I couldn't do much over the weekend due to a family wedding but I got a bit more done last night. so hopefully one more evening will have it ready for the side cladding.

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They need a bit of grinding before the next stage of course. ;)
I'm thinking of investing in a new welder torch and hose as I find mine is very inconsistent. One second it is welding beautifully and the next it is spluttering and making terrible welds and the only reason I can see is I'm at a slightly different angle.
Any thoughts from you welders?
 
They need a bit of grinding before the next stage of course.
Looking good Ali. ;)
Any thoughts from you welders?

I've got an ancient Clark 90A mig, which also suffers inconsistent wire feed. I replaced the Teflon liner with a metal liner, which did improve things slightly.
I believe the issue with it feeding better at some angles that others is due to the way the wires and liner interact with each other in the outer sheath. When using the welder at some angles, the wire can feed freely, but turning the torch to another angle upsets the feed, so it begins to snag. That's just a theory, and at some point I will re-thread all the wires through to my torch. I also might change my torch to the more industrial size, as the hobby size tips don't last long, and are harder to find.
 
Don't do much welding these days, but had a feed issue with my old SIP. The same transformer was used for the Arc and the feed motor, so feed speed was impacted by the arc distance & current. It was a constant fight to get it stable.

Added a separate transformer for the feed motor, and it worked much better with consistent feed & arc.
 
Don't do much welding these days, but had a feed issue with my old SIP. The same transformer was used for the Arc and the feed motor, so feed speed was impacted by the arc distance & current. It was a constant fight to get it stable.

Added a separate transformer for the feed motor, and it worked much better with consistent feed & arc.
Mine is the same. The motor is definitely supplied from the same transformers, as the motor speed reduces when arc takes place. Adding a dedicated motor feed transformer is a good idea, that's for the suggestion. ;)
 
Mine is the same. The motor is definitely supplied from the same transformers, as the motor speed reduces when arc takes place. Adding a dedicated motor feed transformer is a good idea, that's for the suggestion. ;)
I've ordered a euro torch upgrade kit and new earth lead so will report back after fitting them.
My torch lead was damaged and repaired before I got it so I've always figured it might be an issue.
 
Finally the frame is complete bar a bit of grinding.

This is a top bar before welding.

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And after
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I'll probably need to grind or cut some of the frame away to get access to the securing bolts for the batteries but I'll worry about that later, it won't make any significant difference to the strength of the frame. For now the next step is to make the side panels and either weld or screw them in. I'll probably end up welding some of them in and screwing others but either way the saga will continue for a while as there are a lot of them. :(
I think maybe the next box will be a bit simpler. ;)
 
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Any thoughts from you welders?
With your eurotorch kit, you should be golden, but there is room for improvement. If you are using soft wire such as aluminium or flux cored wire, you might be best served with a teflon torch liner, if you are using solid steel wire you'll be best served with a steel torch liner. On the workshop try and keep the torch umbilical as straight as you can, even if that means keeping the welder set further away from you. Keep the wire tension as low as you can, strong enough to push the wire through the torch, loose enough that if the wire sticks in the torch nipple / liner the spooler slips rather than "birds nestin". Keep plenty of nozzles handy, they do tend to burn out and clog up, Keep a decent set of snips on hand, or get a set of welders pliers:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283942885928

Edit: updated to say you should also keep a couple of torchliners in stock they are pennies, but if they fail they stop play, and will stymie you for a a few days.
 
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With your eurotorch kit, you should be golden, but there is room for improvement. If you are using soft wire such as aluminium or flux cored wire, you might be best served with a teflon torch liner, if you are using solid steel wire you'll be best served with a steel torch liner. On the workshop try and keep the torch umbilical as straight as you can, even if that means keeping the welder set further away from you. Keep the wire tension as low as you can, strong enough to push the wire through the torch, loose enough that if the wire sticks in the torch nipple / liner the spooler slips rather than "birds nestin". Keep plenty of nozzles handy, they do tend to burn out and clog up, Keep a decent set of snips on hand, or get a set of welders pliers:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283942885928

Edit: updated to say you should also keep a couple of torchliners in stock they are pennies, but if they fail they stop play, and will stymie you for a a few days.
Thanks for this mate. I only use steel wire for welding so I'll order a couple of steel liners like you say.
This is the kit I bought https://ebay.us/JEYfI3
I might have to make some mods to the welder to make it fit but hopefully it shouldn't be too bad. I think the earth clamp I have is a tad rubbish so have one of those on order too.
I guess it's common sense to keep the torch umbilical as straight as possible but always good to be reminded about it. The new one will be longer so I'll keep an eye on it.
 
I might have to make some mods to the welder to make it fit but hopefully it shouldn't be too bad.

