IcePrick

That's exactly what I was going to say. Please tell me that's just a showroom, and you have another garage to do actual work in? I can't imagine the time it takes to keep everything clean in there if any kind of in-depth work happens in that space. Either that, or I'm just the laziest shop cleaner-upper ever in comparison. On the other hand, what I do in my garage would take most of the amazing out of that picture pretty quickly. A little plasma cutting (especially the part where you light the garbage can on fire), some angle grinder work, welding, and painting a truck in there... after about a year of that I would have ruined it. Really, I just can't have nice things.

I'm thinking of making a "turret" style table for my smaller bench items - bench grinder, buffer, belt/disk sander combo, mini (angle grinder) chop saw, and small wood bandsaw. Something with a foot pedal that would lift the deck of the table and allow it to rotate, then drop onto location pins and orient each tool at the front station. I think I can arrange the tools in such a way that it won't be too deep, as a couple of the tools are relatively shallow like the buffer and the grinder. The problem would be side clearance, maybe each tool could be on some form of slider to extend it toward the operator and allow for more clearance on the sides. Each would have to have a quick release in order to relocate them for temporary work elsewhere. Power management would be interesting, maybe just plug/unplug them in turn as needed. I have to lay it out and see what I can come up with. You've come up with some cool solutions for a small shop, there's a lot of big equipment packed into a small space in your garage yet it remains pretty usable without having to move stuff out of the way to get and use other stuff. I have more space, but it has so much clutter from unfinished projects that it seems smaller than your single-car side. I have a friend who has a couple of those cable lift ceiling racks, he has them situated over benches. His tabletop woodworking tools live on them, he drops the entire rack onto the bench and uses them, then lifts the rack up to the ceiling when he's done. He has to keep the benches clear to do this, but it turns out to be a feature rather than a bug. For someone with a high ceiling, this is a great answer, but I don't have that luxury.

Congratulations on a half century! I looked at 50 the same as a 100k service interval - get a good checkup, fix anything worn or broken, look at trade-in value and decide to keep it.

I had the same thing happen several months ago. Carlos looked into it, but I don't know if it was ever resolved - it's likely deep in the forum software. Guess not by your post. Based on his recommendation, I found that never pasting as rich text was a good preventative, but the error has popped up a couple times since without even pasting anything. When the error has popped up, I have cut the entire post, then paste the entire thing back in, look for the "paste as plain text?" prompt and select that. If you keep trying to repost without "fixing" whatever it thinks is "wrong", you'll get bounced. My guess is the same, that the software thinks it is an attack and locks out that IP. I did the same workaround by jumping on my hotspot (and not trying to post the same content). IIRC, it was 48 hours before I could post with my original IP.

Numb, I feel.

Maybe that's how acetone clears up a sore throat when I gargle with it. Smooooth.

Brush over it lightly with a torch? Or still the same problem, have to do the entire object?

I have machinist friends who think anything other than way oil is heretical, and others who are 30-wt Mobil-1 fans. If you ever want to start a death match at a machinist convention, that's your ticket.

Better? https://www.amazon.com/Green-Hammertone-Powder-Coating-Paint/dp/B01603GH3Y/ref=sr_1_4?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.5-Ixav5AR7KzAMWOnSJ2WX7ummAx3T5iAYYApX4KK1gxSCNXIoS6bm6w7C0aE7vxyp2q8aOsh6siRTHJwCmBzRXZxBXIckBL-7c0vJ7vETJv2jOwrr2115b4yiVbK6JOv0ijer_H25HCz-nYGlIBZ685WZby_TGiO3ug81nQ9PlzbXCkEqgWTGoUYTbymsPalpqxN7428jjBGpXyjoz-PhpvWCHugYqSyQeaCk8L9RzqaRin5NfhvoLzmzz3fQ1NHHVYPo9SQGCLp0JiYTLIXlvQIBhzCFxlVJqVPmhKa94.1nuWoYWq18oTG3Yyo8z0EGLJ6usdSUxoxbYJ8FIxvyU&dib_tag=se&keywords=green+hammered+paint&qid=1731804747&sr=8-4

Change the native iPhone .heic file to a jpeg and it will show. If you're bringing it over from iCloud on a laptop, I think there's an option to download it as a .jpeg so it saves a step. Not sure directly from an iPhone as I rarely use my phone to upload here. I'm guessing there's a way in Settings to make the phone default to .jpeg as the saved photo format. *edit*: Look at you, pro machinist, with the can of way lube!

Wait, you're drunk in a bar and surrounded by strippers? At this hour?

I almost mentioned that they tend to be a little generous when estimating things like power ratings and duty cycle, but I think most of us view a lot of manufacturer claims as optimistic unless proven otherwise.

I don't know anything about blowback start or IPT40 guns - I guess if consumables are more expensive, it's probably an upgrade over the PT31? We know that YesWelder isn't crap, and among Chinese welding and cutting products, is a step above average (and I don't really hear bad things about any of them). I don't think you'll be unhappy. Having the power of Thor in your hand is impressive - a tiny little lightning tornado.

