I am lucky , at 71 I still have some thatch on my roof.
Technical Tyre wear question
- Thread starter AnthonyH
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Technical Tyre wear question
Aye, there's always that. Luckily my neighbours are all very tolerant, well, except for one about 20 years ago but, luckily for me, his business became very lucrative and he moved away to a much more exclusive dwelling. Mind you, these days, if any of my noisy stuff comes out it's only very rarely and my compressor is very quiet and "buried away" at the back of the garage so, even with the main door open, it's not at all intrusive. Mostly i work with hand tools.I do have an air chisel with various punches etc. but stopped using it due to respect for my neighbours and my ear drums
Just you luck on how it's all sitting, though you never see any posts anywhere saying why cant I get the balljoint back in. A small wiggle and common sense is enough
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I've just googled for the Sip topweld and at that price level it interests me. I always thought they were much more expensive, i will further google and watch some youtube, i know sooner or later i'm going to need something like this. For now i've avoided something almost impossible to remove then breaking and leaving the car somewhat trashed, so i'm future proofing myself. And its just interesting to learn about new things
The Wolf Dakota looks great, i'd need a garage for that. Most of my tools are in the porch, and a few in the conservatory. Our garage was converted into an extra bedroom by someone else many years ago.
I'll say right away that if you don't have a welding machine and have never tried to weld before you'd be much better to save up your shekels and buy a gas shield type MIG/MAG welder. Don't buy a No Gas machine for welding thin stuff like body panels. The MIG is much easier to learn how to weld with and also more versatile in what you can weld. Unfortunately a fair bit more expensive with potentially more to go wrong and more "disposables" to buy. However a better bet if it's to be your only machine.
When I first got interested in welding at home I was trying to repair an old DAF 33. I used gas welding at work and was quite good at it - if I can say that - however getting set up with gas bottles and all the associated gear like torch, nozzles, hoses, regulators, anti flash back valves - is expensive and also your insurance company is going to have kittens if they find out you've got a bottle of compressed highly inflammable gas in your garage! Back in those days little DIY MIG machines were just starting to get popular and still expensive so I believed all the lying claims about what you could weld with a stick welder and bought the SIP TOPWELD. It took me a few hours to learn how to strike the ark and then I spent the rest of the weekend blowing holes in just about everything I tried. What I didn't know, and what the adverts I'd read lied about, is that the average driveway grease monkey is not going to have the skill to weld thin metal with a stick welder, especially not with one of these cheap wee machines and their course controls. After several attempts on different days, I concluded I'd wasted my money and the machine got stored away under my workbench where it lived for a number of years until I became a trainer in light vehicle repair and maintenance. In the same establishment there was a course for welders and I became friendly with the instructor. On a visit to my house he spotted the machine under the bench and a conversation followed about how useless I thought it was and how I'd wasted my money. Nonsense he berated me. you're just trying to do the wrong things with it. Bring it into work and I'll show you what to do in the lunch hour. So I did and it was a revelation. In a few words, absolute magic for welding up stuff like angle iron and other bits and pieces of that sort of thickness but relatively hopeless for welding car wings etc. I kept the machine behind my desk at work for a number of weeks while munching sandwiches and welding during my lunch break and bothering my friend when I didn't know what I was doing wrong. You can learn how to do this on your own but it's very much easier to take a short course - I taught evening classes for beginners for years - where you'll learn how to strike the arc properly, lay down a decent bead and how to tell if the weld is good or not.
Having said that though, if you can become proficient with a "stick" welder (the sort of machine which the Topweld is) there's still a lot you can do with them for not a lot of outlay. Internally they are very simple, just a sodding great transformer core of wire wound round a former with a solid slug which the black wheel on the front allows you to wind in and out of the core to increase or decrease the magnetic flux and thus the amperage output to the welding electrode (stick as many call it). There's a "new kid on the block" in the form of inverter technology but these have more complicated internals and I don't think you'll pick up a used one so cheap. Potentially much more to go wrong with one too. So, staying with our good old transrormer type, if you're going to buy one, somewhere around a 130/140/150 amp machine is useful. Some of the wee ones are only 90 amp and the problem with them is they overheat very quickly. Don't make the mistake of thinking the lower powered machines will have a "gentle" arc so are less likely to blow holes, doesn't work like that. In fact they can actually be more difficult to use as they are often more difficult to strike an arc with. This is a direct function of the set's open circuit voltage and this tends to be higher on the bigger output machines.
