Hey guy's recently picked up a outboard engine for my new boat, the outboard had water in one cylinder so first thing i got the outboard off the truck and onto the boat and took the head off for inspection I found the cylinder head had a previous weld job that was very poor there was a corroded hole from one water gallery straight into the combustion chamber it had been mig welded poorly the blob of weld just broke away with a screw driver It took some cleaning first i soda blasted the cylinder it done minimal cleaning than i used a gasket spray remover than i finally pressure washed the hea ..read more

Hello I just purchased a used watts beveler but it doesn't have a torch I messaged watts and they want 450 for a new one. I was wondering if one of the Chinese track torch torches would fit? It looks like it would but I'm not sure if the oxygen and acetylene fittings are different from the Chinese torches from the ones we use in USA. Does anyone know ..read more

Hi, I have a basic Ozito stick welder, not very big, cost's about a $100 bucks new. It runs off a 10 A, 220 V power point here in Australia. I use it to weld about anything I need to weld from 1.6 mm to around 5.0 mm. Most of my welding is "hobby welding" in the 2.0 mm to 3.0 mm range. I have been using it off and on for over 15 years. I have a mig, but prefer the simplicity of a stick welder. I would like to use it in the field for light jobs, what is the minimum size generator I could get away with. Thank you for your interest and helping out a 81 year old hobby welder. Ted Southeast Queens ..read more

I have had an ESAB Origo MIG 4001i welder with a Yard Feed wire feeder in the shed for a couple of years that I was given. Just getting around to trying it. The label on the back has data for stick, MIG and TIG. Is this a generic label they put on all machines or does this machine have TIG ability?? Also, I bought a Hypertherm Powermax 45 in a recent auction but it does not have a torch. I didn't realise how much a new torch is!!!! Are there aftermarket options? Are 2nd hand ones around ..read more

I want to make insect/rabbit/possum/cockatoo proof covers for my vegetable raised gardens with stainless steel paint/powder coated flywire, of which I have an unusual quantity for reasons I can't remember from many years ago when it must have looked like a good idea at the time. Debating whether to use timber or metal frames, but if metal I reckon 13x3mm will do to about 900mm high with reinforced corner for the very minor stability they need. Can bend one length to an inverted square U shape and then weld the same metal to complete frame boxes with a few other lengths to complete a loose lig ..read more

Got a project where I am welding some rail line together, and currently have over 400 4mm rods into it so far. It has been not the most exciting thing, rod after rod all 8018 ex gas pipeline rods, when I bought 700kg of them for ~$150 at auction. Got me thinking about running two rods at once as I saw them doing on the youtube channel "The Jackson Brothers" when they were relugging a D11 bulldozer they got up to using seven rods at once. The biggest welder I have is a 250 amp Unimig welder, but came across people connecting DC welders together for more output. I have a little "200" amp ross ..read more

I am making a new mount for my Digital Microscope and need to use a section of 22mm round bar for the 'mount'. I have been looking for some ALi or Brass solid Round bar to use, so I can internally thread both ends for mounting, but they are very expensive and not worth the cost. ( I only need 400 mm ) I found a section of old 1/2" Galv Water Pipe in my stash, which is close enough to 22 mm OD, that it will do. The trouble is, is that it can't be threaded unless I fit end caps first. I was thinking of Silver Soldering the end caps in place ( I have MAPP torch ) but have no experience with silv ..read more

Gday All. I know this is a long shot and I don't really expect a positive answer, however I'll ask anyway. First off, we live about 5 Klm from the ocean (in a straight line) so any bare steel starts rusting pretty quickly. EDIT. I've just had a look on SIX maps and used the distance tool. We are actually only 2.43 Klm in a straight line from the Ocean. So this leads to my problem. As I'm not using the mig every day I can't leave a spool of wire on it, as it will start going rusty within less than a week (depending on the weather) even though the spool is inside the machine and the machine is ..read more

My arc welding training was a few weeks at trade school, a long time ago. I doubt inverter welders were a thing back then, and in so far as I’m aware DC welding didn’t exist. (Could be wrong there but I’d never heard of it.) Anyway, when the class was getting the hang of things the instructor invited us to try a few different types of welding rods. As I recall, there weren’t too many different types to choose from. The rod I fell in love with was one called Satincraft. Probably because the flux would just about fall off by itself. And since then that’s all I’ve ever used. So, now I’m about ..read more

I think my original post got lost in moderation so I am asking again. I'm beginning to think that one of the reasons my welding is so poor [ apart from lack of practice] is that I probably need some dedicated short distance corrective glasses. Since my LASIX surgery about 15 years ago my vision has deteriorated a bit and I now need a distance glass for low light and night driving and my reading prescription just changed a bit too. For welding using MMA is there a recommended distance from the workpiece other than your normal reading distance because my reading specs don't seem to allow me to f ..read more