OK, neighbors here I go...

[Yofish]

So, I rethought a little and and after not finding the switch I wanted I decided to run what I brung. I have an Miller adaptor that made the so called 'second generation' XR gun work with the 1st generation XR feeder. I whacked it in half (gag) to make the connection between the 30A and the IMig pin connector. First, I removed the male connector from the IMig and removed all the wires and replaced them with 18ga wire to do the two functions of energizing the weld power and provide power to the drive motor. Only four lines needed.



After reinstalling it, I butt into various wires to make appropriate connects:



Then I built the adapter. In my little burg there was no four conductor wire so I just used 18ga hook-up wire and helping hands:



After soldering and heatshrink, we have the completed adapter. I'll wrap it later. Notice funky 30A; that is the very unit that went swimming in 1988. Pretty dodgy but still cranks wire, sort of:



And so here we have the 1st weld on .190" with .035" wire. Machine set @ 21.5V and I'm told it read between 140-150A. The only issue is that the wire speed is cranked almost full open. I was worried about that because I only got 15+ on the VOM and I know the Miller WC-24 puts out 24. But it works! If I'm not happy with the wire output, I can use a WC-24 and a PSA-2 that I have. I was wishfully hoping for an 'all-in-one' solution. Even with these additional appurtenances, it is still handier than anything I have.



I'm pretty sure that I can make this work for what I intended. I'll play around with it tomorrow using .030, 3/64" and differing settings.

I briefly looked at some of the later comments and will pass on commenting other than yes, salmon DO, indeed, swim upstream and I do love Alaska and all us hicks.

[Yofish]

BTW, is this a bend test?



I build a lot of fuel tanks. Again, this is .100" (I thought 5052 but on bending it it looks more like 5086 by the stretch marks) welded the dreaded short arc method. Tomorrow I'll get out the 'scope and take some close-ups. Of course, if one could weld the inside you'd remove the hickie penetration but who welds the inside of a fuel tank when you can this root outside in? I've never had a weld on a tank fail. I wish I could say that about other welds.

[Gerry]

Could you use a 110V to 25V transformer for the 24V of the WC-24.

[Kempy]

Yofish
Nice weld with the 30A, I thought of doing that with my MTS250S the Spool gun SM 200-N that I ordered with my machine work very well with steel but get very hot on aluminum, it was make a water cooled tip or just get a bigger gun like the 30A.

[Yofish]

kempy, I do mostly pretty good sized stuff. here is a pic of one of my latest completed projects - a 40' landingcraft:



The hardest weld on boat like this in terms of the pressure put on the gun is the chine. You've got about 100' of corner-to-corner weld, in this case .190 against .250" material that once you start you don't want stop because you're heating the hull up nicely as you move along and want to take advantage of that blessed pre-heat energy. I can do about 12" before I'm too far out of position; I'll stop, cut out the end with a die grinder and a carbide burr then start again. When the gun overheats I stick the barrel in a coffee can full of water for about 5 seconds; remove and wait about 30 more secs then go. The trick is not to over do the dunk otherwise the residual moisture isn't too cool, to make a pun. Works like a charm, try it. And thanks for the kind comments.

Gerry, that is exactly what the Miller PSA-2 does: provide 24VAC that is converted by the WC-24 to DCV. It also has some relays in it that provide various ways for contactor actuation. But you are right in your thinking. It's a pretty spendy combo, the WC-24 and PSA-2. If purchased new would cost as much as I paid for the whole machine. Thanks for the thought.

Off to the shop for a little more testing!

[zoama]

I do mostly pretty good sized stuff. Here is a pic of one of my latest completed projects - a 40' landingcraft:

Did you build the entire boat or just modify/repair ?
I look forward to seeing more of your work... larger pics would be nice. The forum will auto resize when you upload, if the pic is too large.

[Yofish]

Did you build the entire boat or just modify/repair ?
I look forward to seeing more of your work... larger pics would be nice. The forum will auto resize when you upload, if the pic is too large.