Here's mine:
One of the first things you'll be noticing is it's on wheels. Well, that was one of the first things my welder pal suggested I make. I was already into agricultural machines in my spare time and the wheels were off one I scrapped for parts. The rest is just inch angle and some tube all welded up with the machine. I was quite pleased with the way it came out.
When in use I position it as shown in the picture above, but I also made the base so it can be stored on it's end and it has a handle to make it easier to move about:
It "lives" tucked away next to my MIG and the two of them take up very little room:
These are the very simple controls:
On/off switch top left and an indicator light on the right top which illuminates when powered up. In the middle is the big wheel which winds the core into or out of the transformer so increasing or decreasing the magnetic density and thus the current output through the wires. At the bottom are the two wires - one goes to the earth clamp and the other to the torch which holds the rod. Now a wee tip. If you buy one then take the top cover off and dismantle the two big terminals at the bottom. Why? Well, a poor connection on either will make striking the arc much more difficult and also interfere with the weld. Most of these machines use aluminium winding wire - it's cheaper than copper - which reacts with the steel from which the terminals are made. Cleaning the wire ends and the steel terminals they are secured to makes a big difference to how the machine performs. I've refurbished a number of these and every one I've done performed measurably better after cleaning up these connections. One of the "secrets" to making a good weld is for all connections to be good - of low resistance.
You're likely to find an indicator somewhere on the machine which indicates roughly what amperage is being output, Here's the wee window slot on the top of mine, the red marker moves as you wind the knob on the front:
You can see it gives a rough guide as to where it needs to be for different electrode (stick) sizes. Notice it rates the machine as capable of continuous welding with 1.5 to 2.5mm diameter rods (electrodes, sticks, whatever) and intermittent with larger sizes. I've tried it with 3.2mm and it can only weld a couple of inches or so before the thermal overload protection cuts it out and you have to wait for ages for it to cool down enough to work again. Annoying, but without thermal protection the core would go into meltdown! I use nearly exclusively, 2.5mm rods and even then the machine would tend to cut out if doing long runs. I did buy some 1.6mm rods when trying to weld car wings but they are difficult to strike an arc with (you have to select quite a low amps setting) and they burn down very quickly.
Here's the 3 rod sizes I have, 3.2 at the top and 1.6 bottom with the 2.5 in the middle:
As I said above I really only use 2.5's these days and I buy them from my local welding supply shop in standard industrial size packs. Here's the label on the one I have just now:
With these wee machines you need to buy all position Rutile rods.
The most ambitious thing I've built with it was my trailer:
and, especially when welding in the thick wall heavy duty tubing for the axle and drawbar - using 2.5 rod - It did tend to cut out now and again. So I thought "what this needs is some forced cooling". So I installed blanking plates inside the rear louvers in the cover - you can see the pop rivets here:
and blanked off the lower louvers in the rear cover. again you can see the pop rivets holding the plate inside in this picture:
Then I installed a "flat fan" - like the sort of thing you get in computer cabinets - inside the louvers of the back cover and connected it to the mains switch on the front cover. So it pulls air in through the front louvers on both sides and flows it over the transformer core before pumping it out the back. I connected it so it doesn't go through the switch itself, just uses the live feed. So now, whenever the mains is powered up this fan runs regardless of whether the machine is powered on with the switch in the front of it. It's never cut out using 2.5mm rods since I did this. Mostly what I use it for now is welding up cracked chassis rails on horticultural machines and, I must say, it does a cracking job for this sort of heavier task. The MIG is my "go to" for bodywork, MOT chassis repairs etc though.
Edit. Maybe I should say, in reply to "what exactly could you do with it"? Well' it's for melting metal (mostly steel) together. It's not a heat source like a flame, so useless for heating stuff up like we've been discussing earlier in the thread.
Welding, once you get over the initial, frustrating, learning period, is a very satisfying and somewhat addictive activity. I rank it alongside making metal brake lines for satisfaction.
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The modern invertor type plants with their almost infinitely adjustable power settings make gasless machines much more attractive, I have just got one for doing the floor pan on the Punto and while it has taken me a little time to get my eye in, I am now beginning to get some good results from it. I have found the key is to up the power but reduce the wire speed and then work in short bursts. stitching the panels together.
