Great day for a Robbie Williams concert at mission estate Napier 

Fitzy ! Past the beer mate

Take some binoculars!

Is it Robbie's Wheelchair Tour?

Is it bad that I had to google "who is Robbie Williams"?

This guy 

 

Hahaha 🤣 

Yeah that clears thing up. Thanks Kiwi. 

I have been working in my tunnel house and building frames to support my hydroponic channels .. so I am teaching myself how to weld aluminium .. here is my  first attempts 

i am eating up tungsten, which i have read up is because i have my balance set way towards postive and need to turn it to negetive on my tig welder settings... clearly i have lots to learn 

 

any ali welders out there that could give me some advise 

For justa learning bro that's really not bad. Play with your setting and see what happens, keep practicing and you'll be welding up old beer cans in no time! 

7 minutes ago, Wrongway said:

For justa learning bro that's really not bad. Play with your setting and see what happens, keep practicing and you'll be welding up old beer cans in no time! 

mate ! back in the day i was taught how to lead welt, sheet lead, i relate this to that, back then we used a oxy/act torch, with a super small flame, it was a art !! 

now its a electic tig version ! i love it !! so enjoy using tools that make life easier ! 

all that i have to do is get my setting right ... clean material and breath !!! and be patient.

heck its justA hot pool and add filler rod !!! sounds sooo easy !

This is my tig welder 

super basic unit 

You can see I have the balance set way towards ac positive … I  think that’s why I am melting my tungsten 

I am using what they call light blue 

which is a aluminium specific tungsten..

And am grinding the tip to a ball shape 

When grinding the tungsten you have the rod facing the stone . Not at 90degress to the grinding wheel . To create the ball shape 

and using a stainless steel wire brush to clean my metal , not a steel wire brush.. that a big no no 

Edited November 14, 20232 yr by 64 kiwi boni

It all SOUNDS easy ol buddy, doesn't mean it is. But your beads honestly look better than a lot of people that I've seen try to aluminum weld. You said you learned how to lead back in the day? Thats something that I wanted to try my hand at. I've read a lot about it justa never had the chance to put hands on and try it. Besides, with all the other stuff we've seen you make and fabricate, I have no doubt you'll be an ace in no time!

Edited November 14, 20232 yr by Wrongway

I justA enjoy learning new shit mate .

isn’t that the spice of life ? 

25 minutes ago, Wrongway said:

It all SOUNDS easy ol buddy, doesn't mean it is. But your beads honestly look better than a lot of people that I've seen try to aluminum weld. You said you learned how to lead back in the day? Thats something that I wanted to try my hand at. I've read a lot about it justa never had the chance to put hands on and try it. Besides, with all the other stuff we've seen you make and fabricate, I have no doubt you'll be an ace in no time!

So not using lead anymore wrongway . It’s a thing of the past ! JustA like using my old school soldering iron .. used to sweat solder galv spouting , flashings 

water tanks .. don’t do any of that anymore either ! 

I couldn't agree more bro.

Yeah, leading is part of history now. The old school ways are justa fascinating to me.

Edited November 14, 20232 yr by Wrongway

Kiwi,

I am learning tig myself. there are a lot of things on the internet about tig welding if you take the time to ferret them out. 

I have a friend that can weld aluminum radiators and am trying to get together with him for some one on one but we seem to have mutually exclusive schedules. I have been welding steel and cast since my teens, was certified in arc and mig and when I started with tig it added the temp pedal which I have a real problem controlling the temp with. As for the ball on the end of the tungsten first thing right after sharpening it, touch it to a piece of clean scrap steel and it will form a perfect ball on the end. 

Definitely get strong into negative polarity. Contrary to popular belief current flows from negative to positive and with tig welding you don't want the electrons flowing into your tungsten.

As has already been observed your welds look  great for a newbie. 

19 minutes ago, Old guy44 said:

Kiwi,

I am learning tig myself. there are a lot of things on the internet about tig welding if you take the time to ferret them out. 

I have a friend that can weld aluminum radiators and am trying to get together with him for some one on one but we seem to have mutually exclusive schedules. I have been welding steel and cast since my teens, was certified in arc and mig and when I started with tig it added the temp pedal which I have a real problem controlling the temp with. As for the ball on the end of the tungsten first thing right after sharpening it, touch it to a piece of clean scrap steel and it will form a perfect ball on the end. 

Definitely get strong into negative polarity. Contrary to popular belief current flows from negative to positive and with tig welding you don't want the electrons flowing into your tungsten.

As has already been observed your welds look  great for a newbie. 

Dwight !!! Hello Mate !!!

soooo long no chat !!!

what have you been up too ? 
 

thank you so much for the tips!!!

my first go at tig aluminium welding was last weekend … I so enjoyed the challenge !!!

I will turn my balance down into the negative.. and I had to go buy another tungsten!  I burnt the whole rod up !!!

regardless of that !!!

what have your been up too ????

 

Basically one of the worst years of my life. It started with the 02 toyota that my youngest daughter used to own. I could not get the damn thging to pass smog. Another of the reasons not to live in the peoples republic of California. I spent the better part of a month learning that particular system. Toyota used it from 02 to 05 and it is a little wierd. In the meantime my granddaughter was away at college and her VW new beetle was sitting in front of the house, so my daughter asked her sister if she could use it while I was figuring out the Toyota. While driving it, it rotted out a plastic coolant fitting and ran out of coolant. Yes you read that right IT ROTTED OUT A PLASTIC COOLANT FITTING JUST AS IF IT WERE A CHEAP PIECE OF SHEET METAL. I may be as German as they come but I absolutely hate German cars. Well she is a sweet kid but sometimes she doesn't have the brains god give a screwdrtiver, she drove it until it burned a dime sized hole in the second piston from the right, don't know if that is #2 or #4. I finally found a low mileage used 5 cylinder and spent the next month putting it in. 