Thank you, zoama. I will dig up some other pics for you. I design my boats using ProSurf, a surface modeling program that is remarkable. All the major parts in this vessel were cut out on Alaskan Copper & Brasses' 50X10 ft router table. The bottom plates are continuous 38 ft long X 8 ft wide, two each. There is 11k pounds of aluminum and about a 140 pounds of wire in her. It was for a customer that does a lot of work with the local electric utility. I live in a marine environment and the grid is spread around a bay.

On to the topic. I set up the machine with .047"wire and got much better results. The larger wire allows for lower wire speed. Here are two pics of an outside corner and inside fillet as I would do a chine, 12" long test:



They are not good pictures or particularly good welds but I'm thrilled by the results because both welds were done at the setting LOWER (20.5V out and 21.1V inside) than I use on my other equipment and are way hotter, too hot. That means I have more leeway. The upshot is that I think I've accomplished what I set out to achieve, just in time for a small job across the bay, boat only transport.

I have one final question for the you Everlast boys: is there real fault protection i.e. the machine kicks off or does that warning light just tell you the thing is frying?

As far as I can tell Everlast does not sell a complete MIG package that a boat builder would be interested in. I don't understand why that would be. This would be dynamite: one of your MIG machines that holds a 12" spool, hook up a MK or miller gun and push-pull! That might just be my next effort if this current lashup holds together.

[fdcmiami]

you may be a boat builder in the sense that an architect can say he built a building. maybe, but I doubt it.

it could be you want to plug your software.

it could be you are just an underfunded electronics hobbyist having fun in your free time, (there are plenty here) and you are for some reason trying to reinvent the wheel.

any boat builder that has come far enough along to be contracting with clients as substantial as an electrical utility. purchasing the cutting software, wire? (one pound spools?)

11,000 pounds of aluminum. and then on the other hand trying to adapt an underpowered everlast mig gun... to what? take over from miller and Lincoln? lol

(no offense to everlast, I am an owner).

12 inches of weld on a chine, (a heaven sent weld for a welder as far as boat construction) and you have to dip the tip of your (what gun was that again) into a bucket of water every 12 inches to cool it off. lol 3/16ths to 1/4 thk material. yes indeed.

give me break. or are you laying on a creeper, by yourself, and welding that (hard chine)in the overhead position.

finally, although I cannot see it clearly enough, I doubt that the weld in pic one was done with a wire feeder.

oh, i'm curious, are you the bellamy from linkedin that is the electronics specialist in anchorage, ak? grad of u of AK. just a guess.

[TheGary]

fdcmiami what is your problem? This man does not deserve your sarcasm and I have found that most who are sarcastic on the internet have little to be proud of in real life. It sounds to me like Yofish makes his living on this kind of work. Man lets be civil and learn from each other instead of insulting each other. I for one am very interested and pleased with what he has acomplished with this " little mig machine" . He did what he was told could not work. I wish I had a dollar for everything I was told would not work but I went ahead and did it anyway. I am very interested in what he set up for portability because I for one do 80% of my work mobile.

[Yofish]

fdcmiami what is your problem? This man does not deserve your sarcasm and I have found that most who are sarcastic on the internet have little to be proud of in real life. It sounds to me like Yofish makes his living on this kind of work. Man lets be civil and learn from each other instead of insulting each other. I for one am very interested and pleased with what he has acomplished with this " little mig machine" . He did what he was told could not work. I wish I had a dollar for everything I was told would not work but I went ahead and did it anyway. I am very interested in what he set up for portability because I for one do 80% of my work mobile.

TheGary, the sport from Miami is hilarious! Either he's a tippler or his wife kicked him off NASCAR for the Discount Jewelry Shopping Channel, maybe both. A practised troll; just respond to the last post without reading the thread, cast aspersions and act like you know what you're talking about. Pick nits, suggest the OPer is lying and hopefully engage target slob in a peeing match so he can pump up the limp ego. Wash, rinse, repeat. A sad lot they be!

