Outdoor Welding

I use the foot brake for a lot of that sort of work. When I step partway down it kills the motor, and the rest of the way engages a mechanical brake. The only little hiccup, is my brain baulks at having to turn the lever off and back on again, until my hand feels its already on. Bob La Londe

------------------------------------------ I agree that a modern industrial lathe is better if you can justify the investment. The obsolete ones with threaded spindles and leather belt drives can still be useful in a home hobby shop, or to experiment and invent if no longer to efficiently make a product for profit.

Matt would be glad to hear you call it that. The PM1440ELB is what I would consider a heavy hobby or prosumer lathe. The big thing for me was the larger spindle bore (2in (50.8mm)) than any other lathe in its size class. They make some that I would consider industrial in their tool room lathes, but there is a substantial jump in price. That being said there is has been a substantial jump in price even for the PM1440ELB. When I bought mine a few years back it was a little under 5 grand, now its selling right at 9 grand.

Their precision tool room lathes cost a wee bit more:

Wow. Time flies. I just looked it up. I ordered in in January 2018 and then waited months for the slow boat from China.

Matt would be glad to hear you call it that. The PM1440ELB is what I would consider a heavy hobby or prosumer lathe. ... Bob La Londe

------------------- Mitre had a company machine shop with modern machines I could design for but not touch, (HLVH, Herco..) plus a separate model shop with an assortment of vintage ones that I more or less controlled, or at least maintained. Segway had a CNC lathe and mill and a Smithy Granite for when the CNC was occupied. Thus I could directly compare what could be done on both types and determine my realistic minimum needs for home, which didn't include a mini lathe or mill like I had in my lab. I was looking for a 9" SB but jumped on the Heavy Ten and don't regret it. This is an available equivalent to the old Clausing, a knee mill that can go where a Bridgeport won't.

Matt would be glad to hear you call it that. The PM1440ELB is what I would consider a heavy hobby or prosumer lathe.

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BTW Lockheed is the pronunciation of the brothers' Scottish name, Loughead.

Space is always a premium. The mill you showed would probably have been adequate for 95% - 99% of what I do on a manual mill, but I went with this one instead.

I'd had two smaller manual mills prior to that one. One was the ubiquitous RF30 and one was the even smaller one I called the noname mill drill. The noname doesn't even have a z axis feed. Just a quill lever, and quill lock. That being said on a day when every machine in my shop needed air to operate and change tools my air compressor motor let out all the magic smoke. (Previous smaller compressor. Not the designed to fail IR I am running now.) I had to make a mounting adapter plate to mount the only suitable size motor I could find in town the same day, and I managed to do it all on the noname mill drill including some recessed milling of bolt slots so the bolt heads would clear the motor above them. Some how using gage blocks to measure and set the quill stop I managed to set a repeatable depth and do all the milling I needed to.

The South Bend does have an air operated power draw bar (special purpose impact really with a spline drive drawbar), but I can take it off and swap out the draw bar quickly enough if I have to, so I can change tools manually. If I can find the hex head draw bar.

I now have three manual mills in the shop. None "require" air to operate. The South Bend, the noname, and a WEN mini mill I bought for the sole purpose of making a series of videos and making useful fishing tackle molds on a POS manual mini mill. Yeah, its been a couple years and the WEN is still in the crate. LOL. Matt over at Preceission Matthews was actually interested in helping with that video series, but he doesn't sell any machines small enough or crappy enough for the concept. Someday I'll do it maybe. Or maybe I'll sell the machine still in the crate.

I would like to sell the noname, but its really not useful for a beginner. Its barely useful for a barely capable hack like myself. Every time I think of posting a picture on craigslist I remember that lowly POS saved production one day. I don't need it to do that anymore with other machines at my disposal, but one day it did it. Really its just an XY drilling machine with all the worst properties of a round column mill with no Z axis feed and smaller than most. Of course its not even R8. Its an MT2 spindle. I stuck an ER25 collet chuck in it to make using different size tools easier. I have the urge to walk back in the shop and turn it on for a minute just so I can't say, "I haven't even turned it on in years." I would have to look and see if its even plugged in first.

