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1

General Discussion Area / Re: Anyone need a courier? Braintree - Bristol

« on: 16 May 2015, 00:51:43 »

Lol, when I was last there (2years ago) there wasn't that much in the shed's'....!

2

General Discussion Area / Anyone need a courier? Braintree - Bristol

« on: 15 May 2015, 21:33:30 »

Hi all, Tomorrow I am driving from Braintree to Bristol & back in a transit.

If anyone needs anything collecting or delivering PM me ASAP

 

3

General Discussion Area / Re: Nutella Heath and Safety Alert

« on: 24 February 2015, 20:32:47 »

...store in a cool 'dark' place...

4

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 14 February 2015, 23:05:26 »

Just out of interest as a cat owner, why a full cage rather than the bars you buy for the headrest area?

Well two reasons. Firstly, when we walk them the dogs rather enjoy a lake or river to play in - this is usually a muddy one. Once finished the cage will have a plastic cover to prevent mud flying everywhere when they shake, (they usually wait until they are 'in' the car to shake!) secondly I've just spent lots of money on a new car and intend to keep it protected from 'dog-damage'

5

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 14 February 2015, 22:35:15 »

UPDATE

Given the nice weather today I managed to get a bit more done 

Back and sides now finished



Started working on the front, the center section will be where the door will go. (not yet figured out what type/operation of door I'll make yet!)



Finished off the other front section and sprayed the whole thing with self-etching primer (this will also prevent anything rusting)



The roof panel is yet to be welded but I thought I'd leave the cage in the 'dog room' so they can get used to it - leaving the roof section off for now should make the dogs feel a little easier getting used to it.



Sugar (German Shepherd) can easilly stand and get in & out. Honey, (the black Lab) is smaller so has no problem!



They are getting used to it already! Enough room for them to both lay down (phew!)



I'll update the thread during the week/next weekend once the roof is on and the door is fabricated.

Rob 

6

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 11 February 2015, 20:55:51 »

Coming along nicely , well done 

Cheers - Weather forcast for essex is (currently) good this weekend so fingers crossed I can crack on with it 

7

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 11 February 2015, 20:54:59 »

Are those strapping hooks in the boot? Maybe an idea to weld something to your dog cage which enables you to keep the cage secure

Yep - Thats the plan. The ideal cage (for me) is one that doesn't rattle over bumps etc so hopefully I'll make something up.
 

8

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 10 February 2015, 22:14:17 »

Yeah that's spot on mate. . . If the steel around it bends and your welds don't break then that's good enough. Obviously that's not acceptable for something critical but for a woofer cart I'd say that was spot on.

Out of interest did you not mess up at all? You must be a natural cos I know it took me about 5 hours approx. to get my beads looking acceptable 

Well if I'm honest my beeds are not great when left exposed. I know that using flux core leaves a mess'er finish but I wouldn't stand and show off my beeds at the moment! I had an hours practice and a handful of 'youtube' tutorials to aid my learning. the dog cage is a project that'll be 'covered over' as in welds being ground down & painted. If my welds were ever to be left exposed than I'd have to invest in a gas bottle and many hours in the 'man-shed'

I'm very pleased with my first go at welding and I'm sure I'll move on to bigger and better projects!

9

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 10 February 2015, 21:45:46 »

Looking good mate. Did you do much practising before embarking on the dog cage?

Cheers, I did indeed. I carried out some simple seem welds and lap welds - mainly to play with amp settings and wire feed speed. The welding of the mesh to the angle stuff is more like spot-welding but they are holding well enough so far. I had to break one of mitre welds and ended up bending the steel either side of the weld so that'll do me!

Cheers

10

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 10 February 2015, 20:34:36 »

Well thanks to all of you for your help so far. I brought the Clarke 140amp gas/no-gas welder and have been using it without gas (flux-core wire) and I'm very pleased. I know I'm not actually 'MIG' welding as I'm not using gas, more Arc welding but nonetheless I'm getting the results. Using 2mm angled mild steel & 2mm welded wire mesh the dog cage is taking shape!

I'm having to grind my welds flat as firstly, they are not that great yet! and secondly once it's finished it'll be powder coated so I need a smooth finish.

so.....
Square frame welded with Mitres and one of the side walls done.



Getting the angles right as I want to maximise the surface area of the boot for when the dogs are laying down.



Both side walls finished and the rear brace in place







I keep sliding it in and out the car to ensure nothing is out of place and to make sure it is removable!



Weather permitting I can manage another few hours at it this weekend and I'll update photos from there.

Again - thanks for the help & advice!

Rob 

11

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 02 February 2015, 22:16:05 »

thanks all for your comments. I have breathing mask & face/head/eye mask with an auto-dimming function that works very well.

I've laid quite a few welds on scrap bits and I am getting fairly good results.

Thanks for the 'wire speed tip' managed to get a much better seem after using my ears to hear the sound difference.

I see that galvanised fumes are deadly!! I'll be grinding the coating off as best as possible in the areas I'll be welding. Most of the welds will be spot weld as I'll be using a lot of welded-wire-mesh for the walls.

I'll be starting the dog cage the weekend so will take photos and post here.

Thanks!

12

General Discussion Area / Re: Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 30 January 2015, 22:33:52 »

thanks for your posts Webby - I brought the welder today so hopefully I'll have a crack tomorrow.

Is there anything I need to know about if I plan to spot weld some 2.5mm galvanised steel wire? I'm going to attempt making a dog cage that fits in the car.....

Looking to buy some 6'x3' mesh panels tomorrow.

I know I'll need to grind off the galv coating to where I want to weld.

Thanks

13

General Discussion Area / Home DIY Welder advice please

« on: 28 January 2015, 20:03:10 »

Hi all

I'm looking to purchase a cheap welder for home use, welding odds & sods up to a max of 4mm. I've never used a welder before...

Looking at https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/010110125

from what I gather from google I'm best off getting a MIG welder and maybe a gas-less as it's simplier - I know the welds will not be as clean but from what I'll be doing that won't matter.

Can anyone offer any advice/point me in the right direction?

Thanks all!

14

General Discussion Area / Re: internet woes - tech help needed please

« on: 27 May 2014, 20:54:59 »

The problem is, your ISP are BT's customer in this case, not you. Sky should be contracting BT to fix the problem on your behalf. If you talk to BT, they will simply say that you didn't buy the broadband from them, you bought a voice service and that is OK.

For that to happen, your ISP need to know what they are doing, they also need to care about you and they need to stump up some cash, since support from BT Wholesale costs them. It's here where you really find out if you've got a decent ISP.

This is assuming the problem is with the BT wholesale service and not internal to your ISP, of course!

I'm thinking this....

4 different BT engineers have been and gone, all seemed clued up (not fresh out of tech school) one even re-made all the connections in the house, pole & exchange to rule them out.

The 3rd engineer mentioned interference, maybe REIN (pronounced rain) a form of electrical interference??

Cheers

15

General Discussion Area / Re: internet woes - tech help needed please

« on: 27 May 2014, 20:51:32 »

thanks for all your replys - I guess I will have to continue calling etc.

Does anyone know of any monitoring software that I can use to monitor the line. This would give me a better leg to stand on when I refuse to pay the line rental & net fees for this month!

Thanks