Ulysses

That bottle end looks like a perfect fit. Your welds may not be pretty but they do look like they have reasonable penetration, which is what counts. Try keeping the torch as close as possible to the work. You may find the arc is more stable when you do that.

By the way if you do any amount of welding it's worth getting refillable bottles. I used to use BOC but their rental charges are crazy. Several companies such as SGS gases offer rent free bottles. You pay a deposit then you just pay for refills. A 50L bottle normally lasts me about a year but I do quite a bit of welding. You can also get 20L bottles which are quite a bit cheaper and easier to handle. 20l@200bar is roughly equivalent to 60 disposables. Try asking at your local motor factors. If they can't supply bottles they probably know who can.

wrote:

That bottle end looks like a perfect fit. Your welds may not be pretty but they do look like they have reasonable penetration, which is what counts. Try keeping the torch as close as possible to the work. You may find the arc is more stable when you do that.

By the way if you do any amount of welding it's worth getting refillable bottles. I used to use BOC but their rental charges are crazy. Several companies such as SGS gases offer rent free bottles. You pay a deposit then you just pay for refills. A 50L bottle normally lasts me about a year but I do quite a bit of welding. You can also get 20L bottles which are quite a bit cheaper and easier to handle. 20l@200bar is roughly equivalent to 60 disposables. Try asking at your local motor factors. If they can't supply bottles they probably know who can.

Yeah I'm with BOC and it's €250 a year for oxyacetylene and o2 got a demand letter about 2 weeks ago and I'm bringing it back. Riccy the welds are unreal considering your welding the equivalent of cigarette papers together. Keep going you'll be knee-deep in muck in no time at this rate. 

wrote:

That bottle end looks like a perfect fit. Your welds may not be pretty but they do look like they have reasonable penetration, which is what counts. Try keeping the torch as close as possible to the work. You may find the arc is more stable when you do that.

By the way if you do any amount of welding it's worth getting refillable bottles. I used to use BOC but their rental charges are crazy. Several companies such as SGS gases offer rent free bottles. You pay a deposit then you just pay for refills. A 50L bottle normally lasts me about a year but I do quite a bit of welding. You can also get 20L bottles which are quite a bit cheaper and easier to handle. 20l@200bar is roughly equivalent to 60 disposables. Try asking at your local motor factors. If they can't supply bottles they probably know who can.

Thanks Les. I am a youtube welder (learnt enough to get by watching videos). I dont do enough of it to get good practice in and im usually welding something really rusty!

The welder I have is a clarke 235 which only has a tiny 2mm airline for the gas bottles. All the bigger bottles available use a different hose/regulator that has a much larger hose on the welder. I am in the market for a more professional machine as I find this one gives poor gas flow control as well as the wire feed can be jerky. Power settings are a bit basic too as well as the aforementioned gas bottle issue. Gas is available locally from numerous suppliers. I think it was £80 bottle deposit and then less than £30 for a refill on the 20l bottles so miles cheaper to run than the little disposable bottles at £15 a go. 

They run at the same pressure so it's just a case of adapting the pipe. Your welder probably uses standard 4mm OD pneumatic pipe. If you do a search on eBay for 4mm push fit you'll find a whole range of fittings that can be used to adapt it. The rubber vacuum hoses for Jimny locking hubs should also be the correct bore to fit over it. I used 4mm hose to replace the steel vac lines on my Jimny.

As far as welders are concerned I can recommend the Tecarc/Portamig/Oxford welders (they are all made in the UK by Technical Arc). They aren't cheap but they weld great and are bullet proof. I've had my Portamig for about 7 years and it hasn't missed a beat even though it lives in a damp barn. A friend has an Oxford that was in a flood. After drying it out it worked fine. If you open it up there's still dried mud in there.

Whatever brand you look at, go for the old style transformer based machines. If you can't lift it, its a good one  . The modern inverter machines are smaller, lighter and often weld slightly better but they don't like damp and are difficult and expensive to fix.

Are these the oxford your talking about Les 

 

Big money them welders! Ill be keeping an eye on the second hand market i think. Only restriction is it must be single phase.

Finished off the second skin today. Put in an additional 3mm plate where the mount contacts and also a small diagonal brace beside it. Welded it all in and its awaiting seam sealer and paint now. Ive put a coat of the rust convertor stuff on everywhere that looks crusty and the new welds so it will be dry enough to seal/paint during the week. 

 

 

 

Onto the other two next. They are at the front of the cab and all from underneath so itll be up on the ramps for that one.