Space is always a premium. The mill you showed would probably have been adequate for 95% - 99% of what I do on a manual mill, but I went with this one instead.

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I would have loved to own a Bridgeport or clone like that, but couldn't justify the cost or space in my garage. The work I've done at home and been paid for barely covered the cost of the moderate sized machines I have, instead they gave me full control of building the projects at work and my ideas at home, the bucket loader, gantry and sawmill etc.

I had the Enco version of that small knee mill in the Mitre model shop. It was an example of the major components well made in a factory and the minor ones in someone's cottage, poorly enough that filing improved them. The Ph.D. electrical engineer who originally ordered it was Swiss, apparently didn't like (or know about) R8 and adapted it to ER which ate up most of the vertical workspace. I was debating the relative disadvantages between it and a mill drill when the Clausing appeared in the want ads and was in my truck that evening, making me $800 lighter and 800# heavier. Its Brown & Sharpe #7 collet size is almost identical to Morse #2, max 1/2", but rarer, so I snapped up all the arbors etc that Wholesale Tool had left.

The Clausing was on the upper floor of an old mill building and had to be completely disassembled to partly hand carry it out. For a basement shop that's an advantage.

I would have loved to own a Bridgeport or clone like that, but couldn't justify the cost or space in my garage. The work I've done at home and been paid for barely covered the cost of the moderate sized machines I have, instead they gave me full control of building the projects at work and my ideas at home, the bucket loader, gantry and sawmill etc.

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The common hobby project my machines are too small for is automotive mods, I can't turn brake drums or rotors on the 10" lathe or easily machine an engine to transmission adapter plate. The mill is barely tall enough to face or rebore an air compressor cylinder block. I found that precision reboring requires the knee feed, using the quill feed gives a taper as lateral play increases with extension. It was a challenge to bore identically spaced and parallel bearing holes in the ends of the four foot long lift arms for the bucket loader on a mill with a two foot long table. My machines are large enough to make special tools, flywheel wrenches for the Ford and Honda and parts for lawn and garden equipment.

After replacing the prematurely rust pitted rotors on the Honda I took the old ones to a brake shop to be turned, as an experiment, and watched him mount them crookedly on his brake lathe. That and a few other incidents like loose lug nuts are why I continue to do the work. I keep reminding myself that my time under the car is worth $160 an hour.

I asked about prices at a nearby custom automotive shop. If you want a decent restoration of a classic just give him $25,000 for a start. There are some rat rods around that made me feel better about my welding skill.

I am sure you are aware that some of the old school apprenticeship projects were to make precision tools with files. Making something better by filing is only occasionally within my self taught skill set. it is absolutely a reality in machining.

I have done much the same thing with KWIK 200. I particularly like the Kwik 200 Accura-Flex collet chucks. Of course Kwik-200 was much more popular being used in CNC machines by both Bridgeport and Hurco. I once considered scrapping my Hurco, and sold off some of my tool holders, but then later decided to rebuild it again. I of course had to buy back some tool holders at a higher price. That was when I really discovered the Acura-Flex collets and that I liked them even better than ER collets. Then I acquired a second machine with a Kwik 200 spindle.

It doesn't have a gap bed? Have you looked? I know smaller lathes often don't have this feature (none of mine do), but 10inch is approaching commercial size. The PM1440 does, but I have not used it. I'm a bit paranoid about removing a precision section of the bed and being able to get it back in place accurately enough. May be more me than the machine, but...

If you have a swing head you can machine off the side of the table for taller parts. The setup is a bear, but I have confidence in your ability to wrestle a bear. Being a smaller machine than mine that capability is less, but it is still there.

I am sure you are aware that some of the old school apprenticeship projects were to make precision tools with files. Making something better by filing is only occasionally within my self taught skill set. it is absolutely a reality in machining.

