TOPIC:

Hey Bruce,

I see a lot of stuff in there from conduit benders to pipe clamps.

I know what you're going through after the economy collapsed in 2009 I had to consolidate a 6000 square foot shop to 1500 square feet. I literally gave away tools, shelving and hundreds of doors and windows. The wife and I battled Columbia State Bank to a draw, perhaps a victory considering that we didn't loose our home. Any way, I got the new shop built and don't regret spreading the excess tools and equipment around to our friends. There were times when the shop in my pics was as full as yours is today.

I'm looking around for a small lathe and mill. What do you think of your ENCO? Which model is it?

Regards
Bill

My Enco is the popular 9" x 20". It is a Chinese made machine and sold under several brands, but Enco has a quality control policy with the Sieg company to pick and choose which ones they want. The base unit usually runs around $1100, including a good tool set (wrenches, etc.), steady and follow rests, and a 4" three jaw universal chuck and a 5" four jaw independent chuck.

I really lucked out when a friend of mine called and said he had a chance to buy this one from a guy who just never used it for his race car shop, so he just wanted it out of the way. I made a rediculous offer of $150 and he SHIPPED it to me for $150, TOTAL! Most of that was probably shipping! I still feel just a bit guilty, but every time I use it that feeling gets blocked!

I really love mine, and it does things that it shouldn't, but if you know how to cheat, it works! The fan on my motor broke so I am limited on run times under heavy loading. (Maybe I should get on the lifetime waiting list for a Muzzy fan?) I have tons of tooling for it from my days with my old Logan 12" x 36" lathe. I wish I had never sold my old Logan! You can still find them in great shape for under $1000.

Bill, how much machining have you done? If this is new to you, you will find that the lathe itself is only about 10-20% of the cost! Tooling will kill you, especially with mills!

To learn more about the 9 x 20 class of lathes, spend some time navigating this link.

www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/versions/Versions_9x20.htm

This is why I like TIG over Mig. You have complete control over the heat input into the weld through torch manipulation and a foot petal and complete control over the filler rod as your putting it in. I haven't professionally welded in over 20 years, but I always felt like it was riding a bicycle. I'm old and fat and the eyesight has gone from perfect to + 2.0 for reading. So 3 days ago I had my first time welding with a brand new Thermal Arc 186 and fabbed up the brackets and welded on to the frame of the KZ1300 for the rear taillight bracket. Today I cut up the taillight bracket and relocated the bottom of the ears to fit the new GPZ1100 taillight. So I'm working with 16 gauge sheet metal and butt welding at 35 amps. I'm not sure about my auto darkening Sperian 880 weld helmet since it seems to be ghosting when adjusted to #5 shade, but anyways here's the results.


the original bracket



Relocated ear bottoms looking from the rear



The back side of the weld before any grinding cleanup.

John, I sure hear ya on the total control aspects of Tig. I once tried to demonstrate to a bunch of local high school kids just how much control you have, so I started the bead and after about an inch I stopped travelling, but backed off the pedal only to a point that just kept the arc, and looked up at the kids and gave them a short talk about how much control the pedal gives you. After about five minutes I went back to the bead and finished it, keeping that arc the whole time.

I would also agree about Tig on that taillight bracket, too! Thin stuff like that begs for control.

Have you ever played around with stitch control welding on a Mig? I use it often when I join two pieces of sheet steel. I overlap the spots and run higher voltage, and the outcome looks like the fish-scales of good Tig beads. Of course, I pause to let each spot cool before hitting it again, and at any time I can touch the bead. Pretty slow work. The pic at the bottom of the page is a belt guard I made for my snow-blower using this spot technique, but not so closely spaced spots. No warpage at all.

I used to be a Tig die-hard too until I took a class in maximizing Mig's special properties. When I was at GM's institute I also learned about the alloys that all car makers use for the unibodies and that they MUST be welded using Mig to minimize heat when doing crash damage repairs. I have used both classes to develop a very low heat, short arc time technique. I don't have any heat warpage problems anymore. In building aluminum trike frames, others have to re-heat-treat their frames after welding with TIg, but using my SLOW method there's not enough heat imparted around the weld to cause any internal stresses or future cracking. Of course, my method doesn't fit production levels, so nobody has been interested in it!

Something almost all Mig machine owners fail to heed is that a Mig machine starts at the same voltage as it runs all through the bead. That means that the beginning of the bead will have poor penetration from having to heat up the metal from ambient until the metal ahead is pre-heated. That's where my variable voltage addition to my machine shines. The start voltage is higher to overcome this issue, tapering off as the bead gets going. Tig doesn't have this problem as long as the operator pays attention.

