FridgeFreezer

OMEM manual says it likely uses TPS for load unless it's boosted. MS uses MAP, it only uses TPS as a throttle pump.

I used Inkscape for the last one I did - it's a free open source vector drawing package. There's free circuit/schematic software out there, KiCad gets a lot of support from the hobby crowd.

Vacuum, throttle position, and engine load are related but not the same, you couldn't paste that map into MS without some fiddling.

Yep - the planet gears in diffs are made to take up the small/slow difference in speed when turning a corner or a brief wheel slip so they are (relatively) under-sized - the LT230 centre is a prime example and it's not very well lubricated I believe. What this means is if you spin a wheel really fast or drive for miles with wrong-size tyres etc. you're making the little weak gears spin all the time and get a lot hotter / deplete their oil supply at which point something's going to go bang. This is why LR manuals and the sticker on the dash says to lock the centre diff "if traction is likely to be lost".

Unlikely, there's enough variables in a mechanical gauge too.

Aye, heavier is a LOT easier as it can take a lot more heat and you don't *need* to be as accurate to get something that looks like a weld - thin stuff is always a knife-edge of blowing a hole, and (so far) hole filling with TIG is a lot harder than the squirty MIG gun

Load on the left, RPM along the bottom. You'll need to jigger the numbers into MS as it uses MAP (Vacuum) vs RPM for its map but this is certainly a very useful starting point.

Yep - only issue is all the parts places being closed & not wanting to spend vast sums of cash on it.

Well, currently EV conversions (or EVs at all) don't really stack up for daily use but a classic that only does a bit of bimbling around and is cheap, reliable, silent and powerful is quite attractive - electric motors are amazingly good as a power plant but just let down by current generation of batteries. I'd EV swap my whole fleet in a heartbeat if batteries could match a tank of petrol for energy storage.

Had to share this... we're sat on the sofa eating tea, watching Car SOS welding up a BMW 2002 and they show the finished weld and both of us look at each other and go "Ugh, that's nasty!" she's definitely learned some stuff then

The 4x4 response groups have their own insurance precisely for this, it's one of the positives of it being organised. Also, I would think "helping the community in a crisis" is one fairly good way of showing people that 4x4 owners aren't all dicks. Part of the reason for signing up was that a local hospital trust were sending out requests to owners & clubs to essentially do the job of 4x4 response but without the "risk" of having to pay the 50p/mile or whatever they can claim - but they still expected our club to send "vetted trusted people" and organise a central point of contact, callout number, etc. etc... which I thought was just cheeky. Anyway, I'm giving it a go, see what happens, if it's a muppet-fest I'll walk as there seems to be a lot of ad-hoc stuff via social media these days, it's worse from an insurance/liability point of view but if it helps people out, fair enough.

I have noticed ali is incredibly sensitive to the oxide layer forming, and of course that forms in seconds on bare ali. Even just picking a fresh clean rod out of the tube rather than the dull one that's been sat on the bench made a difference. Also very much finding that going in hotter and moving quickly is better on ali, otherwise by the time you've got a puddle going the workpiece has gone like T-1000 and starts dribbling off the bench

Not sure Basingstoke has a SAR service, we're devoid of rugged coastline, precipitous mountains or misty moors Totally get the comments about some of the types 4x4 response attracts, but my view is that they are at least an organised point of contact for when support is needed, and I'll do anything to NOT have to go on bl**dy Facebook to find out who needs a hand! The chappy did look a bit bemused when I arrived for the vehicle & kit check in the 109, I guess it doesn't have enough amber beacons and I couldn't in good conscience tick the box for "suspension lift" on their sign-up form as it is of course standard height

Had a spare moment in the shed today so fired up the TIG and plugged in the foot pedal to have a go - after I'd worked out to switch it to AC for ali and enable the foot pedal current control it came out quite well, definitely easier to keep it under control as you get near the end although I'm still not going to win any awards for stacking dimes! This was ~2mm ali, I thought I'd tempt fate and revisit my previous nemesis of 1mm ali... OK it's just running a bead along a folded edge so it's way easier than a joint but I'll take it!

Well they certainly talk big, should go down well with the American "heavy dooty" market if not the refined Europeans... ineos.mp4

A noble cause indeed! For those who haven't, I'd suggest looking at joining your local 4x4 response group - if nothing else it's a fairly well organised group that are structured toward being called on to help out in difficult times.