I'm thinking I might have to upgrade my old welder now, although a new replacement isn't that much more expensive than upgrading my old one.:confused:
I'll see, I don't use it much, but I will need to replace quite a few panels on my Avenger GT, so it might be worth my making the investment.:)
 
I'm thinking I might have to upgrade my old welder now, although a new replacement isn't that expensive.
I'll see, I don't use it much, but I will need to replace quite a few panels on my Avenger GT, so it might be worth my making the investment.
I'll probably make a video of the upgrade so hopefully you'll be able to avoid all my inevitable mistakes. :p
 
Thanks for this mate. I only use steel wire for welding so I'll order a couple of steel liners like you say.
This is the kit I bought https://ebay.us/JEYfI3
I might have to make some mods to the welder to make it fit but hopefully it shouldn't be too bad. I think the earth clamp I have is a tad rubbish so have one of those on order too.
I guess it's common sense to keep the torch umbilical as straight as possible but always good to be reminded about it. The new one will be longer so I'll keep an eye on it.
You're not fricking about there Ali, that's a properly good setup for that torch conversion kit, that torch is the MB25, I tend to use its wee cousin the MB17 with a flexi neck on it for car body stuff and the MB25 for structural / heavier welding, the good news is both torches can get heavy duty nozzles which do last longer, than the hobbyist slender ones, never put standard nozzles on this torch as you'd be hamstringing it, aye use the slightly more expensive heavy duty ones and it will be a much much much better welding experience.

It's not that hard to install such a kit, the trick for happy weldering with such a modded welder is to ensure the pick up tube is dead on in the path of the wire coming out of the spooler as any deflection in the path of the wire from the spooler to the torch socket's pick up tube will encourage the wire to kink and thus birdsnest. Birds nesting being where the wire gets stuck and the spooler keeps pushing it out of the drum and it ends up in a tangled mess like a birds nest between the spooler and the torch liner. See what the biggest drill bit you can get inside the pick up tube is and see if you can get some rod or wire of similar diameter, such as a piece of tig wire, then put the wire into the pickup tube, and slide the socket to a position where the tigwire can rest on the groove(s) on the rollers in your spooler, then lock down the position of the socket.

Even with the euro torch upgrade installed, the same advice about keeping the umbilical as straight as possible applies, if your torch is too long for the shed, pay it out straight from the machine, past you, and put a gentle sweeping bend to turn the torch back to you. Also remember to leave yourself enough "stick out" on the wire coming out of the nozzle, if you get those welding pliers they are designed such that the cutters are in a position where if you up the other side of the pliers against the shroud as you cut the wire, the amount of wire left sticking out will be in the ballpark of where you need it to be, there is some correlation between the thickness of wire and the thickness of the base metal which dictates the wire speed to calculate the optimum, but since neither of us are building Elon Musk's Starship SN17, in the ball park is good enough.

I'm thinking I might have to upgrade my old welder now, although a new replacement isn't that much more expensive than upgrading my old one.:confused:
I'll see, I don't use it much, but I will need to replace quite a few panels on my Avenger GT, so it might be worth my making the investment.:)

Depends on the mig itself John, if it's an old 80s / 90s first generation mig, such as the ubiquitous battleship grey SIP migmate 80/100/120, or similar, I'd say replace it rather than upgrade it. You don't need to spend a jazillion squiddelies on a new miller synergic mig, even Lidl's "parkside" branded mig's are going to be a significant improvement on such a machine. The only cavaet I'd say to buying a cheap mig is there are now some bargain basement migs on the market that can only run gasless flux cored wire, they are simply a spooler, inverter and a super simple torch, whereas the slightly more expensive migs tend to have the gas circuitry with the ability to change the parameters from gas to gasless. So I'd advise you to so make sure you get a "proper" mig rather than a "gasless" one, as the former will give you plenty of options, but the latter will hamstring you .Dinnae get me wrong, I like flux cored wire, but it's not without it's draw backs and a lot of professional welders I know literally crinkle their nose at the mere mention of the stuff.

The good news is that depending on what mig you currently have, brand snobbery might work in your favour here, as even an old Snap-On (rebranded Cebora) mig will fetch a couple of hundred sheckles, or an old basic SIP will snag 80-120 sheckles, depending on model and condition, on the likes of gumtree and eBay. On the other hand, a brand new, modern, inverter rather than transformer based, far more advanced and better in every way "off brand" mig will be in a similar sort of price range, so you could get a lot of improvement for not a lot of outlay. Although if your buying a new mig I'd say it's worth spending just a little bit more, even if shopping for a cheap modern mig, and the points that warrant the extra outlay would be the following four things:
  • make sure it's gas and gasless rather than purely gasless
  • make sure the one you buy has a fitting / port / socket for the gas hose to connect to rather than a nylon drinking straw like 80s migs had
    • the drinking straw design tends to be locked into the special regulator for the disposable bottles
    • disposable bottles are money pits if you haven't already done so, get a real gas bottle
    • you don't need to open an account with BOC or the likes and pick up rental charges, get a rent free refillable bottle form adams gas or hobbyweld
  • if it's not too much more money, try and get one that will use 5kg drums rather than 0.5kg drums, the saving in the price of the much less expensive per mass of wire over a typical project will more than pay for an inexpensive mig
    • Mig wire is ~£6 for a small <1kg reel, vs ~£15 for a 5kg reel so metre for metre the wire is 2x as expensive
    • every time you "run out of wire you lose 3 or 4 metres that's trapped in the torch,
    • for every 5kg of wire used a 5kg machine will discard 4 metres of inexpensive wire
    • for every 5kg of wire used a <1kg machine will discard 40 metres of wire that cost twice as much per metre as the 5kg machine's - twenty times as expensive wastage costs
    • with a <1kg machine, any time you get into a groove, the damned thing needs a new reel, with a 5kg machine you can weld for days on one drum
  • get a mig with a euro connector for the torch rather than the "hardwired" variety, it just makes life easier
    • you can change the torch for different situations, for example see my comments about using an MB17 with flexi neck above
    • it's easier to replace a worn / clogged torch liner
    • the torches are standardised so you can get replacement parts a lot easier
EDIT: Just a quick update to say I've had a swatch on eBay for a machine such as what I've prescribed in this post, to see if they are still available in this current global shortage of everything (computer components, particularly graphics cards are super rare and mega pricey just now changing hands for ~2.5x RRP) and found this little beauty for £240 posted:
s-l1600.jpg

