I don't know about you other guys and how you handle the heat when summer comes around. For me, the first really hot day makes me a bit sick (heat exhaustion is what it really is).
Friday was our first really hot day for me this year, 95* and 85% humidity and lots of work. The booth got up to 112* by the time I got to the last paint job for the day.
So I've spent a lot of the weekend just laying around drinking a bunch of non alcoholic fluids
eek
. I usually run a fever and everything. It's been like that for the last 20-25 years for me. I'm fine after that initial break in day and a couple days recovery.
But I did have what I needed to start welding again......sooooooo I spent a couple hours setting up the new welder and playing a bit.
Here's my new welder with my brother's welder, all I can say is.......mine's bigger.
Here it is all connected. I bought my brother's argon cylinder from him for $150. He only wanted a hundred, but i felt like I would be taking advantage of him for that amount.
No pictures of welding, I didn't have any new coupons to use so it would be hard to show you what it can do.
Though I did get to play quite a bit with the d.c. pulse mode. I tried different "frequencies" of the pulse mode. From about 10 hertz to about 50. Ten is very annoying and I could see how it could set off seizures in people.
Around 35-40 hertz seemed ideal for welding along the edge of the thin steel I have (.026). I hardly burnt through any of the edge. The welder was pulsing between 20 and 50 amps. I think I could lower the down side of the pulse to maybe 5-10 amps and done even better.
This week I'll try out the super slow pulsing, like .5 hertz to 3 hertz to see how that does.
In all though, the d.c. pulse makes the difference for a smooth weld on thin metal. It almost feels like I'm cheating in some weird way.
I also got my old belt sander that I used to make knives with for sharpening the tungstens. Best move ever! sharpens those bad boys right up in seconds.
I found a place that sells welding coupons, so I ordered a crapload to use to practice.
The goal is to bring Booger here the weekend after next, so I need to be a busy little boy playing with the welder for the next couple of weeks.