As I've said, after I squared up the possibilities Everlast offered, I choose to go after a machine that is super portable and not a shop workhorse. If what Mark@Everlast says is true, and this machine runs well off a 5.5K gen, then it will be humanly possible to get it in a small plane like a Cessna 180. For years I did a lot of work in the Aleutians, which, is about the ends of the earth. In one location, we had a Miller BlueStar CC machine that I hooked up to a 30A to do boat repairs. CC and aluminum is ugly but it works if you are patient and have lots of spare contact tips. That unit got there via Grumman Goose. So just imagine a gen that weighs 200# and this set-up that weighs nothing and it can actually weld! Alaska is full of remote weather stations that are entirely made of aluminum. They look like funny pyramids. Anyway, they occasionally need repair........

In this unit I'm going to toss the internal wire drive assembly and turn the space into a lunch box. Who needs it if you have a gun? Toss the too stiff vinyl power cord and the whimpy clamp and replace it with a short 10ga. SJOW cord about 24" or so long and a metallic cord clamp. I have a 50' 8ga. extension cord. Get a 40 cu ft tank that weighs 27# (empty). Now we have a unit that will work in my local harbor that has locations providing 220VAC. Can pretty much get the whole taco down the ramp on a two wheeled dolly. So we have 50' of stretch to the box and 30' from the box. 80' gets me (usually) anywhere I want to go. One of the biggest attractions of this unit is that it will run off 208 (so said Alex, the salesman). ALL of the larger boats I deal with where 80' is not enough (talking Bering Sea crab boats) have serious power generation capabilities but it's all 208. I turn down a lot of work because frankly, I don't want to break down my main machine to go spend two hours fixing some gill-netters broken net reel. What! You didn't strip the net off before I got here?!! It's just not worth it. Now it is.This thing will sit in the corner until needed. It's really rather amazing that you're (and another who has PM'd me for a schematic) about the only poster that actually 'gets' what I'm after. That it couldn't be done, I immediately rejected because nothing that was said made any sense whatsoever. We're not talking brain surgery here.

[Yofish]

Did you build the entire boat or just modify/repair ?
I look forward to seeing more of your work... larger pics would be nice. The forum will auto resize when you upload, if the pic is too large.

zoama, here are some more pics of boats and skiffs. I love designing watercraft. If I never welded another inch of aluminum that would be fine with me, if I could just design! Here is the last skiff I built. It is someone elses design with some mods I requested but it was done in the same program, ProSurf by New wave Systems. This is a 19' X 9' power skiff used in salmon seining. Amazingly, this little thing is powered by a 400HP Cummins that turns an UltraJet pump, It has, they say, about 4K lbs of bollard pull:



This is early in construction, only 10 hours in. It was hand cut from a transferred plotted paper pattern. The next is an interesting fishing vessel. We call them 'jitneys' for some unknown reason. It's 38' X 14' and was spec'ed by a customer, I just cleaned up the lines and made the patterns to hand cut. Ugly, no? but beautiful in function. Notice the two 150HP Yamaha outboards just forward of the mast! Yep, in a 'well' they move this vessel with net and compliment of fuel at over 25 kts. It has a refrigerated seawater hold powered by a small diesel. Pictured, she has 26K pounds of pink salmon on board. Hey, miami guy! How long did it take me to weld the chine? Paul, the outstanding young man that knew what he wanted, and one of the best clients I've ever had, caught over a million pounds of pinks last year in this craft. I'm 65 years old and to be around young people that are bright, respectful of their elders and fearless to be themselves is a high.



Next is my my last project(s) before Yofish does Gofish for the summer. I have two 20' center console skiffs to build. This represents my latest effort to learn more computer skills. It is the 3 dimensional geometry produced by the program ProSurf, imported into another program called Bryce that does phenomenal rendering. I'm not very proficient with it yet but it is engaging to use. This is how I wish to end my semi-retired career: build a couple of small skiffs a year to keep the penny's flowing and keep moving. By the time I'm 70 this portability nonsense that I'm chasing will be passed to someone else.



