BXProject

[Vanny]

i'll happily sell it for £700 (mostly cos i know where a Cebora head off unit was going for less than that)!!

But its one of them cheap naff Cosmo/SIP 170amp turbos that need rewiring to work proper, that said, i dont mind the jerky wire feed if i'm only pratting around or rough welding, but then i prefer the stick for that. Set it to 90amp and just keep chaning them rods!

[Philhod]

Arc eye, or a flash can be got from any welding process that forms an electric arc.

What happens is, the UVA rays hit the outer protective cover of yer eye called the cornea.

Because of the roundness of this, most rays bounce off and quite often a blast full in the face straight on gives no problem.
On the other hand rays sneaking in from the side quite often result in a flash.

When you get a flash, apart from being temporarily "blinded" by the intensity of the light, nothing untoward happens for several hours.
Usually, about 8 pm, whilst watching the box, or on here, your eyes will start to continually run with water. At this point you ...err...know!!
This is the start of a very painful 4 to 6 hours unless you have some anti arc flash drops in your cupboard.
What has happened is the cornea has been burned, causing scarring. This, combined with the eyelid movement aggravates the burn, giving a sensation identical to having sand in your eye or eyes, as sometimes it can be only one eye affected.
The reason it goes on it`s own after about 6 hours is that, contrary to popular belief, no permanent damage occurs, as the cornea repairs it`s self or resurfaces every 4 or 5 hours.

To assuage anyones fears of welding; I have had numerous bouts of said affliction, over the years and apart from having to wear glasses to read (age) my longer vision is nearly as good as it always has been.
Coming back to Doc`s joke about gloves. The biggest danger from any of these welding processes
is the action of said rays on unprotected skin, over a long period I hasten to add, is not just a nasty sunburn, but skin cancer
And yes, clear glasses, or even contact lenses will stop it happening

[Vanny]

Time to go stop up on some of mummy marvelous eye drops!

Now i might be wrong here, but i have always understood that the cones and rods in the retina can and do get burnt out and don't always recover and thus any stupidly bright light (that makes your eyes really hurt) results in damaged rods and cones and thus impaired vision, just that there are so many of each (one sees black and white and the other sees colour) that typically its not noticeable, but the damage is still there, similar to tinitus (sp)? Also i didn't think that all plain glasses block UV (bearing in mind not many 'glasses' are glazed with glass)and hence why you can get additional UV blocking filter layers?

[Philhod]

Once you`ve had some proper lessons even with a wonky SIP Turbo (like mine), you won`t go back to Stick. the only time I use stick now, is if the job requires it for quality of access.

Cebora`s are ace sets but fall into a category of mine that I reserve for things that have been fucked up. XUD`s I can fix, HDI`s *?!!!*<>& electronic bollux.

A lot of the older type sets will run with all sorts of misuse, stick a piece of wood against the wirefeed spring and it`s mended (or even a stone Bandit)
The newer ones howevr, tend to throw a wobbler if you sprinkle them with a bit o dust!!

[Philhod]

Long and massive exposure to UV will indeed damage the cones and rods crossing the retina and result in permanent blindness. The Japs used to tie prisoners down and tape their eyelids back to do that very thing.
A flash is an instant thing lasting milliseconds. A flash a day for 20 years would result in only a fraction of a day in the sun.
Any curved surface will deflect the rays because you are very close to the source and as you know unlike light, which travels at a constant speed, any radiation and UV rays in particular, decay quite quickly as the frequency grows longer.

Oh sorry, this is turning into a science lesson

[Way2go]

on unprotected skin, over a long period I hasten to add, is not just a nasty sunburn, but skin cancer

Is there any UVC generated in the arc causing this or just an overdose of UVA & UVB ?

[docchevron132]

This is the start of a very painful 4 to 6 hours unless you have some anti arc flash drops in your cupboard.

Whats this stuff called Phil?
And where can I get some?

[Vanny]

Mummys marvelous eye drops ae called Celluvic or something similar, but there are many others, i suspect it would be similar if not the same stuff.

Phill, i wasn't talking so much about UV doing damage but out right high intensity light, which is denninately generated when welding, i've seen it, it hurts.

Bandit, are you scared yet?

Also a general point to bandit, try not to weld in high vis jackets, its fucking annoying when you get a dose of reflection into the face!

[Philhod]

Those hi vis things are not all fireproof A siteworker brought a JCB bucket in for repair once.
He insisted on standing right over me while I was working and yes his jacket went up

You should have seen the speed he took it off.

Err... the ones I get I get from the chemist Doc and they're called....Anti Arc Flash Drops

I think they are some sort of liquid paraffin/lanolin preparation...whatever.... they work in about 10 minutes.

Yes welding radiation produces almost the full spectrum of visible and invisible light

[docchevron132]

I aint never heard of it, but I'll dap into the chemist and see about getting some, thanks mate!

