My favorite tools

[Rocky D]

These are tools that help me in my job that I have found along the way, I hope you can benefit from some of this stuff the way I did.

This first shot is of the vise I got from Home Depot, and you can still get them. They are 36 bucks! So if I break it, no great loss.

[Rocky D]

These little babies I made, aid in erecting pipe jobs, like hand rails or any where you need to hold a pipe before you weld it in place.

[Rocky D]

These are clamps I like to use. I have many of each one. You can never have enough clamps!

[Rocky D]

These are corner clamps. You need four, and they really speed up making frames.

[Rocky D]

This is also handy for heliarcing small stuff. All our production weldors have made one. Sorry I did'nt give you anything to judge scale by. I think it's 3" angle and you can use it any number of ways. Turn it over and you have a small table.

[gnewby]

Rocky where did you purchase your corner clamps at?

[Rocky D]

I know Dan will like this. It's a purge block. the top is porous bronze, inside is a manifold to diffuse the argon gas you put in the tube that is sticking out. You can weld a lot of different types of joints and have perfect purging. Great for inside corner joints, or butt welds. The porous bronze is heliarced on with silicon bronze rod.

[Rocky D]

A close up of the purge block.

[Rocky D]

This is my heliarc torch, any body else using this style?

[JPCWELD]

Hey Rocky D nice tig torch Do you like it with that big of a cup and a stub end looks a littel unbalanced . Do you do any field work (scratch start) I noticed that your torch had no flow control?

[Dan]

Originally posted by Rocky D
This is my heliarc torch, any body else using this style?

I use a similar style at work but the gas lense assembly is not as large in comparison to the torch body. Mine is a 125 amp torch. Is this a 100 amp torch or smaller?

[Rocky D]

Originally posted by gnewby
Rocky where did you purchase your corner clamps at?

San Diego Welders Supply or the US distributor is Morton. The clamps are Bessey clamps.

[Rocky D]

Originally posted by JPCWELD
Hey Rocky D nice tig torch Do you like it with that big of a cup and a stub end looks a littel unbalanced . Do you do any field work (scratch start) I noticed that your torch had no flow control?

The machine is a Syncrowave 300, and has built in solenoids, and high freq start. We do have a field machine on a cart that has a remote rheostat on the handle, that you operate with your finger as you weld. Most all our torches are water cooled HW-20's

[Rocky D]

Originally posted by Dan


I use a similar style at work but the gas lense assembly is not as large in comparison to the torch body. Mine is a 125 amp torch. Is this a 100 amp torch or smaller?

This is an HW-20 water cooled, I don't remember the amp rating, but I can run a 1/8" tungsten at close to 300 amps for a short time. I have welded 1" aluminum without a preheat with it, before. As far as balance, you get used to it real quick, and the coverage is great for titanium. In maintenance, I use a 3/32" tungsten, and production, I use 1/16".

[Rocky D]

This is a 18 gauge mild steel fillet welded with my HW-20. It is as-welded so you can see the colors. This is most likely what you would be doing at home, I thought,

[Roger]

Here is link to Northern Tool for bessy welding clamp.

http://www.northerntool.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=334727&prmenbr=6970

$80. price and worth every penny as I found out after making one out of bed rail angle. Good project that results in usefull tool.

Harbor Frieght has a knock off Bessy angle clamp made of cast aluminum thats cheaper but not as sturdy.

This corner clamp is cheaper but real easy to fabricate clone corner ficture without the clamps. Then use C-clamps to hold the work to corner ficture.

http://www.northerntool.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=12495&prmenbr=6970

[Dan]

Originally posted by Rocky D


This is an HW-20 water cooled, I don't remember the amp rating, but I can run a 1/8" tungsten at close to 300 amps for a short time. I have welded 1" aluminum without a preheat with it, before. As far as balance, you get used to it real quick, and the coverage is great for titanium. In maintenance, I use a 3/32" tungsten, and production, I use 1/16".

