Newbie welding questions

[Shield Arc]

I don't ever remember saddling pipe with a chop saw, but I know guys who have great success at it. Someone posted this chart years ago who saddles with a chop saw.


Here is a link to a handy coping calculator.
Tube Coping Calculator

 

[Shield Arc]

I forgot to mention, don't know what kind of engine drive your neighbor has, but it really doesn't matter. If you want to make quick work of those bad fits. Nothing fills gaps like a wire feeder! If you could rent an LN-25, and buy some Lincoln .045" NR-212 wire, you could run it down hill and make quick work of those bad fits.

Here is a picture of some NR-212 run with a 46-year old engine drive.

 

[RedRock]

I forgot to mention, don't know what kind of engine drive your neighbor has, but it really doesn't matter. If you want to make quick work of those bad fits. Nothing fills gaps like a wire feeder! If you could rent an LN-25, and buy some Lincoln .045" NR-212 wire, you could run it down hill and make quick work of those bad fits.

That looks like it would be just the ticket to fill in, the pipe posts have some pretty ugly gaps. Thanks! I'll look into it.

 

[pat32rf]

With that generator I'd look around for an old 225Lincoln Tombstone or similar. Even a new one shouldn't cost much more than that 120v job and can always be used with the genny where you don't have grid power

 

[sparc]

Or sell the current generator and get a welder/generator like a lincoln Ranger 225 or similar miller machine.

 

[Todd727]

20% duty cycle at 75 amps.. so no more than 12 minutes out of an hour welding. spaced through the hour.

James K0UA

Just one point, welding duty cycles are defined out of a 10 minute period. I wouldn't want someone to read your mathematically correct statement and come away with the thought that they can weld for 5 or 6 minutes straight with a 20% duty cycle.

 

[k0ua]

Just one point, welding duty cycles are defined out of a 10 minute period. I wouldn't want someone to read your mathematically correct statement and come away with the thought that they can weld for 5 or 6 minutes straight with a 20% duty cycle.

Good Point. So a 2 minute bead would be your max bead length, and then you would need to wait at least 8 minutes. 20% duty cycles are not too generous are they?

James K0UA

 

[Todd727]

Good Point. So a 2 minute bead would be your max bead length, and then you would need to wait at least 8 minutes. 20% duty cycles are not too generous are they?

James K0UA

No they aren't. I bet most people have trouble honoring 50-60% duty cycles if the actually timed it.

 

[RedRock]

Here's an add-on question...

I have my 32' by 48' cattle handling pen under construction using 2 3/8 steel posts (8' spacing) set in concrete with a 3 section chute with the last section outside the pen itself. It will have a top rail and I'm using 16' heavy duty cattle panels for the perimeter with the exception of the chute/run sections being steel pipe rails (5 rails every 10" vertical, see drawing) rails aren't shown yet in the last section in question.

It made sense at the time to set the 3 1/2 posts at the end of the run at 33" on center to match up with the mounting holes of my used Priefert manual headgate. I plan to run a lag bolt all the way through (so I can remove it if necessary) My problem is that the posts ended up being 31" between, and obviously that's too wide. So before I finish it up I'm trying to get some ideas on how to make the last bit of transition between the headgate posts and the end of the chute while keeping it consistent with the 26 1/2" wide sections? I'll be stick welding everything so I'm thinking some wide flat strap steel perpendicular to, or large angle iron that touches 2 points of the post, welded to the 3 1/2 posts ...with the ends of my horizontal rails butting against it might work. See drawing, the green dots are just for consideration of adding 2 more posts close to the end. If you guys like pictures, I'll add more real ones as I go

*in the top view where I say "Or Welded Flat strap" is the same section (sorry for the confusion in the drawing...I don't have 2 headgates) it's an "either/or scenario"

Cattle Pen

 

[RedRock]

I've pretty much decided that I can use some angle iron to attach the horizontal pipes to the larger headgate posts.

...and btw, I picked up a 90amp flux core wire welder from Harbor Freight for $109, works great with my 7000 gennie, I've only had to wait on the duty cycle a few times due to the start/stop nature of my amateur welding capabilities... see pic, they ain't pretty, but I think they'll hold. I'm getting better as i go too. Thanks for the tip on the wire welders, they really do help fill in holes/gaps better.