damnraz

Ball dropping is a technique I use, before adding filler to the weld, I angle the arc towards my filler to ball it up to the desired size and then drop it in.

Positioner is also known as a rotating table that holds your work piece in place and spins at a desired speed. It helps with consistency and making welds look beautiful. It also takes some skill to use the thing right.

eghatchinwv

iTrader: (1)

What for tig machine are u using

damnraz

Miller Maxstar 200DX DC only... I have a Dynasty 200DX available but we don't do much aluminum now and days

allred27

Good job, Nice and clean

black0hatch

impressive.

damnraz

Thanks I'm always trying to improve and since I do weld and fabricate parts all day I can analyze how welding/fit up affects the overall part. I did pick up some bad habits but it's minor I need to fix them

ghostchild316

Funny. We keep getting more and more aluminum work...

vtechjunkie

iTrader: (2)

I could only hope to be this good one day......... Awesome work man!

damnraz

Thanks for your kind words. All it takes is seat time, I never went to weld school or anything but I believe it's a great start to understand welding and cutting processes. Once I get back doing a bit of automotive fab I'll start posting up more.

awill4x4

Very impressive skill damnraz.
I'm still trying to get my head around your "ball drop" technique.
Do you actually allow the ball to "drop" into the weld pool or is it a case of using the arc to form the ball on the end of the filler then dip it into the weld pool as per normal?
Is there a limitation on welding wire size? eg: does the same technique work on 1/16" filler wire?
I'm very keen to try your techniques I'll give them a go over the next week or so.
Regards Andrew from Oz.

damnraz

I do allow the arc to form the ball on the end of my filler prior to adding it to the weld pool, and what you've said above is correct you got the idea, I don't see any limitations on using this technique. 1/16 filler should work well too.

I'd suggest slightly angling your torch about 15 degrees towards you, just enough to when you start to add filler the filler automatically *****, once you get it to the desired size then add to your weld pool. I got it down to where I can ball the wire and feed it in a consistent motion without stopping but if want, just do it in a more controlled motion where you would wait for it to ball up, dip, move, wait for it to ball up again, dip, move kind of method. It works both ways.

denske

Awesome job man, and I appreciate all the good info on your technique, settings, angles. Usually people post pics to show off their work but never answer questions about settings or how they do it. Great info, thanks again. Keep it coming.
-Den

damnraz

Thanks, I'm always willing to share information and techniques, I can give advice on how to do things but it's up to the welder to take some of my input and put it to work.

I can tell people how I set things up and how I do it, but for them to execute it would be a different story, it's all about seat time and practice, practice, practice...

AFFIRace

Hats off to you sir.

damnraz

Thanks! I'm pretty excited today, I just purchased a miller maxstar 200 dx for home use. I just need to wire up 220v w/ a 50 amp breaker to my garage and trying to decide if I need to purchase a cooler or not, I think I might get a air cooled torch for now, wp17 or a ck20 series torch. Too bad it doesn't have the option for AC but I got it for a real good deal

RalphWiggum

Very, very clean man.

9bells

Exactly. Don't forget too that doing this kinda thing all day every day makes a big difference.
If you are just tinkering at night, it will take a lot longer to get the consistency of a guy doing welding 9-5.

damnraz

You are right on the money. I've been welding 5-6 days a week for about 7 years and it's all about seat time.

Anybody want to recommend me equipment to purchase for a home shop? cold saws, disc/belt sanders, anything? I want to set up shop for part time work.

oosykooo

nicely done

5.0 Killa

I got a little Baileigh cold saw and it took a lot of dicking around to get it working right. Had to take down some material in the guts to get rid of the horrible runout on the blade. Then the coolant pump died. For the 650 it cost I'd rather spent another grand and got something better. So get a cold saw that can cut at least 3". It works great now on things less than 2.5" and at least they have great customer service. I just got a dynafile and it's awesome for cleaning up things although it's a hog on air.

thermal

sickness!

damnraz

Nice, when I worked at the race car fab shop I used a dake cold saw, works great but it's not in my budget. I've looked at a few baileigh products and some looked pretty neat. Hopefully I'll get most of my equipment here within the next month.

CTD-Fab

If you want a really nice big cheap sander Enco has a 6x89 for $700. It has 2hp and runs on 110/220 at 3900 ftm. I had custom belts made for mine similar to to 3M's cubic zirconium ceramic blend Cubitron, they cost about $25 each and last me a couple months each. Because of the large size of belt it doesn't tend to heat up and waste belts quickly even with heavy duty schedule 40 stainless work. The deck plate is also removable so surfacing is an option if/when the plate gets worn unevenly.

Ive used many 6x48s and the 6x79 super sanders at full race, this sander beats them hands down plus doesn't cost much and can be run on a normal 20amp garage circuit.

The model # is TP163-6089

damnraz

Nice, I'll take a look into that, I'm used to using 2x72 60 or 80 grit bent sanders and a 16" round disc.