The added advantage of the invertor machines is that you don't need a small truck to carry it about for you, they are very small and very light.
Another advantage is the ability to stick, tig and Mig weld all in one unit. The Tig head comes with a pipe built in so you can connect a gas line. you can also do alloy with the same set.
Technology marches on Eh? I've no experience of these inverter machines but would like to try one. My car doing days are somewhat in decline now though so doubt if I could ever justify the expense of buying into it especially as I've machines which do what I want them too and am happy with the results I get.
My post above was sparked by Anthony mentioning that he'd been surprised to see how cheaply you can buy these old transformer type MMA welders, so I was aiming what i wrote in that direction.
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The welding is of interest because I have an idea to convert a van into a motorhome. My wife has started using Facebook marketplace and we went to pick up some furniture from a couple who'd bought a DIY converted van. This may never come to fruition but it's worth thinking about. I'm probably going to want some tool or other to weld other stuff regardless, so have an open mind. I've read the responses above but currently at picture below, so haven't had time to research what's been written.
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Dear god no, it's bad enough you think bodge-it punto-boy is good at what he does, never mind copy him
Actually, I think folk like Anthony are what forums like this are all about. I dof my cap to his determination and perseverance even if I'd feel a lot happier if someone with more experience could check over what he's been doing before I meet him coming the other way? With our help he will gain the understand which he lacks at present.
Welding is something only a lot of practice will get anywhere near perfect. So as good as the bloke doing the job as with most things.
As an apprentice we had Oxy/Acetylene, which we used for most stuff from soldering radiators, car body welding,heating up metals and bending exhausts, shrinking starter ring gears on flywheels and brazing etc.
We also had a large Arc welder for heavy steel, like farmers trailers etc. I used that sort of gear for many years.
When Migs first came in, a guy who used to do our MOT welding said Migs were for cowboys and he stuck with his Oxy/Acetylene until he died recently always doing a excellent job. We sent some MOT welding to a bodyshop in the early days and the comments about cowboys was true,I found the rubbish patches they had done could be prised off with a screwdriver, no penetration into the parent metal at all, so they got no further business from us.
Working for myself I have owned Oxy/Acetylene and a variety of electric welders, Mig,Mag,Tig etc, AC and DC single and three phase. I soon realised my Alloy welding was never going to be much good, so now I have a three phase 247amp Fronius Mig welder and a Miller MaxStar 200 DC Tig invertor which has very fine adjustments so even if not used with my bottle of pure Argon I can stick weld even thin catering stainless steel etc.I picked that one up for around £90 at an auction and just had to buy the torch and bottle etc.
If you get a invertor welder and are using for stick/arc welding, if it has HF it makes starting a weld a lot easier.
Some years ago I had a three phase 350 amp Kemppi invertor welder about the size of a large suitcase weighing around 75 Kgs, so not exactly something you could run up a ladder to do a spot of welding with. However I picked it up at a Steam Rally autojumble stall for £25, paid a local company around £110 for a circuit board and had a powerful DC Tig to run off my 415 Volt Phase Convertor which considering they were over £2000 new at the time wasn't a bad deal.
As an apprentice we had Oxy/Acetylene, which we used for most stuff from soldering radiators, car body welding,heating up metals and bending exhausts, shrinking starter ring gears on flywheels and brazing etc.
We also had a large Arc welder for heavy steel, like farmers trailers etc. I used that sort of gear for many years.
When Migs first came in, a guy who used to do our MOT welding said Migs were for cowboys and he stuck with his Oxy/Acetylene until he died recently always doing a excellent job. We sent some MOT welding to a bodyshop in the early days and the comments about cowboys was true,I found the rubbish patches they had done could be prised off with a screwdriver, no penetration into the parent metal at all, so they got no further business from us.
Working for myself I have owned Oxy/Acetylene and a variety of electric welders, Mig,Mag,Tig etc, AC and DC single and three phase. I soon realised my Alloy welding was never going to be much good, so now I have a three phase 247amp Fronius Mig welder and a Miller MaxStar 200 DC Tig invertor which has very fine adjustments so even if not used with my bottle of pure Argon I can stick weld even thin catering stainless steel etc.I picked that one up for around £90 at an auction and just had to buy the torch and bottle etc.
