A putzy little metal project

Very nice welds Don. Looks like a pleasure to hold.

i

On Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:20:48 -0600, the infamous Don Foreman scrawled the following:

Hey, nice! You're weighting it down with those little welding beads if I'm not mistaken.

-- Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.

Well thanks, Ig. I'm not proud of the welds, but they'll serve. They're MIG welds. I can do much better with TIG, but I'm still a bit antsy about that. I'm comfy with using MIG with my ICD (implanted cardiac defibrillator) but I'm still not quite sure about E-field of the starting voltage on TIG triggering my ICD. I still need to contrive a Faraday vest. No biggie, just haven't yet got around to it. It'd be a sewing project. I really would like to get back to TIG if I can but the notion of a 47-joule 750-volt mule-kick-to-chest is an experience I'd rather skip if it's not necessary to keep me vertical for a bit longer.

Recall that last January I was told to fuggedabout any form of electric welding for the rest of my life. Not bloody freakin' likely...

Yeh yeh, pile it on. I'm still makin' stuff that works.

DON'T paint them blue!

Nice.

Can you tell us more about your zinc plating?

jsw

Nice Job Don! I'd like a little more info on the zinc plating as well. You seem to have a good handle on it!

Pete

Great "how-to" piece in the Foreman standard. Thanks for sharing ! Bob Swinney Don Foreman" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

On Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:39:39 -0600, the infamous Don Foreman scrawled the following:

I knew you'd understand.

-- Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost. -- Thomas J. Watson

See

Rather than buying the kit, you can just buy the concentrate, an anode, and some zinc brightener, and supply your own bucket etc. Dawn and Soft-scrub are excellent degreasers. I don't use heaters or agitators. I might get better results if I did, but I'm satisfied with the results I get: stuff doesn't rust!

Thanks Don! I'll investigate that a little more. You using a battery charger for the power supply?

Pete

No, but a battery charger with a variac and current meter would work. Zinc doesn't take much current for small pieces. Figure 30 milliamps per square inch of workpiece.

I think there are instructions on Caswell's online plating manual for building a current regulator. If you can't find them, I can provide

-- it's my design.

Show a link to that, Don.

You're right, that isn't much current (for anything that would fit in a 5 gallon bucket) ;-) I think I could rig something up. Thanks for the info Don.

Pete

D>

Looks like it isn't there anymore. Sorry 'bout that. I'll email you something from my archive. Let me know if you'd like further assistance.

I responded to your request in good faith by sending some design documents to your posted Email addy. I got an automated reply inviting me to be a supplicant for the favor of your attention by filling out a form and authenticating a graphic. I don't care to interact that way so I think we're done here.

I don't suppose you could put the circuit in the dropbox, Don?

The OP isn't the only one watching this thread.

This is a simple current regulating circuit:

A speaker fader pot is about the right resistance to make it adjustable.

In practice the device works as well or better wired as a voltage regulator with an ammeter in series, because smooth-operating higher resistance pots are much easier to find.

The simplest and cheapest current regulator is a light bulb. The resistance of the filament increases with its temperature such that ten times the voltage can draw only 2 or 3 times the current. They are cheap and locally available in a range of values. Buy some spare brake, turn and marker bulbs for your car and check them with a battery charger and meter:

The Variac (adjustable autotransformer) and rectifier circuit is much more efficient if that matters to you since current regulators can waste half or more of the input DC voltage. The problem is the high cost and low availability of Variacs. I suppose you could try a lamp dimmer instead, tell us the results if you do. The lamp dimmers I have don't operate smoothly at low output levels.

I prefer adjustable lab supplies. The 5A Caswell one looks good for the price:

in my experience low-cost lab supplies (other brands) aren't too reliable. I haven't fried this one yet: They are also useful for testing electronic components and charging batteries, especially old lead-acids that fail on automatic chargers and need a higher voltage to break down sulfation. I like to use supplies with built-in meters for this instead of having a rats nest of clip leads to separate meters, all hooked to a battery with enough power to make them burn or explode if they short.

jsw

Whats wrong with blue? That is the company color for our painted products.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller