120-Volt Mig welder.

[Arc weld]

When I was in Army Basic at Fort Jackson in 76 for some reason or other the men and women trained on the ranges at the same time. With the M 16 those girls beat the pants off the guys hands down. The small recoil and weight made it easy . Of course they didn't come close to the prepackaged experts like me being a North Country Ridge runner all my early years. And for my superior marksmanship what did I get for a reward? Pulled off the range since I zeroed right off the bat and the honor of humping ammo the rest of the morning for the M60 machine guns. Then in the afternoon I got a break and got switched to hauling railroad ties (and we were the tractor). Thanks Uncle Sam. Something tells me my experience is not unique.
I did learn something very valuable though and that is the true even today and that's the appreciation for weight of heavy caliber ammo. I could take two cans of M16 and run with it while that big wonkin box of .308 I could barely waddle. Another useless lesson learned.

My dad lied about his age to fight for Canada in WW II. Gunnery training was interesting. My dad started target shooting when he was about 13 years old. My grandpa was the manager of a large hardware store that supplied ammo to the gun club. It was quite common for my dad to take the gun clubs ammo and his gun case on the bus after school to go shooting. The gun club would often have shooting competitions with the military. They always told my dad to wait in the car. For the longest time he never knew why. Then it dawned on him they were probably betting on who would win and then this kid would come up and beat all of them.

In gunnery training an instructor came over to see how he was doing and said "You don't need this, go to the kitchen. They sent him to the kitchen to peel potatoes! My dad transferred to the air force because he didn't want to become a sniper. They decided my dad was best suited as an air gunner so up he went to shoot targets from a plane. He seemed to be too good of a shot so they figured the cable to pull the target was too short. They lengthened it and he was still hitting the target consistently. (Every 4th round was a tracer and my dad said once you locked on a target you could just follow the tracers) Then they sent up the lead instructor because nobody believed he was that good of a shot. My dad started to worry a bit so he hit the target a few times and then just pointed the guns down to get rid of the rest of his ammo. He didn't want to go peel potatoes again!

My dad was a tail gunner on a Halifax Bomber and flew on 5 sorties over Germany but never fired a single shot. The tail gunners main responsibility was to warn the pilot of other aircraft. On one sortie, after they got back, he noticed a huge hole in the plexi-glass bubble above him. On the 5th sortie his plane was hit by shrapnel and he was blown out with the bombs still on board. He was the only survivor and suffered a broken back. He was given a purple heart but they took it back when they realized he was a Canadian.

After recovering, he went back to target shooting. He was one of only 3 masters in Canada and the youngest by over 10 years. He competed on the Alberta and Canadian team all over the world. He won the Alberta championship so many times in the 50's they gave him the trophy. He carved his own gun stock which I still have but he sold the Winchester target rifle. He quit target shooting because it wasn't fun anymore. He said it got to where people resented him and just wanted to beat him. He was just a darn good shot and liked it in the beginning. Sadly I never got to see him shoot. I asked him once if he could shoot someone between the eyes and he said "At 100 yds, left or right of center. Hitting a dime at 100 yds. is considered a bulls-eye. Hitting inside the diameter of a dime at 100 yds. with a 22 is considered a perfect shot. My dad scored a lot of perfect 100-10X scores. The X signifies a perfect shot. You could have 10 bulls-eyes which would be a 100-10 score but the best shooters were usually in the 8-10X range.

I learned a valuable lesson from my dad playing sports growing up. Do the best you can but most important have fun. If you're not having fun it's not worth it.

 

[newbury]

Another thread gone to waste.

 

[muddstopper]

Another thread gone to waste.

This thread had potential, but there are a few folks that just arenot willing to listen to, or willing to admit that they dont know how to weld. And they dont want to hear that they are not as good a weldor as they think they are. Their dribble has led to the original OP abandoning this thread and this web site. Those same folks couldnt even passup the opportunity to gloat about the fact that they made the OP leave this site and havent missed a chance to throw more mud in the OP direction.

When you abuse your older workers, you endup with the unexperienced and uneducated as the teachers of the new comers. Those newcomers dont know enough to know that they are being taught wrong. So you end up with threads like this one that strays from the original topic simply because there is no one left that can contribute anything of value.

I myself have placed most of the self proclaimed experts, those that dont know enough to know just how ignorant they are, on my ignore list. I find this limits the dribble I have to read. I wont even have to see their replys to this post. I dont think I will miss anything of value simply because they dont have anything of value to contribute

 

[Reverser]

Until something new comes up, all threads eventually die on their own, anyway. After all, this one has 21 pages.