Back in the day, when I first learned to build boats, the guy that taught me just used his eyeballs, batons and ju-ju to make some pretty nice looking vessels. I did as he did for years then around 1998, caught the computer bug and never looked back.

[zoama]

That's some beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.

[fdcmiami]

that photo of the skiff looks like a build that was done by kevin morin. I believe the thread was on the Glen-L.com site.

if you are kevin morin, my apologies to you. I doubt this though since I read anything I happen to see that has been written by him.

I am no boat builder but I have been doing repair work on aluminum boats for about 25 years. and I have spent that much time in boat yards and marinas in

south florida. so what you are I have no idea but your comments obviously grabbed the attention of the more knowledgeable poster's here. viewers wishing to

learn more about aluminum welding and welding techniques might try the metal boat society, glen L .com, aluminum boat building, metal meet. etc.

here are a couple of links to posts by mr. morin. occasionally you will find him on miller's site or welding web.

no, it can't be. just some poser scalping photos from the net.

if you really want to see what's involved with building aluminum boat read some of the threads on the sites listed.

portable welding? I have found an xmt 304/350, 30A, 50 ft extension have worked well for me for a long, long time. if I saw this guy dockside I would think he must be

retarded. lol



http://www.glen-l.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=24172

http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php...n-Boat-Builder

http://www.glen-l.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16564

[TheGary]

fdcmiami, Now that was a us full post and I can understand to an extent your doubts. I understand what Yofish is doing. He did not just want a mobil rig, he wanted a light easy to handle mobil rig that is easy to take in a small plane or to drag out to a boat for a small job or a remote job. He used a gun he already had and liked and mated it to a mig machine he felt could do the job and meet his needs. Is it an expensive first class rig? No, but it meets his needs and can do the job.
It sounds like you have a nice set up but it does not meet the needs Yofish was building his for.

[fdcmiami]

who knows what his plan is. don't much care; the fact that he barked at the two guys trying to help him out was enough to bark back and believe me I am frequently at odds with them. you have recently decided to try mobile welding. I have the same trailblazer (and a load of other equipment) personally I don't care what makes them tick as long as they keep ticking. you will find as you do more work that your field unit will morph into something that supports the work you do.

here is a photo of the dockside setup I use when there is shore power which there nearly always is because most boats of size require it. (you don't want to go near the little ones...no money).

I also have a complete rig on a trailer and a couple of inverters; 250EX being one. if you were to show up down here with that wacky setup you would be laughed off the job.
miller rules near the water. if you are up in marinette or green bay and see a boatyard take a peek inside if you can.



does this look like a concept drawing?

http://bayweldboats.com/services/new...-9-5%e2%80%b2/

hey, if this guy is from this company I am all ears, just doesn't add up does it.

[Yofish]

who knows what his plan is. don't much care; the fact that he barked at the two guys trying to help him out was enough to bark back and believe me I am frequently at odds with them. you have recently decided to try mobile welding. I have the same trailblazer (and a load of other equipment) personally I don't care what makes them tick as long as they keep ticking. you will find as you do more work that your field unit will morph into something that supports the work you do.

here is a photo of the dockside setup I use when there is shore power which there nearly always is because most boats of size require it. (you don't want to go near the little ones...no money).

I also have a complete rig on a trailer and a couple of inverters; 250EX being one. if you were to show up down here with that wacky setup you would be laughed off the job.
miller rules near the water. if you are up in marinette or green bay and see a boatyard take a peek inside if you can.



does this look like a concept drawing?

http://bayweldboats.com/services/new...-9-5%e2%80%b2/

hey, if this guy is from this company I am all ears, just doesn't add up does it.

