dollythelw

Nige; Your plate still looks dirty as hell - the toes of the weld wont wet nicely and the bead will always look dirty until you learn hygiene before you strive for penetration..... filthy child. http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/articles/common-TIG-GTAW-welding-problems-visual-guide-graphic if the weld pool is hardening when you dip the filler then use a thinner filler rod, how thin a bead is he asking you to produce? tricky to tell from the pics but how thick is the plate you are working on? Zoltan - Ive got a fully stacked Miller Aerowave and it makes tricky stuff almost childsplay although 90% of the time I just leave the rig set to basic, the 10% when Nasa is needed is still worth its weight in gold (to me anyway). The bells and whistles rock, but only in circumstances that call for them, high freq pulsing for very thin guage is the dogs mellons and out of position work, DC pulsing can work wonders with casts that leach. Pre-prog'd pulse is the lazy way to perfect bead formation and makes single handed stainless pipe welding something so easy our 16 year old workshop lurker can do it. I also have a tiddly Fronious invertor tig plant for little jobs but I still subscribe to the theory that welders should be bought by weight - Ive never been sold on the lifespan of an invertor unit unless it had the right label on the side. Gucci mask, Prada gloves, Galliano rods - welder by Miller

humming keeps you breathing - lots of people tense up. random ramblings that may or may not help; always try to get your body into a position that allows two things; 1 clear vision of the weld as it comes towards you , 2 allows your gun hand to travel the length of the workpiece in a single sweep (comfortablly and preferably with "off job" support if poss.). Once you leave a bench and weld in the wild all of those luxuries go out the window but with a bit of effort you can make your life a shed load easier and the results will show it. Listen to the process; sound will tell you lots, fizzles, squeels and whines will help provide additional feedback as to whats happening, experiment with arc length, contaminated or dirty workpieces, poor earth, insufficient/too much gas and listen to the change in sound - it will help. You also need to play with balance and frequency and note the results, a posh rig with independant Pos and Neg values adds another layer of control that you need to fiddle with. if you are on the pedal then dial up the lowest "max value" on the rig, this will keep the closest possible resolution between pedal travel and current. Clean clean clean, dont just remove ferric oxide but also degrease using acetone (in a perfect world) or brake/carb cleaner (yes, I know the risks) in the cost driven world. A scotchpad buffing wheel on a cordless drill is a wonderfull thing for ally. Ally is alive, it moves and has a character to it, you need to play in order to tune ya swede into its quirks Best advice "off gun" is grab a 1mm or 1.2mm rod and keep it with you, practice feeding it while you watch telly or sit in traffic. practice practice practice you need to be fast and precise with it, start with precise - speed comes with practice. Work up to partially conscious overhead welding backhand, wrong handed using a mirror later (ask fridge)

Ive got some, but they're mostly of vegetables that look like genitals, or is it the other way round Its Niges thread, Ill shuffle off and have a brew, give it a short while and I can do some less secret playing

meh, I just blob stuff together and sometimes it stays stuck the old fart knows he's welcome to trundle over to play as long as he brings nibbles a bit 'o glue and some bashin an bobs a relative

Clean the workpiece before you start Nige, fresh grind on the 'trode, keep your gloves clean, clean the filler rod - basically if everything its not clean enough to lick then dont tig it. Get some exhaust wrap as well and make a finger shield (of use a high heat robo glove on your torch hand), hum a tune while you weld.

wow, well that was an entertaining reaction, shiny, very shiny Pete - bring on the playground name calling if you like, if it makes you feel better then have a field day, you can call us disney or bunch of spanners or make references to biscuits, there must be so many more... its satire so biting I can barely take it... please, show mercy Petal was 88", Mouse was a bit longer, Fridge likes 109 (he's sick) Kim likes 69, but doesnt limit himself to gender....... or species come to think about it Sounds like a plan Nick - good luck with the build

[Micheal Winner voice] calm down dear..[/Micheal Winner voice] I was merely trying to work out how much these companies in Western europe charge for a turn key buggy because its something we are comtemplating doing on a professional basis. We build on budget and on time, we have NEVER missed a deadline yet and despite having no shakedown time our stuff doesnt break. I have no issue with "bought not built" because those that buy provide a living for those that build - simple. But.. if you want to get into a Morrisey'esqe downer contest about mortality then mark myself, everyone I know and pretty much 99% of the population down as "sub-mortals" we simply cant affort to blow 100k on a toy. If that provides some form of moral highground for you then knock yourself out and enjoy the view, because quite frankly I genuinely dont give a monkeys . Im proud to be a member of a team, we punch way above our weight because we pull together, if you are asking me to feel bad being in that position then forget it Im sure Laras bang on and you did lots of driving, that makes the cost even more interesting, but that comment leaves me even more intreagued, why did you have to? To answer your weight question, thats easy - we are a race team, competitive advantages are hard won and easily lost. so big hugs, you like it - thats all that matters

Nah, building new stuff, seriously though - thats not light by a long shot. But I guess its not an issue for you because you're not allowed out East? Did you pay a lot for it? My wife said something about you making reference to Western European "bought not built" straight axled buggies costing 60-100k and I thought she must have been on the gin thats gotta be pony surely?

hmm, sorry to hear that Pete, I had kinda hoped that the fugly was a trade off for light I dont know about UK stuff but anything longer than about 105" out east is a logging truck, regardless of 4 wheel steer - they simply cannot drive forest fast enough.

