clinton

Not the first Henry Wright I have seen, but yes they are some what rare according to Mr Postman they were made from 1840's to about 1914, the 150 is the weight in pounds most likely I would give it a value of around $2.00/ lb in this area (CA) that would be the asking price set by the anvil magnets out here

I had a pretty much non productive day, I set up the mobile rig with basically no welding wire to work with, got the machine dialed in, ran about 3 welds and had no more wire. The boss took off to get more and got back 3 hrs later, then every thing went from bad to worse, I had the same electrode the same size same manufacturer and could not get a decent weld at all. I tried to get the other welder to come and look at my amps and volts while I was welding so I could see if I was within parameters, but he was busy with the boss "trying" to assemble another truss. I did the last 2 and I know how they go together, these two guys did not have a clue and got all the parts mixed up, but we have to get it done today (I guess he gets paid in portions so he has to show the completed stages to get paid) So I got pulled off to do the assembly took me an hour

Well I did manage to get the trusses out of the shop, that was fun. The "plan" is to move them out using a forklift at each end and drive straight out, the problem is that one of our lifts is not rated for this. It did work but he had his back wheels off the ground for the ride out, I would have done the rigging a little different if it were up to me but the boss wanted it done this way so I just stayed at a safe distance. I still have a good deal of welding to do on the first two trusses, it was not going to be easy to get at the welds on the inside when we had them together in the shop so I will be setting up the portable rig today and the other guys will be doing the assembly of the other two trusses, we have a week to get it all done and this guy does not want any over time involved. Hmmm I do not see it happening but I will try to get it done as quickly as possible, the problem is like with any job if you rush it you will have rework and that will cost more than doing it right the first time

Yes HW- you are right on that one, this is my first time working with this inspector, the guy that used to do most of the inspections in this area moved to Vegas, and most of the work that I have done in the last 10 years has been out of the area and mostly light gauge. You know how inspectors are, they all have the one pet peeve, and until they get to know you and the quality of your work they tend to keep a close eye on things. I do know a good deal about inspection and I am very careful about leaving anything that may not pass. We got the two trusses put back together (no easy task) after welding the 5 full pen welds on each one- surprise things do not want to line up- it stayed straight but with all the welding it got a little tweaked. here are a couple of shots we placed the 2 trusses together to do the welding on the saddles that will carry the glue lams- this gets a partial pen on the bottom then a 1/4 inch fillet on the vertical both sides, leaving 3 inches in the middle with no weld And the boss wants this out of the shop today and I am down a man (hurt back) I will do my best and should make up some time on the next two trusses

I had to go toe to toe with the inspector yesterday- he inspected the welds on Friday and did say something about a little bit of undercut (maybe 1/4 inch on a 14 inch weld) he said that it was ok due to the small amount. Well he shows up again and starts looking at the welds more then asking lots of questions, the welds are ground flush due to tight fitting of the parts- he can see a line where the weld meets parent metal- there is no under cut or lack of fusion- if you can not feel a groove when you stick something in there there is no defect. I convinced him that we could continue to grind and get rid of it- there was still build up there but we could get our fit up so we stopped grinding. He said oh ok and left

You could tell the guy that you could repair it- weld it back together and reinforce it with rebar seriously that is a bummer dude I know you must have spent allot of time then some meat-head tries to tweak it

Sign me up for some of that brain surgery- are you on the blue cross ppo plan? Yes some tings are better left to the professionals

Yes we are rolling the parts when it is an option, less heat input when you weld flat- general rule of thumb is weld flat when it is an option. And yes we do move around this is not my first rodeo I do know a few things that can save me a major straightening operation. 7018 is way too slow for this amount of welding, so it would not be a first choice for me We have two fork lifts to do the positioning, no over head crane it was sold at auction when the previous owner of this shop went bankrupt, I worked in this same shop in 1993 so it is like a home coming to me

Yes this is a good size job, we will be putting the truss back together on Monday before we complete the rest of the welding, this will help to control the distortion that will be caused with all the heat input. I am hoping to make enough money at this job to be able to make it up for the Western States Conference, I think it will work out if I do not get myself fired and I can save some money

Hw- you bring up a good point and being how it was not my polarity but someone else I did not bother to check, but rather let him flounder with it until the owner came out and changed the polarity for him. Still lots of porosity- I think it could well be a moisture issue (as monster noted) the shop is only one giant sand dune from the Monterey bay, and with no rod oven this could well be the problem. The clown that is trying to make it work thinks that it a shielding gas problem, and the gun assembly is bad- the boss does not want to pay for a new gun at this time and I was told that he was quoted $400.00 for the gun that my catalog has $157.00 price. The other welder was having nothing but trouble with his machine today, it is only a 200 amp machine that I told the boss would not do the job and suggested using the 250 miller- no contact tips but we can spend half a day trying to run dual shield in it Steve- it is just a visual inspection this is a private residence that we are doing the job for, all the bridges being built in Ca are box girder construction- post tension concrete (public roads) A few more pics of the full pen welds and we fit up the saddles that will support the heavy timbers to make up the road deck

Monster- the inner-shield is what I choose to run, I have never had much luck with dual shield. After spending half a day playing with the welder and still getting major porosity the guy that wanted to run dual shield gave up and set up another welder with inner-shield. The welding procedure can be written for either wire, the wire we are running is the Esab core 8. We got most of the full pen welds done yesterday, having two t sections clamped together back to back helped keep the straight. I did however make myself look like an idiot, when the boss asked me how long it would take to do the welding I said it could be done in half a day- well 2 days later he is wondering what happened to the half days work, all I could say is that it is a good thing I am not the estimator because we would have taken a loss on that work.