I've always admired the powertrain of a... well, train. Locomotive, I guess. That's Spanish for "crazy motion", for those who don't habla. I assumed the reason we didn't do that in cars was because of the added weight and complexity. I agree with Carlos that it brings additional complexity and potential fail points, all the disadvantages of each propulsion source. But if reliability can be achieved (Cummins R2.8 on the ICE side, enough said) and on the EV side, the benefits would be amazing. Then there's this guy, putting a 300HP Tesla front motor/axle in a Civic...

Wow, great idea, the wrenches. A circle cutter was a project in fabrication class, it took about 15 minutes to make. Pretty much like the one he made, but more planned out with the staggered rows of holes and it had a handle on the non-torch side to help turn it.

That dude is good. He has a project with Edison Motors that will probably go commercial, a retrofit for light trucks to convert them to an electric drivetrain. Wait, don't change that channel, hear me out. He's putting a Cummins 2.8 crate motor in a 2500 Ram and doing a 4x4 Diesel electric drive. Motor-in-axle Dana units. Huge fuel economy and emissions improvements. He built a prototype 18-wheeler diesel electric drive with them, it may go commercial as well. He's thinking of doing a kit that would take the existing engine and mate a generator, batteries, and axles to it, make your 24v Cummins or 7.3 into literally a freight train configuration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKyYZZTqcRA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_-PkVYIQ30

Possibly. In my experience, the Chinese manufacturers tend to mimic one or more name-brand standards, or come up with their own that they almost universally follow. So the cheapie and the Yeswelder unit may use the same consumables as each other, or even as each other AND, say, Miller's standard. After a little looking, it appears that both use a PT-31 style torch, like my Amico. It's an ESAB design/standard for their smaller plasma cutters.

I wouldn't be afraid of either of the Yeswelder setups. On the other hand, for $109, it wouldn't take me long to get over it if it wasn't everything I dreamed. Probably works fine. As an aside, I ponied up for a pack of nozzles, electrodes, and guides when I bought my machine. Haven't burned, melted, or otherwise messed up the one that came on it. I haven't exactly dismembered a battleship with it, but I think it is safe to say that you're probably going to get hours and hours of run time on what comes with any of those machines.

By reputation only, the Yeswelder and PrimeWeld are other options at a potentially better price point. I have no experience with them, but various folks I know have them and don't say bad things. Joe, be aware that the CUT50HF I linked has an IGBT inverter - if you like your IGBTs the way they are, be aware that this will invert them. So if you're pro-IGBT, it might make you anti-, or if there are any close by, I have no idea what would happen.

Not sure what mine does, but I can tell you that it spits an arc that will cut. It's an ugly cut, wanders and doesn't penetrate far, but I have no doubt it would cut something nonconductive provided it has a melting point below that of mild steel. It will do it in free air (no workpiece close) and will sorta cut metal (I think it was 1/8") without a work lead connected. I'm not sure if it's actually creating plasma or if it's some form of stable HF tornado arc at that point. Throw in a work lead when I'm reminded to, and the jet is about 10x as strong and works more like it's advertised to. Ask me how I know.

https://www.amazon.com/CUT-50HF-Non-touch-95-260V-Voltage-Cutting/dp/B081PL41MC/ There's a refurbished one on eBay for $70 less, don't know what the risk is there.

If you sell it, be aware that high-pressure bottles went up in price a stupid amount. Acetylene bottles not so much. And now that most torches have seen a decline in quality control, old brand-name stuff has become quite desirable. I used mine just the other day to bend some 5/8" rod to make a custom dent removal tool. Yeah, it takes up some room in the shop, but when you need it, there are few substitutes.

HF is High Frequency start. I think it is synonymous with "no touch". It is able to send an arc through the air to the workpiece, enabling a path for the high current plasma to start. Mine is HF, and it is self starting. I've never used a plasma torch that isn't no-touch, so I don't know how much different it is to start - I imagine you get used to it pretty quickly, much like striking an arc in arc welding or in scratch TIG. I do know that the HF can mess with nearby computers, which can complicate matters with or even prevent you from using it with a controller for a table or a robotic arm if you someday choose that rabbit hole. Some of the forums for ArcDroid and less-expensive tables (Langmuir, for example) have lists of what works and what won't, so it sounds like it is a variable within the plasma system and not necessarily the cut controller shielding, though most report improvements if they shield their controllers. Better quality plasma cutters are associated with greater compatibility with controllers - maybe it's a simple matter of better internal shielding or more accurate frequency control. When I bought my CUT50HF, I knew that if I eventually got a table, I'd get a machine torch HyperTherm to run on it... big $$$ compared to budget stuff, but top quality.

I picked up a generic CUT50HF from eBay. It works fine. Compared to the Miller machines at the school, it does exactly the same job. Longevity? I have no idea. My welding instructor is of the opinion that mortals should not have been given the ability to create the 4th state of matter on demand.

My standard, because I hate getting shocked and would probably hate dying even more, is to test as you recommend AND use two separate known good (tested as you recommend) testing devices. It really doesn't take that long, particularly if you consider that not making sure a circuit is dead before working on it could take the rest of your life.