Score any bargains lately?

[bradblazer]

Northern Tool had their Demo Days Saturday. It was raining cats and dogs all day so we went into town. There wasn't a whole lot for demonstrations. The little Powerhorse 2-way splitter looked cool though.

They had some tables under the awning with clearance items - take an additional 50% off the clearance price. I picked up a 15 ton and a 20 ton screw jack for $14 and $15 respectively. They are like infinitely adjustable jack stands that will actually LIFT their rated load by inserting a bar through the top of the screw. I didn't even know I needed them until I saw them for dirt cheap. ;D

The 15 ton is pulling temporary duty as an infeed support for the bandsaw.

www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200318905_200318905

Brad

[GuglioLS]

Good deals Brad,

"The 15 ton is pulling temporary duty as an infeed support for the bandsaw. "

Hopefully it's being used to support cross tubes for a grapple.
I've no recent acquisitions to top those deals. I did recently use a 20% off coupon to purchase some cable and eyelets for my dump trailer, does that count?


Larry

[bradblazer]

Sept 29, 2009 22:46:21 GMT -5 GuglioLS said:

I did recently use a 20% off coupon to purchase some cable and eyelets for my dump trailer, does that count?...SNIP>>>

Considering your successful deployment of the cables, your good deal trumps my bargain. ;D

I actually had to do some repairs to the bandsaw. The pump was jammed - all of the paint peeled off the impeller housing and fouled it up. Once I got that cleaned up, the hydraulic downfeed was not holding so I took the cylinder apart and replaced the O-rings, then filled it with heavier SAE30 oil. I need to get it perfect because a buddy of mine has a full sized bandsaw that's too big for his garage and I might get to do an even-up trade. ;D

Sunday I slacked off and just put together 52 x 10' extended posts and planted them across the pasture with the auger on the Belarus. The ground was so soft it screwed in on the second hole. I managed to free it by alternating up and down force. After that I was careful to meter the "downfeed". It was too wet to tamp them but we got some good drying weather the last 2 days. I went out and tamped 15 last night after supper.

Tomorrow I'm driving to Raleigh for a PENC Board of Governors meeting. I'm planning to stop at Agri Supply and probably HF. I'll pick up that grapple cylinder for sure. I have a Scout camping trip this weekend so I'll probably end up taking some time off next week to finish up the cross fence and then I can start hitting the grapple assembly.

Phew!
Brad

[bradblazer]

Stopped at HF on my way back from Raleigh yesterday. I picked up a TIG torch attachment on clearance for $19.99. Several on Welding Web have reported the same deal. All you need is a DC welder, a bottle of gas, and a regulator and you can scratch start tig with this.

It's the torch featured in this welder manual:
www.harborfreight.com/manuals/66000-66999/66787.pdf

The torch model is WP-17V. It's an air-cooled 150 amp torch. It comes with 12'9' of cable and the small dinse connector. The gas tube is a little over 8' long and goes from the connector to your regulator.

Here is a common vendor with manuals and brochures:
www.weldcraft.com/products/wp-series/wp-17/

There were a bunch of them on the shelf at the store. I exchanged my empty 75/25 bottle for pure Argon today.

Hey Rob, any pointers?

Brad

[3RRL]

Feb 5, 2010 16:42:49 GMT -5 bradblazer said:

Stopped at HF on my way back from Raleigh yesterday. I picked up a TIG torch attachment on clearance for $19.99. Several on Welding Web have reported the same deal. All you need is a DC welder, a bottle of gas, and a regulator and you can scratch start tig with this.

It's the torch featured in this welder manual:
www.harborfreight.com/manuals/66000-66999/66787.pdf

The torch model is WP-17V. It's an air-cooled 150 amp torch. It comes with 12'9' of cable and the small dinse connector. The gas tube is a little over 8' long and goes from the connector to your regulator.

Here is a common vendor with manuals and brochures:
www.weldcraft.com/products/wp-series/wp-17/

There were a bunch of them on the shelf at the store. I exchanged my empty 75/25 bottle for pure Argon today.

Hey Rob, any pointers?

Brad

You will absolutely love that TIG.
Your welds should come out clean as a whistle and very pure. I wish I would've know you were going to buy one. I have several torches with at least 20' cables. Mine are all water cooled torches. I have different sizes ... larger torches for higher amp welding. But I use mostly the mid size for almost all the welding I do with it.

Tips, although I know nothing about your welder:
-Make sure you tungsten tip is very sharp and gound like a "flame" to the tip.
-Use the appropriate diameter tungsten for the job ... large for higher amps and small for lower amps.
-Does your welder have a "high frequency" start mode? If so, use it to start the arc.
-It will be easier to start the arc and then the delay (usually 10 seconds) will switch to the normal welding parameters.
-Do you have a foot pedal ... a variable foot rheostat? It takes some time to get used to, but once you do, you will want to use it for all welding. When I use my Miller ABP 330 for AC or DC arc welding, I still use that foot pedal because I can vary the amps "on demand".
-The torch could get hot so using a water cooled torch is good for long periods of welding.
- Start the arc about 1mm away from your work and it should strike an arc.
-Sometimes I touch the work piece and move away as I step on the pedal.
-Be sure your weld is well protected so no breeze blows away the Argon. -If you are having trouble striking an arc, be sure your work is "saturated" with argon.
-But don't set the valve "flow" too high or too low. I use the first graduation (10 I think) on the valve adjustment for the Argon. That's where the little floating ball is at during Argon delivery.
-You can weld either way ... into your rod feed or away from it, your choice.
-It would be easier for me to answer direct (specific) problems or situations, rather then to generalize like I did.
I will be more than happy to do that.
Good luck,
Rob-
-

[bradblazer]

Rob,
Thanks so much for all of the info. just what I needed.
The welder I'm using is this little Harbor Freight invertor 91110.
www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91110

It has no special tig features - just a DC source but it does have a compatiable plug. It doesn't have enough duty cycle to really overheat the torch. I might try hooking it up to my big welder in the future - still scratch start but with plenty of power and more fine tuning.

I'm really just getting the feel for how it works and working on my coordination. It is pretty neat and I see that I'll be able to weld some small fine stuff with it.

Brad