Top ten gorilla welds I've seen

I do hope that Wiley is getting all he needs from the latest ACME catalog.

Im missing a quadrant of heavy weapons from one of the secure bins...so I suspect he has gotten tired of Acme products and is going for something a bit more direct.

Gunner

"Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water,in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon. He doesn't worry about what workout to do--- his rucksack weighs what it weighs, and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care 'how hard it is'; he knows he either wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the 'Cause.' Now, who wants to quit?"

NCOIC of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in a welcome speech to new SF candidates

No. Car batteries (3 in series) make much better welds than that.

My father used to have a device that held carbon rods that you strike an arc with and fed filler rods into (he used it with car batteries)

Called "Carbon Arc Welding", and one of the ugliest processes ever.

I seem to remember seeing them in circa. 1950 (mid years) Popular Mechanics for sale in the back. Reminded me of carbon arc lamps. Likely the idea source.

Mart> >

I recall a time when Dad used two carbon rods from "D" cells and a set of jumper cables (hooked to a car battery) to produce enough heat to re-solder a wire on a generator/starter commutator . Saved our weekend of skiing behind Uncle Bill's boat ...

In an auto rebuild shop during WW2 we used a single carbon with a handle. Connected the commutator to the battery with a strap and touched the carbon to the each bar near the wire to heat. The starter armatures were otherwise very hard to solder, because of the heavy conductors. I suspect that works better on 6V than on 12V as there was plenty of heat on 6V.

Don Young

My dad described a similar setup he used for rebuilding batteries in the starter and battery shop he worked in just out of high school, soldering the cell connecting straps. I suspect that if you tried it on anything modern-made, it'd fall apart, last starter I worked on looked like the commutator had an injection-molded insulator, not mica with chevron washers, and all the connections were crimped/punched, not soldered.

Stan

That makes the old 'Solid Ox' welds look good.