A little confession here. I usually don't wear my welding gloves, so I am constantly dipping my filler into the puddle a bit too deep, touching it to the Tig's tip! I'm sure you know how I feel at that point, IF you have ever done that!

I still prefer Tig for some projects. I am very proud of my buggy, built in 1990. ALL Tig welded! It has won best engineered, and best competition in car shows. I had a serious crash in it in 1994. My left hand was mangled by the steering wheel, but we survived pretty well otherwise, and not one weld cracked or broke. A tie rod end broke, and one rear shock end snapped. My roof-rack was crushed, along with everything up there, and my gas tank had one corner crushed in, but no breaks or leaks. The link below is to my complete set of pics of the construction of that car from the ground up. I still have that car and it still drives. Needs restoration, though!

www.flickr.com/photos/7789950@N05/sets/72157621761178584/

I have a question for you, John. Do you always use an auto-darkening helmet? Do you like them? I tried one at a welding supplier's demo day, but after just five minutes of start and stop welding to test it, my eyes itched for the rest of the day. Most of my buddies who use them swear by them. My eyes are at 2.5 now for close vision, so I have to wear my reading glasses under my helmet. Some of the auto helmets have better clearance inside than my old standby favorite Jackson 2" X 4" shade 10 gold lenses! But, I do have one pair of glasses that I bent to be flatter to fit better inside the helmet. I have no problem with the old head-nod method of dropping the helmet, so auto darkening has never enticed me yet. I just don't trust them. There is an instant when the arc reaches your eyes before it goes dark, and it seems to affect mine more than it does other peoples', I guess.

Ya know for a guy who's just pick up the skill as he went along, you sure do nice work and judging by your response you can hold your own with a professional welder. Kudo's to you sir!!

So far to date I've had 4 different auto darkening helmets. The first one was a Speedglas with a fixed shade of #11. Great helmet except if you needed to weld below maybe 60 amps, then it was too dark. Reaction time between light to dark was 1/500th of a second. Great product when you're doing a lot of stitch welds. Supplied to me by my work Ontario hydro.

Then Speedglas came out with the same model with the variable tint from #9-#13 shade. Even better than the first. Reaction time went down to 1/1000th of a second and a lot of our welders who complained about eye troubles and blamed the reaction time stopped complaining with the new helmet. Again supplied by my work.

2009 I retired. All of my work tools were supplied by my employer since we work in a nuclear power plant and tools got contaminated with radioactivity to the point where they couldn't leave the plant and go out in to the public domain. Now I'm fully retired but I love building things especially as a motor head. I was a licenced auto mechanic before Hydro, then got trained as a fitter machinist, then 3 years later they needed a welder on my crew and asked me to step up, so I did. Another 2 years of welder pipefitting training and then I moved in to supervisory positions. Long story short, I'm triple traded. If it breaks I don't just fix it, I build a new one. I finished off my career as a Section Manager Operations, Maintenance , Engineering and Project Manager. I had a one point 10 Industrial Mechanics, 3 electricians, 4 Civil maintainers, 12 operators and 7 engineers working for me. I digress.

So back to your question. Now I'm at home and I decided to get some new welding equipment. I bought a cheap auto darkening helmet from Princess Auto and tried it out. In less than 20 seconds I tossed it in the garbage. I had major ghosting going on. It looked like I was witnessing 4 images layered overtop of each other. Thought I was drunk or something. Piece of garbage. (wish I had a Speedglas again. Only $300 for a new one)

shopped around on EBay and found this Sperian used for $140. Auto darkens from a #5 to a #14. Photovoltaic no batteries. checked out the internet for feedback and it looked like it was a Cadillac of a helmet. So I bought it. Just started using it and still trying to get my head wrapped around what I'm looking at. Could be some reflection inside the helmet coming from behind me or............... I've never had to wear glasses before when welding but now 20 years later I need them for reading. So I'm not ready to discard this helmet until I understand what the issue is yet. Bear in mind that when you're welding 16 gauge material, you don't have the luxury of "watching" what you're looking at and trying to figure it out. Welding the thin stuff needs your full attention. foot on the pedal, right hand manipulating the torch and left hand dipping the filler. Perfect job for a drummer. 3 parts of the body all doing their own thing and the brain's along for the ride.

In the end, I wouldn't hesitate going out and buying a Speedglas. The jury's still out on the Sperian.

Well I'm jealous of all of your huge workshops. this is my puny man-cave

and I have to share it with the family bicycles. That's my tiny mig welder on the trolley - I'd like a tig welder but can't justify the cost - or tig weld. I can't mig weld either but that hasn't stopped me trying and have had *some* results which I'm proud of.