I’m not an expert on welding but my wife does goldsmithing and blacksmithing and for those things you must wear 100% cotton, no cotton blends or fully synthetic fiber clothing. I can’t imagine that welding is any different, so be careful with hoodies and pullovers, many are blends.
As Panfried says, cotton only. No blends, no artificial fibers. The ONLY exception is if it’s an artificial fiber rated for flame resistance, IE, Kevlar - but kevlar gear is a long way off for you yet. But other than that, yeah, long-sleeve shirts work in a pinch. If you don’t have anything that’s fully cotton, you should be able to get some cotton drill workwear pretty cheap from the local industry(like, any industry, not just welding) supply place, and a lot of hardware stores. If you can’t, let me know, I have an inside track, I’ll put you in touch with a supplier.
If you wear a hoodie, though, obviously it’s gonna get wicked hot, so remember to hydrate and take breaks. Your welder isn’t the only thing with a duty cycle.
Hey, back when I was welding regularly, I was pretty tanned and cut, I’m not ashamed to say that in just Gloves, helmet, and apron, the burning metal wasn’t the only reason I looked hot as hell.
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Duly noted, though I’m guessing that some of the long sleeve shirts I’ve got in mind are in fact 100% cotton. Either way I’m glad I’m now gonna check that.
As to keeping myself hydrated I’m generally on that, though it reminds me of a dumb thing I did that I forgot to mention during the making of the sword, specifically the electrolysis.
I was all set up in my garage which, while not air conditioned, is directly above the concrete foundation and proper indoors and so is quite cool and set to work setting up the saline solution and the electrodes. Once I had the process going I popped on my phone to read more about it.
About halfway through my study I learned that in my case, the gas produced was a mixture of hydrogen and chlorine gas (with the sodium bonding with the metal being pulled out of the sword).
I flipped the fuck out and opened the garage and got the hell out of that room. I initially thought the only gas would be hydrogen. I began the process again a while later outside and in the blazing heat. All of a sudden hydration became a priority and somewhere on my tiny bench there was a cold beverage condensating all over something or another that I didn’t want water on. Had to make a few beverage runs back into the house.
I am finishing that damn sword today, mark my words. If I don’t my shame will be here.
Edit: I made things today. Namely sanded, cut, drilled, pinned and epoxied the handle of the sword from earlier. It’s curing now.
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I need to take some decent photos of my bike and its new setup…
One good day later and it’s done. It’s ametureish and I see all the little (and huge) flaws, but at some point ya gotta cut and ship. Ladies and gentlemen and anyone else who have been following along, I give you, Hrotti
Carcassonne for size, also if ya want a close up of any bit lemme know, I give it away on Monday.
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So, today’s adventures.
I had issues with my compressors. One, broken elbow fitting in the block, easy to solve, we can manage that. The other, I thought, even easier to solve, the drain valve on the other compressor was stuck open, so it needed to be pulled out and replaced. Easy done, I throw a wrench on the fitting, spin it out, put in a new one.
As is the way of things, this is not what happened.
First, no matter what wrench, socket, or pair of hardcore extraction pliers I put on it, it just rounded off until it was entirely circular. Filed new flats on it, it just rounded them off again. Okay, fair enough. Got the grinder out, slapped a deathwheel on, cut a slot, and tried to torque it out with a screwdriver. No good, slot keeps chipping out and slipping the screwdriver. Okay, let’s get serious. re-cut the slot with a thicker wheel, put a bit of flatbar in, and the head of it just snapped right off. Well then. So, got the small hand-files out, filed two interior slots, formed a tool on the end of the flatbar with my power file…it chips out again and again, no good.
Okay, so that’s the way you want to play. Filed down the slots to the tops of the threads, took a quick measurement, and drilled it out with a blanking drill to the tops of the threads. Cleared all the leftover brass in the threads by chasing it out with a 1/4 inch BSP tap - after a little wriggling, slipping and cursing, it finally pulled a small section of brass free on one side, bit deep, and cleared all that garbage out like magic, even used a thicker, stickier cutting oil, so that the chips wouldn’t fall into the tank, which worked great. Finally finished! two and a half hours of fucking around with it, and it’s finally done, the thread is clean and neat as a pin, it’s all ready for the final step, bit of thread tape, screw in the new drain valve, re-fill the oil, and she’s good to go.
Fucking bought the wrong size fitting, didn’t I. Measured the exterior diameter, forgot to do the internal diameter calculation, and bought a 3/8" drain valve when I needed a 1/4".
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Cool! Speakers are always a fun project.
I found this pattern and I think I will make it from scrap yarn to have some very funky sheep. Not for a while though, since I’m currently working on making something to replace the hat I lost last winter…
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Such a nice sheepy.
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I’ve been on a huge knitting bug. Been making loop fringe scarves for friends and myself.
Now working on an infinity cowl with three colors. Using a basic pattern and customizing my scarf/cowl for how long/large I want it to be.
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I always admire people who are good at knitting. It’s a skill I’ve just never picked up, and you can make some extremely impressive things, as our knitting type people here - like Nuri, Ro, and No_Fun_Girl - have regularly shown. Working with fabric and yarn always seems simple from the outside, but there’s a reason that some uni lecturers use them to help teach advanced engineering and math.
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Awe, I loved that I’ve learned to knit/crochet on my own. It’s seriously great after a long day of work, where my mind is racing full of thoughts. Knitting relaxes me while I either watch TV, listen to an audiobook/podcast. Keeps my hands busy while being productive. I love making gifts for people because it’s nice knowing you can create something that people can use.
But yes, it’s fucking math. Gauging your work is important. Knowing the weight of your yarn and needles sizes is so important. Here is some calculating I had to do on trying to figure out how to add more to a pattern (make it larger) and both the edging and center pieces had different pattern lengths. Had to do some math, but figured it out eventually.
I don’t even know what I did after looking at that page.
You’re too kind. I crochet. hahaha
I’m reckless and just do things on the fly. Usually that means I undo a lot of stitches 
And then when I’m done, I have no idea what I did, exactly…
What I really want is a CAD program that will let me create patterns for complex 3D shapes, because I don’t want to figure it out myself.
Well, I’m thinking of buying a wood lathe. Anyone got a compelling reason not to? 400W, max bed length of 1000mm, max rotating diameter of 350mm, and the bed is two-part so that you can break it down for storage. Just a little baby lathe, but I feel the need to start turning stuff again, even if it’s just bits of tree corpses.
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Got a great idea for a Christmas gift. For our holiday this year Laura and I drove around the entire UK stopping at specific landmarks. So I’ve ordered a canvas map of the UK and I’m going to sew a thick red thread over the route we took. We called it the North to South.
Years ago we did a day we call East to West. On the summer solstice we started on the East coast, watched the sun rise, and travelled to the west coast in wales and (nearly) watched the sun set. We got an extra half hour of daylight just by driving west!
So I’ll put that on there too, I still have the google maps data.
It could say “North to South, East to West, something something never rest”…
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I made a things. They are nuno zouri made from old fleece pants and worn out tank tops, to keep my feet warm in the house.
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That’s a really good idea! I wouldn’t have thought to use Fleece pants like that, if I’ve gold old clothes, they tend to get cut up(or specifically, I cut the seams out) and they go in the rag bag. Making warm sandals would have never occurred to me.
Also, minor side note, I did end up buying that lathe, so after I fix the small oversight that I sold all my old lathe tooling with my last woodlathe, expect more posts here as I wrack my brain trying to remember how to turn wood again.
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