If you get a invertor welder and are using for stick/arc welding, if it has HF it makes starting a weld a lot easier.
Some years ago I had a three phase 350 amp Kemppi invertor welder about the size of a large suitcase weighing around 75 Kgs, so not exactly something you could run up a ladder to do a spot of welding with. However I picked it up at a Steam Rally autojumble stall for £25, paid a local company around £110 for a circuit board and had a powerful DC Tig to run off my 415 Volt Phase Convertor which considering they were over £2000 new at the time wasn't a bad deal.
OP
OP
Thank you for the kind words. If you knew me in person you'd realise I do a better job than many paid mechanics, albeit I take a long time.
The name of the game is practice, practice, practice and then more practice with the caveat that you've got to know what you're trying to achieve.Welding is something only a lot of practice will get anywhere near perfect. So as good as the bloke doing the job as with most things.
As an apprentice we had Oxy/Acetylene, which we used for most stuff from soldering radiators, car body welding,heating up metals and bending exhausts, shrinking starter ring gears on flywheels and brazing etc.
We also had a large Arc welder for heavy steel, like farmers trailers etc. I used that sort of gear for many years.
When Migs first came in, a guy who used to do our MOT welding said Migs were for cowboys and he stuck with his Oxy/Acetylene until he died recently always doing a excellent job. We sent some MOT welding to a bodyshop in the early days and the comments about cowboys was true,I found the rubbish patches they had done could be prised off with a screwdriver, no penetration into the parent metal at all, so they got no further business from us.
Working for myself I have owned Oxy/Acetylene and a variety of electric welders, Mig,Mag,Tig etc, AC and DC single and three phase. I soon realised my Alloy welding was never going to be much good, so now I have a three phase 247amp Fronius Mig welder and a Miller MaxStar 200 DC Tig invertor which has very fine adjustments so even if not used with my bottle of pure Argon I can stick weld even thin catering stainless steel etc.I picked that one up for around £90 at an auction and just had to buy the torch and bottle etc.
If you get a invertor welder and are using for stick/arc welding, if it has HF it makes starting a weld a lot easier.
Some years ago I had a three phase 350 amp Kemppi invertor welder about the size of a large suitcase weighing around 75 Kgs, so not exactly something you could run up a ladder to do a spot of welding with. However I picked it up at a Steam Rally autojumble stall for £25, paid a local company around £110 for a circuit board and had a powerful DC Tig to run off my 415 Volt Phase Convertor which considering they were over £2000 new at the time wasn't a bad deal.
I agree completely with what you're saying here regarding MIG. Very easy to lay down a nice looking bead which has virtually no penetration or strength. Looks good but potentially very dangerous when the repair is structural.
Good "old" gas welding. There's an old chap near me who rents ramp time from a couple of the wee garages around here and does MOT repairs. He uses gas and won't have anything to do with the "new fangled" machines. His work is a treat to behold, looks more like someone knitted it the finish is so uniform - a real skill. He did repairs to Felicity for me after I couldn't find any good metal to weld to and gave us a couple more years with her until the inevitable.
Sorry jock I’d not gone back and read everything before, needless to say things do move on.
I think some people are just getting very bitter and spiteful and feel they need to try and put everyone else down to make themselves feel better.
That’s not really the point in these forums and as jock points out is to help build people up, those that want to learn about these things.
As for home build motor homes, well there are plenty of people here who can help out with that too, no need for welding in a home built motor home
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Yes its sad that there are those people here, i don 't get them and have no interest in living in their world.
Hmmm, now there's a thought. I suppose you're saying everything can be fitted in like furniture or bolted on. The missus used to have a caravan that she renovated from scratch. It looked pretty amazing. She's dead keen on this idea, but the practicalities are probably enormous.
That is the beauty of DIY done with care, time and will to learn and improve. When you start you make mistakes and you learn. Then you learn more and more. Time gives you the space and time to do the job properly, learn, experiment, (as in e.g. is there an easier was to get that alternator out past the driveshaft) all to the best of your improving abilities.
I've had to redo jobs done by so called experienced vehicle technicians. Incorrect diagnosis, wrong bolts in wrong holes, stripped threads, ... Even had bent sill flanges is EIGHT places after one in warranty service by a Fiat dealer.