Sorry, I assumed this was your torch for home use. A Syncrowave 300 is definately going to need a water cooled torch. I could be wrong but I think the HW-20 is a 250 amp torch. The Gas lense is the way to go as long as you can get to the joint , and see it.

[Dan]

Originally posted by Rocky D
I know Dan will like this. It's a purge block. the top is porous bronze, inside is a manifold to diffuse the argon gas you put in the tube that is sticking out. You can weld a lot of different types of joints and have perfect purging. Great for inside corner joints, or butt welds. The porous bronze is heliarced on with silicon bronze rod.

DANG :cool: ! Sometimes that would be nice to have. Most times I have to make a cardboard chamber on the backside and purge it. Alot of times though with my projects it is just a matter of taping the ends or end. Then poke two holes, one for my gas hose and the other for a vent.

This picture option is a great improvement for this site. It is making it highly entertaining.

[Rocky D]

This is a chamber I built. We have many of them in our plant. We build them ourselves. We have a huge tank outside which supplies various ovens and weld areas with argon. Although we have run a purge chamber from a six-pack manifold. #8 lens on the viewport. Welds come out beattiful...no oxidation whatever. A must for titanium.

[Four by Girl]

Hey guys,

My most favorite tools would have to be a grinder and a sandblaster (men seem to work well too..hehehe) That seems to be the only way I can ever get the surface of anything I've cut/welded to perfection (of course, being a chick, if it isn't perfect, I'm not happy...lmao!!)

[Rocky D]

Where I work I deal in alot of exotic metals, so I have to have a place to put the welding rods for each one, and label them accordingly. This is what I came up with to store my heliarc rod.

They want us to label everthing. Notice I've even got the anvil labeled! Wouldn't want to mistake it for a grinder! But then I've got the grinder labeled too! :D

[Rocky D]

A closer shot

[alan]

This corner clamp is cheaper but real easy to fabricate clone corner ficture without the clamps. Then use C-clamps to hold the work to corner ficture.

http://www.northerntool.com/cgi-bin...95&prmenbr=6970
_______________________________________________


I bought one that looks just like this one from Harbor Freight a few years ago and it's not square. 2' out and it's off about 3/16". I still use it once in awhile on pipe for a tack weld but that's about it.

[Sundown]

If I could weld like that I wouldn't be playing with this computer. The tools are great and I'll make some as time permits.....Thanks!

[morpheus]

Originally posted by Rocky D

They want us to label everthing. Notice I've even got the anvil labeled! Wouldn't want to mistake it for a grinder! But then I've got the grinder labeled too! :D

I don't see a label on either the Rubber or Wooden mallet ! You better get on that Rocky, hate to see you mistake either of those as a screwdriver :D

- jack

[bitternut]

Hey Roger and Alan

You guys both posted links for the corner welding clamps at Northertool and I could not get them to work. I also did a search at their online catalog and could not find them that way either. Whats up? Am I doing something wrong or what? Thanks for any help.

[alan]

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&langId=-1&catalogId=4006970&PHOTOS=on&TEST=Y&productId=12495&categoryId=1537


Try this, I just did a search in welding for "clamp" and found it. Also this is the item number 153807



Alan

[bitternut]

Thanks Alan

The link worked this time. I had found that particular clamp when I did a search of their online catalog but for some reason I was expecting one like the bessey corner clamp. The price is so much cheaper that I thought I had the wrong clamp. Have you used this clamp?

[Roger]

Northerntool.com
search box
Shop by Product Category "welding"
then click on "welding accessories" link gets you 9 pages of items.
Bessy welding angle clamp is on page 8 Item# 15101004

Welding Angle clamp V jaws page 5 tem# 153807

[bitternut]

OK Roger........we got it this time. Wow!!! That price is for one clamp. Those babies are expensive, but I guess you get what you pay for. Wish I was still working so I could machine up a set. Thanks again for the help.