It doesn't have a gap bed? Have you looked? I know smaller lathes often don't have this feature (none of mine do), but 10inch is approaching commercial size. The PM1440 does, but I have not used it. I'm a bit paranoid about removing a precision section of the bed and being able to get it back in place accurately enough. May be more me than the machine, but...

If you have a swing head you can machine off the side of the table for taller parts. The setup is a bear, but I have confidence in your ability to wrestle a bear. Being a smaller machine than mine that capability is less, but it is still there.

Bob La Londe

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When Segway redesigned the Balance Sensor Assembly I was tasked to make blank circuit board models of the daughter boards that hold the "gyro" sensors at various angles. The CNC mill was tied up as usual so I sawed and filed them by hand, within ~0.005". The engineer joked about using JimCNC for backup. I have several single cut, safe edge, untapered "hand" files for precise work. They leave a nearly mirror finish that a Cratex only slightly improves.

The SB Light Ten could have a gap bed, the Heavy Ten was meant for 5C collet work close in and didn't AFAIK. Earlier today I parted off a washer-like custom repair tool close to the collet. The H shaped carriage can overlap the headstock far enough to position the cutoff bit 1/2" to the left of the end of the spindle, or finish the back side of an installed chuck backplate or gear blank. Right now the carriage on mine is tucked behind extended chuck jaws for drilling and tapping clearance. This 9" SB shows how the carriage and headstock or tailstock can overlap.

My 1950's/60's model shop sized machines are quite versatile at the expense of rigidity and power. Every pivot and adjustment decreases stiffness, more with wear. I also have a surface grinder with a swiveling head and table to sharpen cutters between centers and a cast iron Shopsmith for wood which is great for accurate horizontal end drilling, my father converted two single beds into a bunk bed by end drilling the corner posts for steel rods. jsw

When I was teaching (auto mechanics) in Zambia (1973-74) my class was given some old 2 strike back-pack "dusters" from the Nakumbala Sugar Estates as well as a sachs wankel engine off an old welder from one of the copper mines.

I had the students practice their "fitting" (mostly filing) by making piston rings for the 2 strokes out of cast iron pipe - 5 of the 15 students actually got their engines to fire up!!!!

Then they decided they would like to get the Wankel running - and made apex seals out of bed-frame angle. It didn't have the counterballance for the flywheel so when it DID eventually start - bolted to an angle iron frame, it walked across the shop floor with one of the guys standing on it to hold it down. It only ran about 25 seconds or so - but they all got a passing grade!!!!

I had the students practice their "fitting" (mostly filing) by making piston rings for the 2 strokes out of cast iron pipe - 5 of the 15 students actually got their engines to fire up!!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------- How did you teach them to file square?

I've used the tops of vise jaw inserts as a guide but that's hard on the files and the vise. I made an adjustable roller guide to file the teeth of my sawmill bands evenly at the factory angle.

Before Eli Whitney invented a milling machine for the task he made filing guides for musket lock parts so they would be reasonably interchangeable.

The parts aren't easy to make:

I had the students practice their "fitting" (mostly filing) by making piston rings for the 2 strokes out of cast iron pipe - 5 of the 15 students actually got their engines to fire up!!!!

--------------------------- "The Gods Must Be Crazy" has a lot of fun with a Land Rover whose native-installed new pistons or rings were fitted too tightly for the starter to move, so it had to be left running unattended and tended to chase off into trouble.

I got them a little too snug on a rebored dirt bike and had to stop to cool off at any hint of binding.

This topic has journey productively far from its start with "Outdoor Welding".

On that topic...

SMAW (Shielded Metal Arc Welding) - "stick" welding - is "the only one".

Okay I have never done / tried self-shielded flux-cored-wire.

• when you are outdoors, the equipment is too sensitive and expensive for the rough-and-ready work typical of site work. eg. how well would a wire-feeder do if splashed with seawater (?)

