eseemann

Nate, 

Thanks for the info, I will put it to good use. 

Yup, I can tell you (from having one of the cheap ones) that you can tell a good cutter from a cheap cutter. My cutter will work but it takes more time and control to get a good result. 

Yahoo2, I do have the cut/grind but I am not sure that that is set to. I think I will stick with the shade 5 goggles since I know what they are set to.

Thanks for the information. 

Bmallen,

I am building a MUCH smaller Rusty jr (20# ram) and I can tell you that is no small project. I can afford $3000 for a LG even if there was one around but even if I did have $3000 I could spend I think I would like the bragging rights or "Hold my beer, hay y'all, watch this!" story over something ready (mostly) to run.  

JM, they sure did send an instruction book, in Engrish! The cutter has a max of 40 amps but anything over 17 blows the breaker. I think sticking with 5 sounds like a safe bet.

thanks

Glenn, 

I have always (tried) to default to what seems to be the safest way to do things. I did not go to all the pain and trouble to stop smoking after 20 years in 2007 to die before my time some other way. I just wanted to make sure that i was not missing something. You think I can get away with shade 5 goggles and still be safe? If so that would be great because it is hard to see the cut at shade 10. 

JM, 

OUCH!!!!!!!

He not only cut off a finger he cauterized would (I would think) killings all the, well, all the anything that you need to make a finger work! 

Peter,

Do you have a tub that you can use to submerge your anvil in water? If you do you can fill up the tub with the anvil in it, mark the water line, remove the anvil and count liters or gallons of water to fill the tub to that line. The assumes to can get it in and out of the tub w/o injuring your self. 

Glenn, 

I have a large (28") fan running at all times right now due to being in North Alabama and not wanting to pass out due to the heat from the PPE. From what you are saying the people that don't use PPE when "just plasma cutting" are asking to end up a cautionary tale on email, is that about right? I use n95 masks for all cutting and grinding, is that good enough for plasma when used along with a big fan to blow the fumes atway? When I was stick welding and it was not too hot I had the fan on the other side of the work drawing the smoke away from me. I do all this in a garage with the door open and most of the time in at or just outside of the garage threshold.   

Hi all, 

I have a cheap plasma cutter from Amazon and when I use it I have the same PPE on that I have for stick or wire welding. I have a flame resistant long sleeve shirt, long pants, welding gauntlets and a auto darkening hood set to 10 or 11. I keep seeing people on YouTube working on short sleeves and no gloves. Am I being overly cautious or are these folks asking for trouble. As a point of fact I do see a good number of people (also on YouTube wire welding in short sleeves with a hood and gloves (sometimes). I see people using a plasma cutter with what look like O/A welding goggles. 

If you look at the "Ready Welder" website the promo photos show everyone in short sleeves and the "DIY action shots" sent in by owners show one guy in a t-shirt, shorts with no gloves. When I was reading up on welding I recall that welding arcs+human skin=very bad thing (if you make a habit this type of thing). 

So (to get back on topic) am I nuts or does having the 4th state of matter 12 inches from you arm mean you should at least use a long sleeve t-shirt? 

Ernest has exited the soap box. 

As I understand it stick and wire (I know nothing about TIG) use a low to very low voltage. This is one of the reasons that you need to be 1/16" to strike the arc using a small buzz box with a 1/16" stick. Air has a VERY high resistance (I have seen people talking about gigaohms/M) and from what I have read it takes 30,000 volts to arc 1 CM but I am not an EE so I will leave that to the people that know more that I do. On thing that I don't like about the ole interwebnet is half of the pages I found when trying to fact check my self start with "according to Wikipedia". 

Do people use extension cords with 220? I figure that might not be much of an issue either way since most of the 220 stick welders I have seen have longer cables for the ground clamp and stinger than my little 110 buzz box. 

I sent Steve a message with the URL to the site where this bit was pulled from in case IFI wants to add it to the reference section. 

Voltage Drop:
Ohm's Law, I=V/R  or V = I*R, says current (amperes) (I) is potential difference (volts) (I) divided by resistance (ohms) (R).
E.g. If you apply 120 volts to a circuit with a resistance of 10 Ohms you will get 12 amps of current.
Most of the resistance in electrical appliances, motors, light bulbs, etc. is in the appliance, but the wire in your house and extension cords also increase resistance.