[Bx Bandit]

.......er........well it's no TiG - just good old MiG for me How can you judge the quality of the transformer/windings to ensure good stable voltage at low currents. What, in welder specification terms constitutes a good/ wire feed mechanism?

[Vanny]

transformer quality = weight! thats what i go for

and as i learn i would suggest that a decent wire feed mechanism will have its own transformer or one hell of a good ac to dc convertor and decent quality (brushless?) motor for the rollers. Then a well supported frame around the rollers so they cant twist. These are just some of the probs with the naffy SIP welder i have. Check out the Mig Welding forum, LOADS of hints and tips on there!

[Bx Bandit]

Good tips Vanny ta. I didn't think about the MiG forum so I'll check that as well. As a slight deviation from topic (shock horror) i.e. from sets and onto welding....

My trailer has a 40 (or maybe 50)mm solid beam axle that at one point in it's distant past has been cut in two and re-welded (badly) with some angle iron to strengthen. Basically, the mend is sound in principle but poorly done - both in terms of weld quality but also the axle is no longer straight and provides 'toe-in'.

So, I was thinking I'll bin or flog the axle and replace it with a suitable car axle, remove the diff, use sealed caged bearings etc BUT I'm having difficulty finding one the correct width, then I'll have to find wheels and probably tyres blaa blaa blaa

So, I'm back to the original axle which perhaps I could mend with two lengths of angle, properly welded and with the axle set up straight. Your thoughts please, esp on welding the axle, getting & keeping it straight after weld cooling and resultant strength.

[Vanny]

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ont eh making it cool straight i havent a clue, but my uncle has this knack to just knowing how much it will bend when cooling so sets it up wonky and by the time its cooled its straight. Its one of them magic fine arts that mr hodd can probably advise on!

[Philhod]

Yeah them lot will tell you much the same as me. I've used all the sets mentioned on there and they are all good. Murex, Cebora Parweld, Lincoln, ESAB, the list goes on, Kempii is another good set.

Parweld are a good spec and generally a bit cheaper as we are right up in the realms of professional
equipment here.
A good modern Kempii will set you back £1500 for starters, without the add ons.
If you go for much older models they will have been well used and scarce parts will be needed, that`s why I mentioned Gov auctions, they can be a source of fairly new 2nd hand good stuff.

Most of all this gear is a bit over engineered for our use (xcept for Doc's buzz), if you get some of this you will probably never break it. The other gear is a lot cheaper and again, will probably not be overstretched at this level of use. When it is, in about 10 years....buy another
Most of the expensive stuff is electronically controlled and although doesn't give trouble exactly, it's digital read out stuff is ...err....less that accurate. They also have pull out printed circuits governing specific processes, that are always malfunctioning and although they are cheap and easy to replace, are just a bloody nuisance.

Soooo..... that should have confused you no end

You can pre set a joint to allow for expansion and shrinkage and you're right Vanny, it's guesswork based on experience and this is the best method for thin stuff. When you get to thicker material and also where you can get at both sides you are best using sequential runs either side. This equals out the stresses and keeps the work straight.
If you do end up with a bent piece of work you can straighten it after it's gone cold by heating it up again on the opposite side to the weld, which will be the outside of the curve........................

How much heat to put in? Ahh, that's the clever bit

[Bx Bandit]

How much heat to put in? Ahh, that's the clever bit

A fuck of alot if it's 50mm bar + angle!!! I've not read all your blurb on the Migs there Phil but I will do when I have a trifle more time on me hands. thanks bud!

[Vanny]

oh i might add on some big shit i helped uncle build, we modified the shape by parking the forklift on the bottom and lifting up the forks, it was not deliberate and we had to cut it up to get the bend out

[Philhod]

It's all in the technique Vanny, I've never had to cut anything to get the distortion out

The biggest success was one of the operating arms off the Thames flood barrier.

It was sent into another shop to be welded and they didn't sequence weld it and it bent 26mm.

These are a fabricated box beam about 15 meters long, made from 25mm plate and tapering from
3500 x 600 down to 1000 x 600 shaped a bit like a referee's whistle and it had bent about 3 meters from the thick end.

[Philhod]

It's all in the technique Vanny, I've never had to cut anything to get the distortion out

The biggest success was one of the operating arms off the Thames flood barrier.

It was sent into another shop to be welded and they didn't sequence weld it and it bent 26mm.

These are a fabricated box beam about 15 meters long, made from 25mm plate and tapering from
3500 x 600 down to 1000 x 600 shaped a bit like a referee's whistle and it had bent about 3 meters from the thick end.

[Philhod]

It's all in the technique Vanny, I've never had to cut anything to get the distortion out

The biggest success was one of the operating arms off the Thames flood barrier.

It was sent into another shop to be welded and they didn't sequence weld it and it bent 26mm.

These are a fabricated box beam about 15 meters long, made from 25mm plate and tapering from
3500 x 600 down to 1000 x 600 shaped a bit like a referee's whistle and it had bent about 3 meters from the thick end.