Sadly CARE by others is often not compatible with their time and money revenue. As long as their work lasts 3 to 12 months that is all they are interested in. Many main dealers work on manufacturer's fixed pricing based on book time and then rush jobs to beat book time. Also technicians often get paid bonuses for the number of jobs they complete.
I will add that not all garages and technicians are bad
As for doing you own van conversion (to camper / other) then the Fiat Professional Converters (https://www.fiatprofessional-converters.com/) is a very useful site. Here they provide all sorts of technical info (drawings, structural, where to drill/not drill, electric mods, loadings, .....).
Info for Ducato, Fiorino, Van (Panda), Doblo, Scudo, New Scudo, New Doblo and an Archive section.
Info for Ducato, Fiorino, Van (Panda), Doblo, Scudo, New Scudo, New Doblo and an Archive section.
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That is the beauty of DIY done with care, time and will to learn and improve. When you start you make mistakes and you learn. Then you learn more and more. Time gives you the space and time to do the job properly, learn, experiment, (as in e.g. is there an easier was to get that alternator out past the driveshaft) all to the best of your improving abilities.
I've had to redo jobs done by so called experienced vehicle technicians. Incorrect diagnosis, wrong bolts in wrong holes, stripped threads, ... Even had bent sill flanges is EIGHT places after one in warranty service by a Fiat dealer.
Sadly CARE by others is often not compatible with their time and money revenue. As long as their work lasts 3 to 12 months that is all they are interested in. Many main dealers work on manufacturer's fixed pricing based on book time and then rush jobs to beat book time. Also technicians often get paid bonuses for the number of jobs they complete.
I will add that not all garages and technicians are bad
I think this is bang on. I can leave the car up on stands for a month and do an hour here or there, it makes learning a lot easier. I do all the little things a paid mechanic may never do, such as cleaning up bolt threads, or putting on extra copper grease to prevent rusting, because its my car and hobby.
The paid mechanics are often rushed, i have sympathy with the good ones who are expected to do too much. But inevitably others do a 3/4 job so they can then read the newspaper lol
You'd think the fiat dealers would be doing the best job, considering how much of a premium they charge, but this doesn't follow. The little local garage can do a better job at half the price, if you can find the right one.
Thanks for the link, if i buy a van it would have to be a fiat because i'm likely to be familar with more parts of it...does that follow? How much similarity between fiats are there?
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I drove the car with the new control arms yesterday for 2-3 hours, it was handling fine, the only problem is that I changed the tyre to a spare which i wasn't sure was OK, and the tyre was squealing because its slowly deflating, so I will have to buy a new tyre now. I'm currently on the ATS Euromaster website because its a local garage. I'm researching the best budget tyres, looking for one 175-65 R15 H for less than £75. If anyone has any recommends I'll take a look, there's no rush to order this because Tuesday is the earliest i'd have time to take it in anyway.
Further to previous comments, I would like to emphasise that the same as in all walks of life, a job is a good as the person doing it.
The problem is small businesses like I had with regular customers for well in excess of 25 years and some I had known since the 1970s, are getting few and far between. I was recently talking to one of my old customers who in an effort to continue the reliability he enjoyed when I worked on his vehicles he bought new Toyotas for his family with extended warranty and servicing contracts. However as they are starting to get towards their contract ends he is finding the Dealer suggesting items that need urgent attention, but when pointed out about the extended warranty they suddenly become advisory!!!
A small one recently following an MOT at the Dealers was a quote of many hundreds of pounds for replacement suspension parts which when he agreed for the work to be booked in, it was found that the genuine parts required were back ordered and not even in the Country, although good quality pattern parts were, but would invalidate the Warranty.
The parts on the advisory list were dust covers deteriorating on suspension parts! Not split, not leaking, no loss of grease or wear in those parts. The Dealer was going to replace complete units at great cost!
If he had still been my customer there are readily available dust cover kits which could have been replaced along with new grease for a very small percentage of the Dealer quoted price.
The problem is small businesses like I had with regular customers for well in excess of 25 years and some I had known since the 1970s, are getting few and far between. I was recently talking to one of my old customers who in an effort to continue the reliability he enjoyed when I worked on his vehicles he bought new Toyotas for his family with extended warranty and servicing contracts. However as they are starting to get towards their contract ends he is finding the Dealer suggesting items that need urgent attention, but when pointed out about the extended warranty they suddenly become advisory!!!
