OK,
this may be a bit embarrassing, but here goes. Yes, my cheapo welder is still
working like a charm and I've been putting considerable mileage on it for I
think about two years now.
When I
was looking for a welder I started out looking at Lincolns and Millers on eBay
because they were so expensive new. In those searches I noticed some cheap
Chinese machines that kept popping up under all sorts of different brands, but
which were evidently the same machine from the photos. I surmised they were
all made in the same factory, and each importer was putting a different
brand on them. There were about half a dozen of these sellers, each of
which had sold hundreds. There were virtually none of them offered second
hand. In my experience, if you buy something on eBay that turns out to be
bad, you return it to the seller if you can, or failing that you resell it on
eBay (I've done that, with full disclosure). So the high volume of new sales and
lack of used sales told me folks might be happy with these machines, and I
decided to take the plunge. As to which seller to buy it from, since the
machines were all identical the only thing that mattered was price. The guy
who was getting the lowest prices was of course the one who had come up with the
worst possible of all the bad brand names these things were selling under.
You'll think I'm pulling your leg, but the brand on this one is "SMILEY TOOLS".
Really. I dare not show up at one of Dan's work sites with a Chinese-made
welder called a Smiley Tool -- I think the guys would chase me all the way
to the Canadian or Mexican border.
To be
more specific, this is the "Super 160P" model. The various brands had the
same model number. It's a combination tig, smaw, and plasma cutter. It also has
square wave mode for welding aluminum, which works well. The price as I recall
was about $850 including foot pedal, pressure regulator, etc. The only thing not
included was the argon tank.
I've
had trouble with two things:
1.
Understanding the manual. It's utterly useless, expect to figure the
thing out by trial and error.
2. I
tried the plasma cutter once and promptly melted the nozzle. I was probably
doing something wrong -- blame the manual!
:)
Alec
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Hey Alec. Which welder did you find? If you like it and Dan likes it
then I like it. I'll start looking.
Vance
-----Original
Message-----
From: Daniel Lance <lanceind@earthlink.net>
To:
personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 8:01 pm
Subject:
[PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Pressure vessel welding
Glen,
A 200 amp MiG welder is not adequate for the purpose of welding together
the pressure hull of your submarine. The GMAW process commonly known as
"MIG" produces very brittle welds when applied to metal thicknesses past
the "sheet metal " range ( 10 gauge being the maximum ). A MIG weld might have
an excellent appearance but if you cut out some sample "coupons" and subjected
them to a "side bend test" you would have an unacceptable failure rate.
Yes, you could TIG (GTAW) weld your whole
sub. Tig done properly produces some of the highest quality welds possible, but
, it is really slow. For the average person who wants to build his own sub ( and
is on a budget ) TIG welding the "roots" and "stick" (SMAW) welding the
remaining passes is the way to go. Combination SMAW/GTAW machines are a real
bargain and very versatile. The "inverter" types have excellent arc
characteristics , are energy efficient and can be plugged into your clothes
dryer electrical outlet. Alec has a terrific unit he bought off the
internet and to my knowledge is still going strong. He might be willing to share
some info on it. I have welded with it and I like it alot !
Use 7018 Low Hydrogen welding rods and 70,000psi tensile strength
TIG wire . 3/32" and 1/8" diameter are the recommended sizes. While
welding, multiple small passes are much more desireable than one large single
pass. Large single passes over heat the metal and sets up
stresses , conversely each successive smaller pass tends to
anneal the one prior to it. ( Less heat , less stress ) .
If you have not done much welding then by all means take a
welding course and practice on some scrap first.
When you do start welding on your hull ; bevel, fit , and do the
majority of the welding from the inside of the sub so when it comes time to back
grind the roots you can be on the outside. Weld the joint
completely ( root, hot pass, filler passes and cap passes )before you do any
back grinding.
Daniel Lance