Obviously you are burned enough to have done some research on who I might be. Are you a betting man? I will wager $1,000 that I am and can do what I say. I'll show you everyone of those boats in the pictures; you can meet the owners. Not only that, I'll buy you a one-way first class ticket to get here on Alaska Airlines. After I do the 'weld that wasn't done by MIG' ten times for you, then pay me the grand plus the airfare and get back to Miami on your own. Put up or STFU.

What I don't get is the showing off of things that have no meaning to the conversation and absolutely no examples of that you've done. Glen-L? Miller rules? BayWeld? I've known Allen Engebretsen before he knew how to weld. You're a child.

[fdcmiami]

I build a lot of tanks. I'm 65 years old and don't have the hand I once did. I've built a trough that has a slot cut out of the lower corner that gives about 3/8" clearance to the top and side of a tank exposing 24" of corner to corner weld area. It has a piece of UHMW pipe slotted and clipped over the outboard edge for the gun to slide on. With my "hog trough", I can make a beautiful weld 20" long on .190 in no time, spraying.

hmmmmm

Spray? Hmmm. We could have quite a discussion about 'spray' but lets say I generally prefer something that may have a little good old short-arc in there. Look at spray arc aluminum under the microscope and one sees aluminum foam. Short arc bigger bubbles and more berries but I'm not sure one is better over the other strength wise. Not arguing here but more to the point of the way I do it and what works for me. The point is 'spray' has no magic for me. One does not repair a canoe with mig by 'spraying', for example.

does the nurse know you are out and about? sorry, I've got to go to work. i'm sure the boys on the trawler will appreciate your invention. lol

[TheGary]

I am not into boat repair or building . I never pretended to be. I have been a welder most of my life but it has been a little of everything. I am not trying to compete with anyone with my equipment or business . I retired from my job because of rule changes in my pension. I started my own business because I like to work and it just took off faster than I had expected but I do not want or intend to work at it constantly. You are correct that the equipment I purchase is dictated by the work I wind up doing. The aluminum part of my work is slow but will probably pick up. I am finding I need to do more machining to compliment my business . I do not pretend to know everything about welding and try to learn more even after 43 years working. When Yofish first joined I answered a thread of his and answered just to be rebuked by him . I took his question as I percieved him to be new to welding and it was a mis understanding of his question. I then bowed out of the discussion because I did not have anything more to add to the info other than what was obvious about the machine he was interested in. The only reason I even joined into this thread was because I felt you were rude and closed minded. Most welders do not modify their equipment as Yofish has done but if you can , why not.

[Yofish]

That's some beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.

Again, thanks for the comment. If you have any interest in boat design, I would encourage you to look at ProSurf. It is a marvelous program that is not hard to learn. For the builder, not only does it aid in shaping and fair lines and surfaces it 'unwraps' 3-D geometry so as to be cut. The following pic shows one aspect of my next project skiff in Prosurf. All the blue lines (called ruling lines) aid in making the surface developable, meaning that it has as little twist in it as possible. The more the lines resemble one another (try to not cross each other) the more developed it is and thus easier to build without boingers.



Then when one is finished with the 3-D geometry the program will develop the plates in 2-D.



This is the side of the skiff laid flat. This is the file that would be sent to the cutter. The lines within the perimeter represent framing stations and of course wouldn't be cut but would be marked by the cutter with felt marker. This leads to the next beautiful thing that this program does which is to slice and dice the model in any conceivable direction. Which is to say that it produces longitudinal, deck and athwart geometry for frame patterns. For example, here is the cut file ,nested on a 7'X20' plate, for 1/2 of the athwart framing in the 40' landing craft. In another more general purpose CAD program, the files are finished so as to show break lines and slotted where it intersects other framing.



This program can do many things! Here are pics of a sculpture that a friend of mine did. He built a model that we translated in ProSurf full scale, paper plotted it and transferred it to 10ga. steel plate. It's in a Downtown park in Anchorage. If you can't tell, I love what this program can do. It is truly one of the few pieces of software that changed my life and the way I go about things.

[zoama]

rolling over has become an American past time.

Put up or STFU.

You're not going to "roll over" are you Mr Miami ?