Maybe Mark will post some tests he was talking about doing with their new Everlast 120v mig.

 

[Fifelaker]

This thread had potential, but there are a few folks that just arenot willing to listen to, or willing to admit that they dont know how to weld. And they dont want to hear that they are not as good a weldor as they think they are. Their dribble has led to the original OP abandoning this thread and this web site. Those same folks couldnt even passup the opportunity to gloat about the fact that they made the OP leave this site and havent missed a chance to throw more mud in the OP direction.

When you abuse your older workers, you endup with the unexperienced and uneducated as the teachers of the new comers. Those newcomers dont know enough to know that they are being taught wrong. So you end up with threads like this one that strays from the original topic simply because there is no one left that can contribute anything of value.

I myself have placed most of the self proclaimed experts, those that dont know enough to know just how ignorant they are, on my ignore list. I find this limits the dribble I have to read. I wont even have to see their replys to this post. I dont think I will miss anything of value simply because they dont have anything of value to contribute

Well said. I have my 120v mig up for sale because I weld enough bigger stuff, I don't want to screw around cheating the process for marginal welds. Last Thursday I welded a tounge on a trailer and my little Lincoln was too small for safety reasons so I used the stick.
Something I would like to see rather than bend tests is some etching done on these "Hella strong" welds as that would show penetration and prove some points. I cannot seem to embed youtube vids on here but look up "Macro etching welds with common household chemicals"<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8DPhc5K_thg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[k0ua]

Here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DPhc5K_thg

 

[Fifelaker]

Thanks!

 

[KubotaOwner]

This thread had potential, but there are a few folks that just arenot willing to listen to, or willing to admit that they dont know how to weld. And they dont want to hear that they are not as good a weldor as they think they are. Their dribble has led to the original OP abandoning this thread and this web site. Those same folks couldnt even passup the opportunity to gloat about the fact that they made the OP leave this site and havent missed a chance to throw more mud in the OP direction.

When you abuse your older workers, you endup with the unexperienced and uneducated as the teachers of the new comers. Those newcomers dont know enough to know that they are being taught wrong. So you end up with threads like this one that strays from the original topic simply because there is no one left that can contribute anything of value.

I myself have placed most of the self proclaimed experts, those that dont know enough to know just how ignorant they are, on my ignore list. I find this limits the dribble I have to read. I wont even have to see their replys to this post. I dont think I will miss anything of value simply because they dont have anything of value to contribute

VERY well said. I will miss reading Shield Arc's tips about welding learned from a lifetime of experience. Sure he was opinionated, as are many people who spent a significant portion of their life doing something. It's really not that hard to look beyond that.

 

[Sodo]

What tractor operator needs to etch welds?

It appears that the primary interest on this tractor subforum wrt to welding, is to discuss without doing. But some folks come on because they want to git'er done. There is a whole lot more discussion of target shooting the perfect weld on a test plate.

It is a valid goal, to solve a problem by welding, achieve a strong joining, and move forward. An expert able to assess serviceability of welds will be useful (to some folks) on a tractor subforum. The number of members that have time for test plate welding is so few that you can pretty much count them on your balls.

I enjoy the technical discussion of test plates, etc too. But actual projects have been so sparse that the inflammatory subject of 120v is enough to set people off. Kinda comical actually.

 

[aczlan]

What tractor operator needs to etch welds?

One who wants to see how well their welds will hold up and doesnt have a press to test until it fails??

It appears that the primary interest here (on this tractor subforum) wrt to welding, is to discuss without doing. But some folks come on because they want to git'er done. There is a whole lot more discussion of target shooting the perfect weld on a test plate. It is a valid goal, to solve the problem, achieve a strong joining, and move forward.

The purpose of doing a test plate is to verify that your technique and settings are good enough to "git'er done".

An expert able to assess serviceability of welds will be more useful to some folks on a tractor subforum. At least such experience can provide balance, closer to reality. The number of members that have time for test plate welding is so few that you can pretty much count them on your balls. Arc Weld doesn't do test plates, or projects, for that matter.

I suspect that Arc Weld has done as many inches of weld on test plate as most any other 3-4 members on this site.

I enjoy the technical discussion of test plates, etc, but hasn't been much balance. In fact its so sparse that the subject of 120v is enough to set people off. Kinda comical actually.

No, people with an attitude who post pictures asking for suggestions on how to improve, then belittle those who make suggestions while offering questionable advice to those who are just startign is what sets people off.
You might notice that others (myself included) have posted projects welded with 120v migs and have received some good suggestions on how to improve their welds.

Aaron Z