"With difficulty" basically the college machines have quite chunky torches as I guess they're teaching heavier industrial stuff to the BTEC lot or possibly just need idiot-proof gear - my home torch is smaller & lighter even though it's 160A water-cooled, and the lead is more flexi. H having quite dainty hands finds it difficult to grapple the thing into a comfortable position but I think the tutor got her into the swing of it eventually - we ALL found that TIG is VERY sensitive to torch position, height, and angle as you're very finely controlling what's going to melt, a bit like pointing a laser but the laser is mounted at an angle on the end of a big unwieldy snake of cables I was finding a definite knack to getting the exact angle where the edges of the material would both melt evenly at a point a little ahead of the torch - tutor calls it a keyhole shape of molten metal, I might call it a horse-shoe, but that's what you aim for and then you have to poke the filler into the middle of the "U" to make a nice little blob. I even found a picture of it...

Maybe this would help?

Well it looks like last night will have been the final night although the tutor did say he'd try and get us back if possible. Given the situation he basically threw it open and said "practice what you want to practice", chopped up a load more test pieces and roamed around helping people with whatever they needed. H spent the evening a little frustrated at getting the coordination right for TIG but I think she made progress, the overly heavy torches and thin filler definitely make it less easy than it could be. I started with a "little job" to do... Tutor had copied a TIG torch stand design off t'internet, got the BTEC engineering stoodents to cut the shapes out and he threw this one at me to tack to the bench hopefully it's not too ugly. As this was going to be the last chance, I asked for a crack at aluminium and was granted a pile of test pieces and rods plus a quick demo; The three welds together are same settings but different frequencies - short one is 100Hz, next is 150Hz, the fat one is 50Hz. It's a small difference on a fairly big torch like this (3.2mm tungsten) but you can see it. So, my attempt... In some ways the ali was easier - certainly a nice fat filler rod was easier to handle, and you can see the shiny molten pool easy enough - but heat is a major issue! When you start off it takes a fair bit to get heat into it (tacking is tricky) but once you're half way across it's running away from you and splurging out - and if you run a 2nd bead straight after it's suddenly VERY different and you gotta move FAST! Let's try a T fillet... I think not enough amps but it went surprisingly well - I'l take it! Let's throw a few more out... I mean, they're all stuck together - cleanliness definitely makes a BIG difference, the pieces were plastic-protected one side and scabby the other, and once the scabby oxide layer forms it's like the skin on a rice pudding, you're melting what's underneath and just making a mess! 3 in a row showing how the result changes as the plate heats up - same settings each time! This one the plate went like soggy tissue paper after the 2nd bead, possibly because it was hanging over the end of the large ali block; Oxidised like hell too, I guess from heat + air Running more beads on a previous piece which had a bit more heat capaccity due to being several bits joined together: You can see I got 3 very similar results in a row with that - ali is VERY sensitive to heat build-up then! The scummy side of the metal; Welded OK all things considered but definitely not "how it's done". This might be one of my better ones of the evening: And this one, knocked out as closing time approached, is definitely the nicest I've done: Shame it's just a straight bead on a flat bit of ali

On the course they have a load of big chunks of ali + steel kicking around, if you're doing steel you can work on a lump of ali, if you're doing ali you can work on a lump of steel - brass or copper also work for both, natch. Big lumps are also very handy for weighing stuff down, propping bits up, and general work holding. 1mm is very thin, most of the bits we've done have been 1.5mm at least, it's far easier for learning on if it doesn't melt away.

You jest, but it's probably fairly doable...

Nope, the 1mm rods are just what the college had - TBH I get the impression that they struggle with the financial department to order appropriate consumables in a timely manner, I guess like any institution with an accounting department! Chances are someone looked at welding rods and decided the 1mm ones were better value because you get so many more of them in a pack I've found 2.4mm rods are waaay easer as they're easer to grip for feeding but also you only need to feed a little dab each time not 20mm of it! The tungstens in the rig I'm using are 3.2mm, others are 2.4, not sure how much effect it has really for the average user - my home rig is on 2.4mm. I honestly don't think it's worth getting hung up on details like that for learning though - I dare say you could achieve similar results with a 1.6mm, 2.4mm or 3.2mm tungsten and with 1mm or 3mm rods, just like you can MIG the same joint with 0.6mm wire or 1.2mm wire absolutely fine, you just adjust your feeds & speeds a bit to compensate. There's no "golden" combination of bits & settings that leads to amazing and perfect welding, it's a big grey area where a big range of stuff is absolutely fine and it's just down to you & your hands/eyes/ears to hook it up. For 99% of stuff the most common consumables will be cheapest and therefore likely the best option, very few of us here will ever do anything that requires anything more special.

That's a damn good reading suggestion for anyone in LoFi's position. Eeeh it's all getting a bit philosophical round here

I somehow doubt a 4.x V8 in an 88 will be sluggish

As in, the gear that drives the timing chain broke?