Sunday, December 6, 2015

My welding has improved!

It's just like soldering. It takes some wiggling to get the arc started but once it has, life is very easy. I went through several welding rods (all E6011). Perhaps the trickiest piece of welding was to weld a top bar on one side of the box. I managed and it all went together well.

I had no problems other than from rogue sparks, one of which got into my glove. That stung a little but it was a spark, not molten metal, thank the Lord.

As you can see, the welding is way better. Each weld seems to use most of a rod. That leaves me with several ends of rods that I haven't yet used up. I like to "smoke them down to the butt!"

Once I complete the welding on this, I will probably get somebody more used to welding to attach it to the bus. There are a few bits that need more work but its coming along nicely. The whole construction seems much more rigid and less flexible now that I've done some welding. Welding it under the bus could be interesting! In fact, I might get a mechanic to check my welds and weld the unit under the bus.

Basically, welding is a lot like soldering. I suspect I'd have been better with an oxy propane welding set. It'd have certainly been cheaper!

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the 7th. I don't really believe my heatsinks will arrive because I don't believe they were ever sent! It looks like tomorrow I will be filing non delivery and claiming a refund from eBay and ordering a fresh supply.

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