• the wire rusts then presumably won't feed - so presumably it can only be used in site conditions when you have a "volume" job where you use reels at a time

So it's "stick" welding for most site work.

Illustrative...

I had a job where if I could go out and "take it" for 2 hours in winter, I wasn't expected to do any more work that day. I would sit in the notor house of the crane next to the engine keeping warm, and read books.

That job was on the peak of the highest tide - the "spring" tides which occur every 2 weeks - to get in on the inshore-most piles and get welding. In the two-hour window we had - get in with the barge and tugboat, and get out before they get grounded and stranded by the ebbing tide. I got lashed with rain and blowing seawater. You cannot wear plastic waterproofs when welding. I had to drop electrodes into the stinger because everything became conductive with the seawater. I got soaked, and chilled "to the core". But when I was lifted back to the barge there was a hot tea waiting, thrust into my hands, and the motor-house awaited.

Overall site setup illustrated here

Page on the job

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They found the right man for the job.

I'm having trouble analyzing to learn from this. What is the load direction on the inner ring that your weld must resist?

I'm having trouble analyzing to learn from this. What is the load direction on the inner ring that your weld must resist?

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More specifically I assume that if the inner ring bears weight the upper weld could fail in tension (+shear?) across its throat area. The lower weld might shear along the column so punch press math could apply, or to the extent the fit is loose or the column can expand and the ring shrink the shear could be along a shorter line angled toward the weld throat. Does that make sense?

If the load is a mooring line I'd have to know how it's attached.

I have similar geometry in two recent projects, one a shop-made stainless solar array thrust bearing with the ring retained in the tube by a circle of screws, their inner ends turned smooth and loosely fitting in a groove in the ring. The load on the cap passes through the races and balls to the ring below, so the outer tube is only shielding.

The other is a thick sleeve with an integral ring inside threaded internally. It adapts this to a non-HF floor jack.

This topic has journey productively far from its start with "Outdoor Welding".

On that topic...

SMAW (Shielded Metal Arc Welding) - "stick" welding - is "the only one".

Okay I have never done / tried self-shielded flux-cored-wire.

• when you are outdoors, the equipment is too sensitive and expensive for the rough-and-ready work typical of site work. eg. how well would a wire-feeder do if splashed with seawater (?)

• the wire rusts then presumably won't feed - so presumably it can only be used in site conditions when you have a "volume" job where you use reels at a time

So it's "stick" welding for most site work.

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This was an installation for a certain customer. The logic one infers you are trying to apply for a civilian structure might not apply here. ...

Ships can break free of moorings. It seems the crew had that exigency covered, as they should have done, and swung into action.

Another I have met is having the tidal flow in estuary work enough to pry the end of the vessel out, presenting an ever-increasing vane to the tide-flow - then you have to cast-off and work out what to do next. Happened when I was on a vessel "just looking pretty" and making up the legal crew-number for the few minutes. Having worked as a steel-erector (N.Am. "ironworker") I thought I could do the necessary, and the crew of the barge we had to return to talked me through it as the tug held position nearby. Then in we came with me on the foredeck of the tugboat, threw the loop, round-turned the bollard on the foredeck, ran out the line until they called, and I smoothly and progressively tailed the rope halting the tugboat, then leaned back hard and gripped my heals against the deck, and the tugboat skipper put the engine full-ahead and turned the rudder 45deg. to thrust the stern of the vessel firm against the barge against the strong tidal flow from astern. The barge crew came about and made-fast, until the tug skipper could go to neutral (smaller craft so fore-neutral-aft gearbox) and I was free to release the tailing of the round-turn and tie-off with that line. After that, I could run-out the line feeding line into the round-turn around the bollard while looking at the skipper in the wheelhouse, and when he nodded I'd start tailing the line and bring the vessel to a stop against the engine.

In a gale I have seen a tugboat spend all day idling against the side of a bulker as a "just in case".