nic55kel Posted May 14, 2022 Author Share Posted May 14, 2022 Beautiful car! And yes, it took me a couple of days of driving to get back in the swing of things. But it was worse when coming back home. Apparently you let your guard down when "home" and think you know it. I found myself on the wrong side of the road the first time I drove back in the States. This has been the worst Spring for many many years. First the snow and then the rain, things are just starting to dry up now. Picture is of a bridge over the river on the main highway to North Dakota as of this morning. You can almost make out the top of the railings on the side. Floodwise we are fine where we are but we did have a culvert wash out nearby on a well used road. Hopefully I can get started on getting the cylinder head done soon. I had inguinal hernia repair surgery in February and still have to take it a bit easy. Can't be throwing that 70lb. head around. In the meantime I have been working on getting my MIG welder set up. Price of 25% CO2 and even 100% CO2 gas at the welding store is expensive. But if one goes to the fire extinguisher place the gas is much cheaper and quite often they have refurbed cylinders for sale too. So I am going to give it a go with 100% CO2. Just needed to get an adapter from the CO2 bottle to the regulator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 This has been the worst Spring for many many years. First the snow and then the rain, things are just starting to dry up now. Picture is of a bridge over the river on the main highway to North Dakota as of this morning. You can almost make out the top of the railings on the side. Floodwise we are fine where we are but we did have a culvert wash out nearby on a well used road. Hopefully I can get started on getting the cylinder head done soon. I had inguinal hernia repair surgery in February and still have to take it a bit easy. Can't be throwing that 70lb. head around. In the meantime I have been working on getting my MIG welder set up. Price of 25% CO2 and even 100% CO2 gas at the welding store is expensive. But if one goes to the fire extinguisher place the gas is much cheaper and quite often they have refurbed cylinders for sale too. So I am going to give it a go with 100% CO2. Just needed to get an adapter from the CO2 bottle to the regulator. Wow! That's a lot of water! Glad you are safe. And you are right, after that surgery you need to take it easy. That head is way too much. Be careful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nic55kel Posted May 17, 2022 Author Share Posted May 17, 2022 Wow! That's a lot of water! Glad you are safe. And you are right, after that surgery you need to take it easy. That head is way too much. Be careful! Well we are past the peak of the flood but it will be a long time before the clean-up is finished. Hasn't affected us much other than travel but we know people it has. If you want to live on a flood plain don't be too surprised when it does. I have pretty much completed my MIG buggy and I am very happy with how the CO2 bottle works out for fit and size. 10lbs CO2 ~ 88 cu. ft. of gas. Just have to do a bit of clean up on it and then the paint. Didn't put the welder on yet as it weighs over 50lbs and I don't plan on lifting it on and off any more than I have to. Its built mostly out of bed frame scrap angle iron. Not too heavy but very sturdy. I have been watching Fitzee's fabrication videos and this guy gets me excited about body work. For anyone interested in body repair I strongly recommend watching several of his videos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 Well we are past the peak of the flood but it will be a long time before the clean-up is finished. Hasn't affected us much other than travel but we know people it has. If you want to live on a flood plain don't be too surprised when it does. I have pretty much completed my MIG buggy and I am very happy with how the CO2 bottle works out for fit and size. 10lbs CO2 ~ 88 cu. ft. of gas. Just have to do a bit of clean up on it and then the paint. Didn't put the welder on yet as it weighs over 50lbs and I don't plan on lifting it on and off any more than I have to. Its built mostly out of bed frame scrap angle iron. Not too heavy but very sturdy. I have been watching Fitzee's fabrication videos and this guy gets me excited about body work. For anyone interested in body repair I strongly recommend watching several of his videos. Glad you didn't have damage, but sorry for those who did. Must be devastating. The cart looks great! And bed rail is one of my favorite materials. Very strong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 Glad you didn't have damage, but sorry for those who did. Must be devastating. The cart looks great! And bed rail is one of my favorite materials. Very strong! How did you cut the bed frame as I think a hack saw did nothing but knock some paint off. Not many would use CO2 as a gas. My first gas was also CO2 as a much larger tank than yours fell off a truck. It worked pretty good for what I used it on but when I started welding sheet metal I went Argon gas. