure my Dad would have been as well.

 

[bricol]

I actually fought with my demons today and set about determined to get my late Dads SIP Mig to actually work!
It has caused us much grief over the years and ended up languishing at the back of the shed slowly rusting away.
It would never happily weld, always spitting and poping no matter the setting.
Today I stripped it down and cleaned it out.
Took corrosion off the wire feed bearing which is dry and rumbly after about 10 years of no use...
I throughly cleaned out the wire sheath and got ready to go!
Wire motor refused to go initially but gave in and runs ok now.
I think I finally realised why the wire feed never worked properly.
The 0.6mm wheel doesn't grip 0.6 wire! (The 0.8 grips 0.6 fine later on)
The wire feed mechanism is out of whack and the tension bearing must sit dead centre of the groove in the wheel. These SIP welders also allow the whole wire feed to 'bow' slightly under tension load.
So half a dozen copper washers packing the bearing and wheel until dead centre under load and presto! Good clean mig welds!
I'm happy and I'm sure my Dad would have been as well.

View attachment 281218

If its the same feed as my old Migmate super, a simple brace up from one of the mounting screws to the pivot screw for the tension arm helps a lot too.

 

[Cobbler]

The 0.6mm wheel doesn't grip 0.6 wire! (The 0.8 grips 0.6 fine later on)

there is a bit of anomaly with some of the rollers, some the size faces outward for the groove on the inside, others the size is on the same side as the groove. All done just to confuse! That’s also probably got a plastic liner in it, if it has chuck it & fit a metal one ..... or curtain wire its the same size. The plastic ones are rubbish, the wire binds on the surface & won’t feed nicely. If you take the wire feed tension off & pull the wire from the torch end, there should be virtually no resistance. I did one for a friend a while back & it took about 10 pounds to pull the wire through, poor little feed motor couldn’t cope. New liner & it was a couple of ounces needed.

 

[Chillitt]

My mowers had a slow puncture for years. Since it lives in the shed with the compressor, I never quite got round to fixing it, tried a couple of times though. Today I put an inner tube in it and its still got air in it after nearly 5 hours. It's a little win, but its a win.

 

[Guzrik]

Made rear window, and steel cables for the tailgate, in my son's Ape, great job to do together.

 

[Dr.Al]

Those of you who have been following my portable workbench build will have gathered two pieces of information. Firstly, I didn't have much to do today while some epoxy is curing. Secondly, early on in the project I broke my Axminster 311 plane:

I've since bought a (second-hand Record) replacement as I didn't think there was much chance of welding cast iron and getting it anywhere near square. Despite that, I was at a bit of a loss today with the weather being rubbish and the epoxy being un-cured so I decided to have a go.

I re-attached the nose piece to the broken-off bit and I clamped it down to my aluminium fixture plate, using a 20-40-80 block as an edge to push the two halves up against and keep the base level:

Close-up of that crack:

Next up I attacked it with a triangular file:

I then got out a 986 TIG brazing rod. I bought a very small pack of these a year or two ago and had a few plays with them in the past, but only on flat bits of cleaned steel; never on anything that mattered. I thought brazing the cast body might give me a better chance of success . Mainly, I figured I didn't have anything to lose given that this was a write-off and would otherwise be going in the swarf bin.

I set the TIG welder up to 60 A max and played around with the foot pedal while prodding with the TIG rod. I wouldn't say what I did looks like a good joint (I feel much more comfortable TIG welding than TIG brazing), but for a first attempt it seems okay-ish. After doing the "top" (actually right) side of each bit of the break, I flipped the whole lot over, placed it on top of a couple of parallels (to make space for the previous brazed joint) and repeated the filing/brazing exercise on the left-hand side.

It ain't pretty...

Once that had cooled a little, I attacked the two outside surfaces with a couple of different files to try to bring it somewhere near flush with the side. As this is a shoulder plane, it's supposed to be able to get right into awkward corners and having a lump could be a problem.

It definitely ain't pretty...

... but amazingly it seems to work okay (at least for now)

 

[Barking Mat]

Started cleaning up my latest FB find for £30!
Britool top box, almost immaculate but missing a key, I will try and make a similar cam lock fit it.


View attachment 280552 View attachment 280553

Very nice, and a bargain.