stop, apply sweetcorn, cook till lightly suntanned

if you want a good teacher then Frank at BETA (in Basingstoke) is another one of Georges boys (it means he's good), if you need a crash course I can get you up and rocking in a couple of hours

Paramo No3 going cheap

Jodrell bank monitor Dans new axles..

looking sweeeeet Eric! get it shipped over and come play? Jez

Petal never skipped a beat, water gets in, water gets out

why would a Lexus blow a head gasket Daan? but the answer to your question would be St Pete, anything Jap is available there, conversely the Landrover main dealer promised he can get parts "sometimes in under 3 weeks" yay........... relying on other competitors to hand over the parts they know are potential failure points on thier own vehicle to keep yours running is at best, chancing it, add in the fact that ANY landrover part costs multiples of what they do here and it becomes a lot easier to understand. Personally I go with the premis of "in places where spares are tricky to find use a bombproof motor" (theres no dealers for any make of vehicle in the woods), landrover motors seem to autodismantle almost everywhere! For the race car we dont take any head gaskets, water pumps, pushrods, rockers etc, we also carry no spare diffs, halfshafts, alternators etc etc etc thats based on experience as well Im not advocating one motor over another - merely suggesting that expensive isnt always right and landrover motors are not the ultimate pinacle of engineering in terms or performance, weight, strength, reliability and spares availability

Petal evo stood me in at less than most of the UK boys spend on thier front winch setups and it was a ballistically fast car, not because it had super turbo anything - it just worked as package and you kept your foot down when others backed off. It had a 210,000mile, £50, 2.8 Isuzu (with a series of cheap and simple violations performed on it) under the bonnet. 4.2 cruiser is a boat anchor in a race car IMO, great engine otherwise. Lexus - it was easy, the early models had 1 ECU for the motor and another for the transmission, later units integrated both functions into 1 ECU. Even thats not tricky - its a motor, suck squeeze, bang blow, megasquirt would drive it, Lexus forums are a wealth of information, TLC transmission will hook up shove a pair of turbos on sized to give 4-6psi from the bass end and you wont be short of stomp, I was bored at work and priced a self built, cheapskate, twin turbo Lex up to be just under £1k. 5.7 SBC - way sensible, every tuning part known to man available (and cheaply at that), cheap transmissions with usuable ratios limited to mostly autos, Gaz 66 or volvo 303 transfer box makes cheap and strong, octane booster will be your friend, injection is simple - they will run at very silly angles then. You're right about LPG, it would be suicide. Supra 6 banger, turbo or not - monster strong. VAG1.9 sensible up to Tr3, not enough grunt for big tyres Forget the carb verses injection bit - the only reason people field fix carbs is because they break in the field, injection wins hands down. I'd seriously reconsider using 404 axles though (if at all possible), toooo heavy. factor in "grey weights" (driver, navigator, fuel loads, emergency rations, fire extinguishers, winches, recovery kit, dry kit, tools etc etc) and the ability to loose lard from something as straightforward as a different axle choice becomes very tempting, 404s will further compound sprung vs unsprung ratios and make suspension tuning "entertaining", there are no fast trophy trucks with 404s under them that Im aware of. I dont understand your point about building a specialist truck, just swap wheels and tyres and enter whatever you like, theres no reason why a portal car cant be considerably lighter and the same width as a standard defender, just get busy with the bacon slicer

lexus 4.0 £275 on ebay the other day including loom and ECU, happy running standalone, easy to tune the t*ts out of, bullet proof Jag nicosil liners - cure it with aptec. Rover, take lots of spares because you wont find anywhere that sells them in countries where you'll need them

perhaps a step back from the engine bit? just a suggestion but the answer might come from a different approach its an unfashionable concept but reverse engineering has a lot going for it - work out exactly what you want the car to do, what kind of environment it needs to operate in (and not just the geography), how you want to operate it and for how long at a time, whos going to be fixing it (and where), etc etc dont forget to consider what class you want to compete it! (class rules can affect projects!) personally I find it a lot easier to build something when I know what the end result is going to be Think about real estate needed (measure stuff!) and how the whole car will work as a single entity (a monkey frame with no doors, no cab space and switches you can only use when stationary would be a prime example) Spend a heap of time "virtually" building it in your head (and a notepad), explore every option in terms of drivetrain, suspension, cooling, winches, cup holders and cigarette storage and then try to knock each option to bits with pro's and con's - the winner is the idea that survives. Using this process never wastes time and always saves money only you know what you want out of it - build it to suit you and enjoy the process!

go cheap, go strong, go Jap or US, dont go big diesel - forget tuned diesel! (you get combat survivability and more control with a manual btw )

welding stainless to mild in a potentially high stress application isnt groovy - its banned practice in nuclear welding due to carbon migration leading to fracture points A15 or A18 rods are cheap and easy to get Weldmet LINKY hope that helps

they'll be ok on skinny rims for an alternative supplier try Albert at Super Swamper Europe

are they still using those 5.3 cast iron vortec motors?

its a nice easy job - not a problem if you want it done, real chaos at the lab doesnt start till after tour

pull the manifold off, send it down - I'll cut the original inlet off and weld it up, cut a hole in the top of the manifold, spin a 3" spout and weld it to the top. easy solution? if that works chuck a donation into Help for Heroes and call it quits