Alphatig 200x TIG welder #6: More from vintagespeed.

 Another update from vintagespeed from ADV Rider on his Alphatig.

 so here's some pics of my boogers after a 120cu/ft bottle of argon; ~ 1.5 tungstens and about 6hrs run-time.

i know it's not good, but it's my experience after 20+ yrs MIG and stick welding and never picking up a TIG machine before. i think at the end of the next bottle i'll be much happier with the results. and i'm going to pick up some stainless too, that's where the pretty welds reside.

here's a 3/32 - 1/8" gap i filled in some mild steel of different thickness, 1/8 on top of some 3/16". you can see where i undercut the hell out of the 1/8":



definitely NOT stacking dimes, but i'd put it in service:



next up i really layed into it and cranked 'er up to 200amps and setup some 1/4" plate on 1/4" angle. i was probably mostly 1/2 to 2/3 pedal though so wasn't using the full monte and the torch got H O T for sure, smoking a little bit even ,here & there:



you can see where i dip'd a few times, and i didn't prep the 1/4" AT ALL, full mill-scale. i was also welding with the garage wide open and not caring much about shielding gas dispursement, hence the pock marks in spots:



so there you have my review after about 6hrs on the machine. so far so good. my AC is actually MUCH better than the ugly DC results above, but what good is a welder if he can't do both? i'll keep practicing. so far, i like this machine alot, it'll never replace my MIG for DC but it's a great machine all around.

Alphatig 200x TIG welder #5: vintagespeed's playing around.

Vintagespeed has been using his welder quite a bit.  Here's what he's been up to lately:

another update. i know my welds aren't great but you can show-off yours & challenge your buddies on IG with #tigcubechallenge

i need to purge better on my SS, learning, learning...





i ordered up some stubby cups & gas lenses from HTP, when they get here i'm hoping to be able to lay down some better welds on thin. and better gas coverage for stainless too.

a buddy of mine challenged me (and the Alphatig) to weld two beer cans together....but i only drink beer from bottles.



it's ugly, but it's getting better. right about when i'd get a nice tight bead going it'd blow out. a couple more tries and i think i'll have a nice one.

the machine does fine on thin. you have to move really quickly and if the puddle starts to spread out, get off the pedal. and keep a VERY close position with the tungsten, what you see in my fail above is too much arc length and not enough speed.

i'm building a girder front fork and using this dyna hub for it, it's going to be a big ass spool hub and i needed to fill some left-over rotor bolt holes after turning it.



dirty, dirty cast aluminum hole filling:


there's extra for re-turning the hub after i drill through the hole pattern from the other side so both sides match:


obviously i dipped a few times filling those holes, hard to get into the bottom and fill solid all the way to the top and i was nervous about packing too much heat into it and blowing a hole. but i think it turned out just fine for a non-critical, non-space shuttle-type of weld. without the Alphatig, i'd just be staring at it sitting on my bench instead of actually getting it handled.

Alphatig 200x Tig Welder #4: vintagespeeds welder and review!

So I started a thread over and ADV Rider (found here: http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/alphatig-200x-review.1041922/page-3 ) about my Alphatig, and another fellow there ended up buying one as well.  He gave me permission to share his thoughts and pics of his welder here, so here you go!


Without any further ado, here's what vintagespeed has to say.

So i've had my AlphaTig 200 for a few weeks. the shipping from Amazon was super impressive, i ordered it on a Wed mid day and it arrived at my door for free on Friday. how's that for service? it was well packed and arrived unscathed.

the machine is good looking, has lots of bells & whistles and weighs about 40lbs, much lighter than my MIG. i bought a 120cu/ft bottle of Argon and some 2% Lath sacrificial tungstens and some filler; 4043 1/16 and ER70S-6.



if you're considering this machine, dont even power it up until you have a 240v circuit for it. it's seriously not worth the time to try to use it on a 120v service line, it works but it's not happy. when i finally pulled my 240v and ran it for the first time on 240v it was literally night & day difference, the pedal was more responsive, the arc was cleaner and the machine hummed along quietly even at high amperage. just beautiful compared to the noisy and raspy way it ran on 120v.

when i first got it i did some DC to get familiar with it and was fairly successful so i switched over to AC and spent many agonizing days questioning my sanity for trying to learn something new....but then i did something that opened my eyes. i switched it back to DC and tried to run a bead with it and hated every minute of it! i jumped back to AC and never looked back, welding aluminum is awesome! it's clean, quiet, and enjoyable. this machine really does weld nicely on aluminum, every review i read said the same and they were right.

i've used all the features of the machine and i most like just running off the pedal, but pulse is really great if you turn it up insanely high speed and just feed it filler. it's almost like cheating. i need to spend more time on pulse and try to really tune it in, if i was doing some kind of repetitive task it would be wonderful for that.

i'll post some pics after i make a new batch of coupons to stick together. last night i was just running some beads at 175amps on 3/16 aluminum plate and the machine was quietly humming along at 170hz laying nice pretty, shiny beads.

i'm stoked on it and will report back with some pics and any issues that arise. i'm almost ran out of argon so i'll pick up a fresh bottle next week and keep buzzing away. so far so good!