 

[Luggsey]

there is a bit of anomaly with some of the rollers, some the size faces outward for the groove on the inside, others the size is on the same side as the groove. All done just to confuse! That’s also probably got a plastic liner in it, if it has chuck it & fit a metal one ..... or curtain wire its the same size. The plastic ones are rubbish, the wire binds on the surface & won’t feed nicely. If you take the wire feed tension off & pull the wire from the torch end, there should be virtually no resistance. I did one for a friend a while back & it took about 10 pounds to pull the wire through, poor little feed motor couldn’t cope. New liner & it was a couple of ounces needed.

Where do I source these metal liners or am I better to get a complete new euro torch?

 

[Cobbler]

Where do I source these metal liners or am I better to get a complete new euro torch?

rather than spend money on it, I would try curtain wire, lots have tried it & its dirt cheap, (I’m tight) or put SIP torch liner into eBay & they come up. A euro torch won’t fit unless it’s already converted & fitted with one.

If the net curtains fall down after, deny all responsibility & look innocent

EDIT the SIP I did for a mate, I used a Clarke liner, it was the same. you could get on of those from Machine Mart. It was held into the gas valve on the torch with a little quick release type fitting screwed in. No idea what they are called but the tube pushes in & locks & to release you push a ring back that’s around the tube. @a111r is the expert on fitting curtain wire, he’s done loads.

 

[Luggsey]

rather than spend money on it, I would try curtain wire, lots have tried it & its dirt cheap, (I’m tight) or put SIP torch liner into eBay & they come up. A euro torch won’t fit unless it’s already converted & fitted with one.

If the net curtains fall down after, deny all responsibility & look innocent

EDIT the SIP I did for a mate, I used a Clarke liner, it was the same. you could get on of those from Machine Mart. It was held into the gas valve on the torch with a little quick release type fitting screwed in. No idea what they are called but the tube pushes in & locks & to release you push a ring back that’s around the tube. @a111r is the expert on fitting curtain wire, he’s done loads.

One of these?
These are £5.75 delivered on Amazon.
Happy to try it for such low money.
I see you can get the flexy bit the fits in the torch as well?
I think wire feed problems are the main cause of problems on these SIP welders so if thats cured I would be very happy to keep using it.

 

[Barking Mat]

That's interesting.

 

[Cobbler]

Looking at the end, that looks like one for a Euro torch. The hobby torch end is different, if the diameter is the same you may be able to fit it into the coupling by cutting off the end, I don’t know. I think you would be better to get the proper thing. As I said previously I fitted a Clarke one in a mates SIP The fitting was the same.

 

[Luggsey]

Looking at the end, that looks like one for a Euro torch. The hobby torch end is different, if the diameter is the same you may be able to fit it into the coupling by cutting off the end, I don’t know. I think you would be better to get the proper thing. As I said previously I fitted a Clarke one in a mates SIP The fitting was the same.

Should have looked on here more carefully!

Replacing a Wire Liner - SIP Migmate, Topmig and Cosmo

How to replace a wire liner and service a MIG welding torch, and the difference it makes to welding.

www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[qwakers]

i wonder why this engine was overheating and cutting out?

and I thought it had holed pistons too, but no, lr2 engines have those holes as standard, I checked!

bores are perfect, which i wasn't expecting, due to the report of it being run out of oil. I think it just cooked itself and nipped up. a good pressure wash, a check of the rings and bearings, a top end gasket set (£25) and a tube of hylomar, and it looks like it will be good to go.

 

[qwakers]

bit cleaner now, and looks very promising.....

 

[8ob]

Had a mad day spannering today.

Ranger engine had lost its newness so swapped that out for an engine off the bay of thieves, the man was quite hard to understand but I did manage to assure him the thing would be arriving back via his roof if it was not as described.

Dead one.

New/old one and its a gem

Transit pump had gone mammaries up so stripped that out ready for the new one. £650 later

Volvo urban artic needed a new header tank and a dodgy starter connection sorting out.

 

[Seadog]

Nice. A Hellerman speculum

 

[minimutly]

Nice. A Hellerman speculum

Well it was...
Think I have a die cast one here somewhere...

 

[Brad93]

I’ve found a few of those recently

 

[8ob]

Nice. A Hellerman speculum

A bit too spendy if buying new, I bought a lot of this gear including the manual lug crimper off our tool supplier when he shut down, they used to supply the MOD and RAE so no tosh on the shelves

Bob