Took it out for a spin and the trans was acting wonky and was now leaking like a stuck pig from the front pump seal. I pulled the trans figuring that I could get a book and figure it out, I did my first automatic when I was about 13 and did it professionally for over 25 years so I figured how bad can it be? well lets go back to I hate German cars. The 09G is a variant of a front wheel drive trans that Toyota sends all over the world because it works and lasts. Well the Krauts got ahold of it and turned it into a giant POS. I have since learned that there are professional trans builders that build them for 8 hours a day that will not touch an 09G with a gun to their head. I started communicating with the guys on a new beetle website and commented that I was not sure that I wanted my granddaughter 1000 mi away from home depending on that German piece of junk for transportation. Here is the kicker! They all agreed in unison. Their comments were to get rid of it and get her a Toyota or Honda something reliable!

I explained the situatoion to my granddaughter and asked her what she wanted instead. To my amazement her response was a Bronco. Not  new one or one of the originals, I ain't in that kind of financial position but one of the ones in between. I found an 89 Bronco II with 68,000 miles on the clock. The guy that owned it drove it until it blew (literally) the transmission and then parked it in the desert. I figured that If i put a trans in it she would have a 68,000 mile car. I was partially right. I am 5 months into this thing have completely replaced the fuel system, the only original part is the tank. I have gone completely through the brake system, only original parts are the rear brake drums and the brake booster. Found a guy that was doing an 87 and had a rebuilt trans on his garage floor. For reasons I can't explain he had partially disassembeled it and it sat gathreing dust for years. I bought it, took it the rest of rthe way apart to clean out all the dust and grime confirmed that all the friction parets were new and put it in. Got it running and the "new" trans sort of works. 4th gear is a sometimes yes and sometimes no and when it does decide to shift imto 4th on an upgrade it will toggle back and forth from 3rd to 4th unless you manually lock it into 3rd gear. Fortunately I still have the unmolested original valve body which I can put a transgo shift kit in and ptobably fix that. I am attempting to reassemble the rest of it that I had to take apart in order to replace the headliner and paint it. I have parts shoved into every corner of my garage and spend three hours looking for partt and three minutet putting tomething on. You will notice that minutet it mitpelled. My key between a and d now print a t. welcome to my life. Need to quit now becaute of a malfunctioning keyboard. 

With you had not atked??

Gees mate !!!

what a mess ! the things we do for our kids aye !!!!

your vw storey sounds like the bosses bmw mini we used to have !! It was a heap of shot . R50 model with a chain drive auto ! The thing only had 87k kms on it when the chain broke ! I thought I could fix it !!! , no no no ! They have to be reprogrammed to the motor once you rebuild them !! 
I was quoted more that the heap was worth ! So I just cut my losses and sold it !

I feel for you mate !! Talk about sucking up all your time , when you could have been doing something for your self ! 
still that’s what we do for family aye ! 

I understand the krauts obsession with making everything complicated for no good reason. The reason the scheissvagon is parked in the side yard is because I cannot get the trans to reprogram. my computer program which is specific to VW Audi and Skoda quit working and decided not to cancel the airbag light. The trans will not completely reprogram with any open code so I am screwed until I can figure out why the program will not connect to the air bag circuit. when I get all the other stuff taken care of that has been ignored for the entire year I might get back to the scheissvagon and attempt to get the trans fixed. the other option is to part the thing out but I would rather not take the time necessary to do that. I have had this computer program shut down on me before and I needed to do all the updates to get it back amongst the world of the living. Problem is that it like all German garbage it is a complicated process to update and I will need to do a google search to find the correct procedure to do it.

With regards to my granddaughter she is a great kid and is having a rough time right now and not because of anything she has done. One of the reasons I am taking the time to do everything right on the Bronco is because I want her to have something she really wants in her life right now. 

What else is a grandpa for?

 

 

 

Good job grandpa! Trust me brother, she will remember all the times you were there for her. 

Actually the Bronco is turning out to be a really nice car. As stated it has been parked in the desert for years. However it only has 68 and change on the clock, so it is a 68,000 mile used car. the interior almost looks as good as the day it left the showroom. It is an Eddie Bauer so it has the nice interior. The body had a couple of dings in it that were fixed with glazing putty and she chose a nice light mint green for the color. I have it drivable and have been putting miles on it to make sure that there are no demons lurking in the closet and the cruise control still works!

When was the last time you saw a 34 year old absolutely untampered engine compartment?

And yes she is truly grateful and quivering with excitement because she will be getting it when she comes home for Christmas vacation.

 

That justa awesome Dwight. 

16 hours ago, Old guy44 said:

she is a sweet kid but sometimes she doesn't have the brains god gave a screwdrtiver, 

Wow! That is a line I am going to have tuck away in my memory bank and use at the appropriate time in the future. Thanks Old Guy!

Dwight, justA wire in a big flashing red light as an over temp on the bronco so she can’t cook it !!! 

And hay ! You know we love pictures around here !! How about one of the bronco ? 

She is not the one that cooked the scheissvagon it was her aunt. 

There are no German plastics in the cooling system and just as a precaution I changed out the plastic radiator for an aluminum one so I think I have that covered.

As for pictures tell me how and I would love to post some. I am old and do not do well with electronic devices. I tried to send some pictures to my insurance agent and could not figure out how. finally had to go to his office and hand him the iphone so he could do it himself.