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nic55kel Posted May 19, 2022 Author Share Posted May 19, 2022 How did you cut the bed frame as I think a hack saw did nothing but knock some paint off. Not many would use CO2 as a gas. My first gas was also CO2 as a much larger tank than yours fell off a truck. It worked pretty good for what I used it on but when I started welding sheet metal I went Argon gas. Dave ---- Hi Dave, I cut the steel on my little band saw, so very little heat. I understand that CO2 is less forgiving than an argon mix but here it is about 1/4 the cost so I figure I will give it a try. It has to be better than 1/16 6011 which is what I use at the moment on sheet metal. The work you have done on your flareside is very impressive. Fitzee the guy in the link in my previous post does all his bodywork with CO2 and his videos are the best I have seen on how to do sheet metal work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 Hi Dave, I cut the steel on my little band saw, so very little heat. I understand that CO2 is less forgiving than an argon mix but here it is about 1/4 the cost so I figure I will give it a try. It has to be better than 1/16 6011 which is what I use at the moment on sheet metal. The work you have done on your flareside is very impressive. Fitzee the guy in the link in my previous post does all his bodywork with CO2 and his videos are the best I have seen on how to do sheet metal work. Wow band saw, a hand hack saw would not touch the frame I had, must of been different metal mix? CO2 is a lot better than flux core wire because you can get thinner wire than you can of flux core. Also you dont have all the weld splatter you then have to clean up. If I was in the middle of welding and ran out of Argon I would hook up the CO2 as the tank is sitting in the corner just in case its needed. All the welding on my drag car, rear axle tubes to the center, beef up the leaf spring mounts and fix the rust and open up the rear wheel openings for slicks was done with CO2 gas. Thanks on the truck work. I hope it helps others to get going on their projects or copy something I did for theirs. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nic55kel Posted May 19, 2022 Author Share Posted May 19, 2022 Wow band saw, a hand hack saw would not touch the frame I had, must of been different metal mix? CO2 is a lot better than flux core wire because you can get thinner wire than you can of flux core. Also you dont have all the weld splatter you then have to clean up. If I was in the middle of welding and ran out of Argon I would hook up the CO2 as the tank is sitting in the corner just in case its needed. All the welding on my drag car, rear axle tubes to the center, beef up the leaf spring mounts and fix the rust and open up the rear wheel openings for slicks was done with CO2 gas. Thanks on the truck work. I hope it helps others to get going on their projects or copy something I did for theirs. Dave ---- My band saw had no trouble cutting it. Has what is known as a bi-metal blade on it. Maybe you had a different type of bed frame. All the bed iron I have worked with has been easy to work with. I look for it and other steel I can use at garage sales etc. Once I have tried CO2 I will let you know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nic55kel Posted May 25, 2022 Author Share Posted May 25, 2022 My band saw had no trouble cutting it. Has what is known as a bi-metal blade on it. Maybe you had a different type of bed frame. All the bed iron I have worked with has been easy to work with. I look for it and other steel I can use at garage sales etc. Once I have tried CO2 I will let you know how it goes. Well finished up my MIG cart and I have been practising. I have never tried 25% CO2/argon mix so I have nothing to compare straight CO2 with but I am finding it quite nice on sheet metal - 20 gauge. Much easier than flux core. Have had to learn to keep the nozzle close to the work to keep a good gas shield but very controllable and nice to stitch weld with. Time to get started on the truck again. I have been thinking about how to clean out all the gunk in the intake. I think a hot tank is the answer. I have lots of old contaminated gas and diesel as a source of heat and just need to weld up a tank that will accommodate the intake without being excessively large. I have thrown together a burner and it works very well. Puts out enough heat that I can forge steel so that is handy too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 Well finished up my MIG cart and I have been practising. I have never tried 25% CO2/argon mix so I have nothing to compare straight CO2 with but I am finding it quite nice on sheet metal - 20 gauge. Much easier than flux core. Have had to learn to keep the nozzle close to the work to keep a good gas shield but very controllable and nice to stitch weld with. Time to get started on the truck again. I have been thinking about how to clean out all the gunk in the intake. I think a hot tank is the answer. I have lots of old contaminated gas and diesel as a source of heat and just need to weld up a tank that will accommodate the intake without being excessively large. I have thrown together a burner and it works very well. Puts out enough heat that I can forge steel so that is handy too. The cart looks great. But that burner looks awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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