Welding in Haiti

wroughtn_harv · Feb 29, 2012

I leave DFW this morning for Haiti. I'm taking a box full of kits made by the students of Mitch Lown for making welding hoods. There's also an absolute fantastic video. What would be kewel as heck would be a knowledgeable TBN member to help Mitch load that video up on TBN. It is amazing.

I'm also taking 200 shade ten 2 X 4 glass lenses. Others will be working this program for the most part because I will be training women trainers to make the blocks.

BTW, our Ubuntu-blox house passed with flying colors a 32 second shake table ride that simulated an 8.3 earthquake. A sample wall also spent thirty minutes being hammered 90 mph winds with a four inch per hour rain rate without any effect.

bindian · Feb 29, 2012

wroughtn_harv said:
I leave DFW this morning for Haiti. I'm taking a box full of kits made by the students of Mitch Lown for making welding hoods. There's also an absolute fantastic video. What would be kewel as heck would be a knowledgeable TBN member to help Mitch load that video up on TBN. It is amazing.

I'm also taking 200 shade ten 2 X 4 glass lenses. Others will be working this program for the most part because I will be training women trainers to make the blocks.

BTW, our Ubuntu-blox house passed with flying colors a 32 second shake table ride that simulated an 8.3 earthquake. A sample wall also spent thirty minutes being hammered 90 mph winds with a four inch per hour rain rate without any effect.

Harvey,
A lot of here are with you in spirit.
hugs, Brandi

wroughtn_harv · Mar 11, 2012

I'm making more equipment in Haiti for our Ubuntu-blox project. I thought some of you might appreciate the conditions and equipment.

The first picture is of my vise. I only have one pair and half the time they are being used/placed somewhere else by others and I don't have use of them.

The second picture is of my welding table. On the welding table you will notice my plasma torch. At Home Depot in Wylie, TX it cost $59.00. I paid $110.00 for it in Haiti because none of the grinders here worked. But I did get three Milwaukee baseball hats and a Milwaukee t-shirt.

The third picture is of the bender I made last summer here. It still works and is an invaluable aid.

Iplayfarmer · Mar 12, 2012

wroughtn_harv said:
On the welding table you will notice my plasma torch. At Home Depot in Wylie, TX it cost $59.00. I paid $110.00 for it in Haiti because none of the grinders here worked.

That looks a lot like the kind of plasma torch that I use.

wroughtn_harv · Mar 15, 2012

We're plugging along in Haiti doing good for the circumstances. Mitch's guys in Haiti came by yesterday and they are going to take the lense/hood thing and run with it. I will get a chance to visit with them before I leave this time. I really look forward to that.

One of my issues here is the generator we are using is a real POS. It bogs down pushing 75 amps on a tombstone Lincoln welder. After it has ran for an hour one of the breakers on the welding circuit pops after three to four inches max of bead. Imagine you are welding six foot seam of sixteen gauge steel and every three to four inches you have to get up, walk fifteen yards and push in a pop out breaker. It got old long before its time.

What I'm thinking of doing is changing out that obviously weak breaker for one of the breakers that's never used. I haven't pulled the panel yet to see exactly what I have to deal with.

What do you think?