Gloopy blobs

Today being Saturday I rushed off into Red Bank to get some welding gauntlets and a welding helmet. Lowe's (hiss, spit) wanted $80 for welding helmets. Walmart wanted $30. No prizes for guessing who got my money!

Arriving home, I set up with the welder, put in a 6013 welding rod, attached the power cable to my newly installed power socket, attached the earth clamp to a piece of steel conduit and tried welding. There was a loud pop and a spark and that was that. Nothing I could do would make it work. I changed rods. There was a pop and that was that.

Feeling disheartened and wondering whether I would have to return to Harbor Freight with the words "it doesn't work", I slipped a 6011 welding rod in and tried again. This time it worked. I managed to tack the two pieces of conduit together although I did burn a hole in the conduit in the process.

Next I started welding the battery cage. My welding improved slowly though there's quite a way left to go! My welds all stood up to bashing with a hammer so I'm assuming that they're vaguely OK as welds. Of course I still have to weld the other side of the steel too.

Some of my first welds were quite gloopy blobs. Some were better though.

Perhaps my biggest problems were the rod sticking to the steel and my helmet visor dropping down when I was trying to do things that didn't need eye protection. The visor was pretty dark so the only place I could actually see the work was in bright sunlight. I also found the burning zinc fumes rather hard on my lungs but at least zinc is non toxic. I did look for a respirator but Walmarts shelves were empty. Although I did my best, covering up against sparks and UV from the welder, I did briefly see the arc a few times before dropping the visor but not long enough to cause damage.

Trying to free a stuck rod often led to charred tracks on surfaces I didn't want to weld. I'm thinking I should perhaps have the rod at a much more severe angle.

Thinking about the 6013 rods and a couple of the 6011 rods that also didn't work, I tapped the very ends with a hammer. The coating flaked off and voila, they worked well.

Meanwhile, I had a letter from the no hopers at Dish Network sent me a letter. Apparently they seem to think I can put a satellite dish on my bus. Then there's all the power that a dish and a TV would guzzle!

Now who in their right mind would want TV in a motorhome? Most with motorhomes are using them to get away from it all, not to remain hooked up and servile!

Now one of the interesting things is that I read a lot online about people failing to get an arc with this welder. I've also read stories of people failing to get rods to work. Clearly I've experienced all these but I persevered and achieved success. It goes back to what I've been saying for a while - too many people give up at the first sign of a problem and don't persevere at anything.

Frustrations

Today started with my laying conduit on the ground from the outside breaker box to where I was going to have my plugin. Then I was going to erect a stake for the socket. The plan was to have the electrics completely done today but as with plans, little was actually accomplished.

The blower swiftly removed fallen leaves and the conduit was layed over the ground. The next stage will be to insert the cable and bury the conduit. I can certainly do better than the Dish Network people that didn't bother burying their cables. An ants nest was revealed and the scurrying ants blown away too.

When it came to cutting a point on the metal stake intended for use with the outside socket, I hit my first big problem of the day. My angle grinder stopped working. After some tinkering, I gave up on it as a lost cause and zoomed off to buy a new one. They're cheap enough at Harbor Freight for $15.

After returning home with my new angle grinder, I proudly plugged it in and it didn't work. Nothing I did could make it work. Putting it away and cursing Harbor Freight, I pulled out a hacksaw and completed the task. Then I drove the stake into the ground.

By then, the light was beginning to fail but I took another look at the angle grinder and found how to dismantle it properly. It seems one of the carbon brushes on the motor had broken. Looking around as I recall there had been spares, I found some that didn't fit.

Clearly either I found spare brushes for another device or Harbor Freight put the wrong brushes in the box. This is rather disappointing and frustrating!

As tomorrow is a party day, nothing will be done. Friday being shop til you drop day, should be good. Everybody will be out on the roads hunting non existent bargains. A good time not to go to Harbor Freight!

Even without an angle grinder, I can complete my wiring in order to run my welder. I fully intend to be welding by Sunday night!

In other news, the Peltier cooler arrived. The glue that fixes it to cooling vanes arrived a few days ago as did the solar panel to power it. I'm still waiting for the cooling vanes.

I've ordered a long permanent magnet to use with a home made coil for my door opening device. Failing that I did see a likely looking solenoid but I'd rather try building something myself first rather than going to a last resort of buying somebody else's junk.

This bus project is taking longer than anticipated. Were I starting again, I would definitely take a different route. Meanwhile I'll have another hunt for the right carbon brushes. Harbor Freight surely can't have been dumb enough to supply the wrong brushes?