************NOTE**********
1. In most physics books, "I" is used as the symbol for electric current because in the early scientific days it was known as Electrical Intensity. When the facts about electric current and electrons were discovered the letter C had already been used for Capacitance so the letter I was retained. 
E stands for Electromotive Force.

Charles, 

I am a comptuer security professional with 10 years in helpdesk before that. I do have the surge protector and if I go 220 I would have a good excuse I mean sound reason to get a 220 stick welder and 220 wire welder. 

GWIOW, 

Either way it will look neat! 

Soupyjones, 

These are my three big amp hogs

Campbell Hausfeld Model 115-Volt 70-Amp Stick Welder
Harbor Freight 0 Amp-AC, 120 Volt, Flux Cored Welder
Chinese 40 amp max 120/240 volt (non-pilot arc) plasma cutter

Charles, 

I was thinking I do need a dedicated circuit because if nothing else my LCD monitor in the kitchen that is on the other side of the fuse box was acting REALLY strange after I blew the breaker using the plasma cutter a few times. The monitor would shut off from time to time but it seems to have corrected it self since I have not used the cutter in a month or so. I know that is not at all scientific but it is the best I got. 

DOWNSIDE!!! My wife might get on the "We need an RV" kick again.

Like I said he sounds like a cartoon villain, OSHA is not something he worries much about.

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show interviewed one of the guys behind the Minion's movie and as both men are Jewish they were cracking jokes about a  Minyans movie would not be as funny as 3 Jewish men drive around looking for 7 others to make a quorum of ten men (or in some synagogues, men and women) over the age of 13 required for traditional Jewish public worship.   

Guys these are GREAT!!! I thought it was neat when a a place in Huntsville painted the tires used for access control like Minions but these are works of art. GWIOW, you almost need to make a speech bubble next to yours, that is all kinds of neat!

Charles, that is the way I was explaining it to my nephew so i am please to see I am not off base. Either way if code wants 10 I will ask for 8 because I have a wife that will be REALLY P.O'd if skimp here and cause a problem down the line!

Steve and Charles, 

thanks for the information, I need to read up on voltage drop but I do know that volts push amps through ohms and long runs can make the volts work harder. This will be either 25 feet from the "fuse box" to a max of about 40 feet to the other side of the house so I hope that should not be too bad. I did get my self the biggest extention cord I could lay hands on, 12/3 25-Foot SJTW Extension Cord. it seems to work well enough. 

Again, thanks for the information. 

JHCC, 

Thanks for the lead. Right now I am working on finding the hub+spindle kit that I will order.

On 6/9/2016 at 5:47 PM, Steve Sells said:

and as an Electrician I get that a lot also. usually the "You can reuse this wire I got, rather than charge me for new"   type people, who have never seen what happens when high voltage leaks  because of poor or damaged insulation....  it never ends well

Steve, 

2 (maybe dumb) questions, 

what is the highest amps you would install on a 120 outlet (with the right size wire)

What is the right size wire for the highest amp line run to a 120 outlet?

I am thinking about getting a 220 put in but my 2 welders are 120 but I only have a 15 amp breaker to the outlet. 

thanks  

Yup, that build should land you on a few more people's "Zombie Apocalypse Dream Team". That is very cool.  

Well folks, to miss-quote the movie Tron have almost reached my decision gate and I need to ask a question. The attached images are the current state of my compact power hammer frame and in a very few steps I need to decide if I want to make this an air or motor driven hammer. Anderson Phillips gave me some sound advice that how you tune an air hammer can have as big an impact as the volume of air that the hammer can handle. That got me to thinking and I wonder if the tuning/timing of a leaf spring hammer such as a Rusty type is more, less or about the same level of complexity. If I go the air hammer way I think I will use in single strike mode until I can get a gear head I work with to help with the plumbing. I have the cylinder and a 2/5 valve as well as a 1hp motor and a lead on a spare tire so I can really go either way. 

The I beam is about 31" tall and the top extends out about 18". I have a few ram options from 25" to 7" long and as heavy as 20ish pounds to around 8-10 pounds. I don't have the space for a larger Spencer type tire hammer, the back deck is all I have as a work space and is not that large to start with and that is why I want to start small. The 2 other images this post as well as the 2 in this older post are some of the hammers I am using for ideas. 

I welcome any feedback. 

Thanks 

 . 

The way he talks is if someone wanted a Saturday morning kids show style Bond villain.