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284272687655

So if you take it as a euro kit like Ali bought costing £85 and a hundred or so for your current mig for less than a hundred sheckles extra you get tig and stick functionality as well, although I don't know if that mahcine takes the 5kg drums or just the little ones?

Another likely candidate was this mig for similar money that definitely ticks all the boxes in the list above:
s-l1600.jpg

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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384215053165
 
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I bought my welder used off ebay and it has been good but maybe I should have updated it before now.
The earth clam arrived today and I'm thinking maybe a 200A one might have been good enough. I ordered a 400A one from here
https://ebay.us/urDRMU and it is a beast. I need both hands to open it :oops: but at least I know I'll have a decent earth now ;) as the old one is pretty rubbish by comparison. I also ordered some 25mm2 wire partly for the earth and partly for internal connections in the battery boxes, If 25mm2 was good enough for VW it will be for me but only for short leads. Any long leads will be 40mm2 or 50mm2.
I also bought 16 ton crimper off ebay https://ebay.us/HVYpJe and had a go crimping the 25mm2 cable today. The crimps seem OK but the die's are not well made and even though I used the dies marked 25mm with 25mm lugs on 25mm2 cable the lug just fell off. It was nowhere near tight enough. I ended up filing the 16mm dies a little and using them. The result was not perfect but a lot better.
 
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Now listen here chaps. Never mind all this boring talk on welders and welding (yawn). When's the sexy stuff going to be happening? I'm really looking forward to seeing systems, ancilliarys, instrumentation and control stuff happening.
 
Now listen here chaps. Never mind all this boring talk on welders and welding (yawn). When's the sexy stuff going to be happening? I'm really looking forward to seeing systems, ancilliarys, instrumentation and control stuff happening.
[channeling ming here] Easy tiger, if he can't weld the bits together there's nurfink to instrument and control, so our clanky weldering is more importanter than your elictrickery and sparkytronix systems... [/ming]
 
Now listen here chaps. Never mind all this boring talk on welders and welding (yawn). When's the sexy stuff going to be happening? I'm really looking forward to seeing systems, ancilliarys, instrumentation and control stuff happening.

[channeling ming here] Easy tiger, if he can't weld the bits together there's nurfink to instrument and control, so our clanky weldering is more importanter than your elictrickery and sparkytronix systems... [/ming]

Now now then boys, stop yer squabbling, just cause yer wee team cocked it up last night. :p

We'll get to the fun stuff in time but for now I've lots of procrastinating and avoiding the hard stuff to be gettin' on with.
 
Now now then boys, stop yer squabbling, just cause yer wee team cocked it up last night. :p

We'll get to the fun stuff in time but for now I've lots of procrastinating and avoiding the hard stuff to be gettin' on with.
You forget I'm Scottish, or in their terms I'm "from Jocklandshire"....
 
You forget I'm Scottish, or in their terms I'm "from Jocklandshire"....
Sorry you were mocking then. My mistake :p

Even after pinching our anthem (Sweet Caroline which Northern Ireland supporters have been singing for years) they couldn't bring it home.
Pity we weren't there to sing it properly. :oops:
 
Sorry you were mocking then. My mistake :p

Even after pinching our anthem (Sweet Caroline which Northern Ireland supporters have been singing for years) they couldn't bring it home.
Pity we weren't there to sing it properly. :oops:
They can't spell - Home / Rome....
They're going home, They're going home, England's going Home
It's going to Rome, It's going to Rome, Football's going to Rome

Kind of like Bought vs. Brought, as in "England Fans brought tickets to see the final as they thought they were going to see the moment then the team bought the trophy home..."
 
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Life of Brian quotes are going through my mind now, "what did welding ever do for us, apart from...." and "Lets not bicker and argue over Home and Rome..." etc
 

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