Lead inserts would be a good way to anchor it, you can remove the bolts if you need to move the hammer and you are left with noting sticking up above the concrete. Drive in wedge anchors are another option http://www.confast.com/products/thunderstud-anchor.aspx I will usually drill all the way through the floor when using this type of anchor, this allows me to drive them down flush if I move whatever was anchored down- the time that it is not a good idea to drill through a slab is when there is a vapor barrier, that's when you get out the grinder to remove the tripping hazard

Very well put MB- you do understand what I am up against, & you give good advice to a person like myself. I do not have much tolerance for a guy that has been in a shop for 4 years and still has no cert papers, does not know what polarity he is running, does not know what or where the 3 phase power is, lets the supply of electrode run out, does nothing until the boss shows up, (the list goes on) Anyways I do have some more pictures to share, the inspector showed up this morning and he was very pleased with my fit up, well he did question the 1/4 gap but I assured him that it is what our welding procedure calls for and it is needed to get the full penetration (I did run a test piece to be sure) The inspector singed off the fit up and welding has begun, unfortunately we only had one machine set up to run the NR 232 wire, so I only got the root & hot pass in today, I still need to do one more pass to complete the weld (may go with 2 beads to cover it needs to be flush when finished)

The mannequin is the general contractor- he is building a house for the customer, but to get the job he has to provide access over a creek in the event of a 100 year flood. Pay is only about half what I make if I am doing my "regular" job, but that is twice what the state pays me (unemployment) It is supported in the middle by a pier, they want this thing on-site before they start work on the abutments and second piers I would love to send the two monkeys home but I am not fond of grinding so they will have to stay- and yes it is fun I do like a challenge, I have 5 full pen welds on each one of these- 1/2 inch plate with ceramic backer, inspector will be in this morning to check fit up The welding gun is a Lincoln gun for inner-shield wire, the electrode is NR 232 (Lincoln) or referred to as T-8 (AWS classification) It runs at around 235 amps 21 volts so the long gun assembly is nice to have And yes it is a snappy job for a "Carpenter"- "Carpenter Extraordinaire"

Our cops are too busy trying to bust real criminals to have any time patrolling the rail right away, we have a part of town where the rail road tracks serve as prostitution area, drug dealing and sleeping quarters for any homeless people that end up there, the cops just look the other way unless someone gets killed over there. The train passes through maybe 2 or 3 times a day so the rail cops are not in force either, as long as you are not breaking into box cars they do not pay any attention to you

We only get the Whitworth on the old Triumph stuff up here as far as I know- and yes it is a pain, close but no cigar

So I got hired on two weeks ago and got handed mission impossible- get this job done in 2 weeks. Open truss bridge 106 feet, four sections- 2 right and 2 left. The biggest problem with this project is that there is no shop foreman, and I was not hired to be a shop foreman. I do want to get the job done and hopefully the shop will make money on it, that will keep me working longer. I am the only person in the shop that has the skills to do this work- I know how to fit up and weld the component's, I know what it takes to pass inspection. The 3 other guys can cut and punch holes and grind, so I am left to do the skilled labor. Well here are a couple of pictures of what we are doing, 15,000 lbs of iron in each section, the diagonal bracing is 5x5x1/2 inch angle, each one weighs 105 lbs, the T on the bottom has a 3/4 inch flange and 1/2 inch web the upper is 1/2 x 3/8

I love looking through the old books, I have some published by Audel's that have a wealth of information, I have the machinists handbook, a millwrights handbook and one called Sheet Metal Pattern Layouts- good stuff

If you click on the link there are some real funny surveillance videos, the guy that losses his pants while tying to steal some beer is a good one- looses his pants and drops the beer We have miles and miles of abandoned track out here, there was a spur that went to the military base that has been unused for at least 30 years

A needle scalier works good for penning

Add to list Put vise near forge Insert smilley face

This is a very simple equation to solve- every blacksmith knows this. You take the volume and divide by PI X R Sq then you follow the rotation of a top on a bottle of scotch and cube this number when the sum equals the pounds of butter in a chicken soup and the moon is in line with Venus the answer will be right in front of you

I have bought and sold Champion 200 blowers with the stand for $40.00 they are pretty common and I do not give them much value myself. The hand crank is nice to have when you are without power but other than that I do not see much use for it

$20.00/ lb but only $150.00 shipping- he will loose on the shipping end I bet.

Ya our "Buddy" mr B has one listed out here,"The most popular blower ever made" for the very reasonable price of $275.00, or he has one without the stand that you can have for $210.00. Also many other tools anvils to trip hammers and it could all be yours if the price was right! This guy does not come down on his price either, you pay full price if you want what he has