Metal Earth laser-cut model review- Avro Lancaster.

Stumbled across this laser cut miniature model a few weeks ago while on the Cali trip with my eighth graders.  These are made by Metal Earth, and are VERY detailed and fun to put together, although they are NOT what I would call easy to assemble.

I paid quite a bit more than amazon is asking for the same kit here ($6.64):  http://www.amazon.com/Fascinations-Metal-Earth-Laser-Model/dp/B00FFCI2XU/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436406536&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=metalearth+lancaster

Very small package.  They claim to have 360 degree views to help assemble the models here: http://www.fascinations.com/metalearth/gallery360 but I was unable to find the Lancaster there.



Laser cut, very detailed, and dang challenging to put together. Fairly simple when you look at the directions and parts...



But looks can be deceiving.





These little engine pods were a pain to build. If you can find a rod about the diameter of what you need its pretty easy to curl the metal around it.





Starting to come together!





Done.





Part of what makes it so hard to do is the size- pretty dad gum small.








So overall this was a WAY fun project.  Took me maybe an hour and a half start to finish.  It was challenging enough to make it exciting but not so hard I got frustrated with it.  Definitely NOT for begginers or very easy.  I do think they have a few simpler models that might be great to try and see if you like it. 

I *definitely* recommend this to any model builders or people who like to work with their hands.  I think they are a bargain at the prices you see them on amazon, and there is a HUGE variety- planes, tanks BUILDINGS, Transformers, and even STAR WARS ships!!!

Here are a few of the others:

 

 

And my PERSONAL favourite- The John Deere model B!

There are *hundreds* more to choose from.  Enjoy!

Winnings!

So I entered my custom Hot Wheels tool box in an instructables competition, and it won some prizes!



Got sweet new shirt, a patch, a sticker, a multi-tool pen that'll go in the tool box and some kind of sensor? from Clime.  Seem to be sensors that can measure temp, humidity, and the like and connect wireless to ipads or other devices.  Apparently on back order...

Here's the instructables I wrote:  http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Utlimate-Mini-Mobile-Metalshop/

And that nifty little 12 in one tool pen can be found here:   http://www.amazon.com/12-Multi-Function-Tool-Pen/dp/B005Z7OEI2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436313386&sr=8-1&keywords=12+in+one+tool+pen

It'll make a great addition to my tool box!

Sixth Grade Shoe Day.

My son had to "invent" shoes for Sixth Grade assignment. He got to my shop after school, I left for a meeting, and here's what he came up with.  Should have taken more pictures but I wasn't even in the room for most of his build!

One minor problem here... Can you see it?



It was pretty funny. I was out back observing the woods teacher and some students finish up for the day on a shed they are building. He came out and said "I've got 2 left feet"... Took me a minute to figure out what he meant!

I drilled the rivets out for him and he finished them up.







They have to wear them all day tomorrow at school. Should be interesting to see how well they hold up! I see a couple of potential fail points- the rivets holding the leather together are probably going to pull out but he'll live and learn.

Only one smushed finger out of the deal too!



I'm pretty impressed. I was worried he was going to cut himself on the metal, but he cut out both soles all by himself with the aviation snips. I sanded off the edges but other than that he designed and built them all by himself out of scraps from the shop.  Took him maybe an hour yesterday to get the soles cut out and he spent almost 3 hours tonight cutting leather, punching holes, and riveting it all together.  I think it took him a while to figure out a latch mechanism on the first one, but the second one seemed to go faster.

dorkpunch engines #2- Cylinder and Head.

Back to our home built hit and miss engine model.  Here's what we're starting with:




Ordered all of these on ebay.  Need to check and see what the alloy is, but whatever it is its darn soft and machine very easily.

Makin' chips.



This is a shakedown run- testing how much I've forgotten since college and seeing how sucky this lathe really is. Turns out I don't remember much...   It also turns out that my lathe needed some tweaking but I didn't figure that out until later.  *sigh*

Machined it down, lazily marked a few spots and drilled some holes.



Countersunk.



Parting off the head. Took FOREVER. Need to align the tool- sits too low.



Head and cylinder.


Tapped the holes.



Teensy plug I'll be using:



Fits together quite nicely!





Plan is to use some soft copper sheet I have as a gasket. Now the hard part begins- figuring out how to get the piston and valves in there.

So far this is LOTSA fun- many things are starting to come back to me.  Really enjoying being able to make chips fly, but I've got a loonnngggg ways to go before its up to par.