A small one recently following an MOT at the Dealers was a quote of many hundreds of pounds for replacement suspension parts which when he agreed for the work to be booked in, it was found that the genuine parts required were back ordered and not even in the Country, although good quality pattern parts were, but would invalidate the Warranty.
The parts on the advisory list were dust covers deteriorating on suspension parts! Not split, not leaking, no loss of grease or wear in those parts. The Dealer was going to replace complete units at great cost!
If he had still been my customer there are readily available dust cover kits which could have been replaced along with new grease for a very small percentage of the Dealer quoted price.
Every day's a school day as "they" say, and never more so than for us "old lags". Anyone who thinks they know it all is a dangerous fool!
I've occasionally been disappointed by even the most trusted garages. The latest one was about 5 years ago when I got a new clutch installed on the Panda by one of the garages where I'm friendly and on personal terms with the owner and his son. When I checked it all over there was one, of three, bolts missing which hold the gearbox mount to the gearbox. It would have been happy living with just two bolts holding it on but that's not the point.
I trust noone to work on my vehicles and, if I have to get something done which is beyond my abilities I always check things out when I get it back.
I hate bonus systems with a vengeance! It used to be the norm in many garages back in my day and it encourages rushed and shoddy work. Unfortunately it also encourages the unscrupulous to cut corners and even miss out critical tasks.Sadly CARE by others is often not compatible with their time and money revenue. As long as their work lasts 3 to 12 months that is all they are interested in. Many main dealers work on manufacturer's fixed pricing based on book time and then rush jobs to beat book time. Also technicians often get paid bonuses for the number of jobs they complete.
I will add that not all garages and technicians are bad
For instance. Have you heard of the "oily rag oil filter"? If the filter casing looks in good condition, ie with no rust or visible defects, then you wipe the outside with an oily rag so it looks new and move on. Pollen (cabin) filters? if difficult to get at you just don't do them. If difficult to access the owner's never going to know. Failing to change spark plugs used to be another, just run the oily rag over the rocker cover - which you won't have removed because you didn't adjust the valve clearances - and HT leads to make them look "nice and shiny". Not so common now with long life plugs and self adjusting (hydraulic) tappets. Of course you're not going to bother to check gearbox or transmission oil levels, but you will go round the door hinges spraying that ghastly white grease around so the customer notices how you've "even done the hinges and door locks". I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea. I would like to say I despair when I run into "colleagues" who behave in this way and used to actively watch out for it when I was in control of workshops. Anyone found out would get one warning and then out the door!
It's not a nice way for supervisory staff to work either. At one establishment where I was workshop manager I had my monthly bonus figure to reach. If I didn't hit that target I lost about a third of my monthly pay. However if I hit the bonus figure for 3 months running then the base bonus figure would be increased - the argument being that if I was consistently hitting the target figure then it must be too low for that workshop. The "Elephant in the room" with that thinking is that workshop takings are very seasonal. Around Christmas time and into the new year it was very quiet - everyone had maxed out on Christmas expenses. Then coming up to Easter folk would want their cars readied for an Easter break. then a period of quietness again until just before the summer holidays when folk would be getting their cars checked out again for the big get away. So over the busy months you would hit the figures but in the slack periods you didn't so lived on basic pay. Then there was the fact that you had to be there before official start time to open up and turn on the compressor etc and always the last to leave, often well after closing time as you cleared up any wee disasters and waited on customers who were late picking up their vehicles. I would do paperwork during these times as i didn't like getting behind.
Small wonder then that I took up a post of Trainer when the opportunity arose which gave me the chance to lead a normal life with reliable income and the opportunity to lecture my trainees on ethical working as well as teaching folk how to maintain and repair vehicles "properly"!
Reading back over this I've perhaps given the impression that these practices are rife in the garage trade so I'd like to say that's not the case. Most of the chaps I've worked with do the very best they can but these things do happen and all I'm saying is that I think some bonus working does encourage the unscrupulous to take advantage. Personally I found working on the shop floor much more satisfying than being in charge of it where I put in long hours for not a lot of pay and had to calm the occasional aggressive customer.
