Ok, first of all, here is the big stupid bastard. (The eye burning purple light in the background is the leds I put in the back of my truck contractor cap. I had some leds left over for the electrical days and forgot these were like 6000k leds. The white is so cold it's purple... but, they work, so they stay.
I'd like to do a paint job, but there's a lot of writing to mask out.
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I posted a picture of the bushings yesterday. Here's all the parts.
The bushings I made, the brass is Home Depot, and the lugs are from my electrical wholesaler
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All of the leads converge on this big blade switch.
I was an electrician before I was a full out contractor for quite some time. Electricity doesn't scare me, but oddly enough, threading my hands into this mess, gave me jitters at first.
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So here's the bushings installed.
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I disconnected the work and gun leads from the blade switch (one at a time so as to not get mixed up since nothing is labeled...) cut them or changed out the wires to an appropriate length and crimped on the new lugs on the cut end.
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I made a little jig for crimping since I don't have a lug crimp this big.
Was just a piece of aluminum with a 7/16" half circle to cup the lug then just a piece of key stock to act as the stud. Then squeeze.
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Fished the wires in around everything in a way I liked so nothing rubbed or interfeared, and reused the necessary strain releafs. And bolted everything together. I even labeled the new leads. There's two sets of nuts, one to keep the bolt tight to the bushing, then the second holds the lug on. So everything doesn't fall apart when I switch polarity.
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It looks like the lugs can touch if they move, but they can't. But, I may add a barrier at some point to ensure that.
Aaaaaaaaand,
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Got great results.
This is varying heat and wire speed.
I didn't remember how different flux core sounds and acts. It's a different kind of puddle and almost sounds like spray welding rather than short circuit mig.
But after some clean up, wire brush then a wire wheel, looks good, happy. But maaaan, it's diiiirrty welding...
So, I'd call this an unbridled success. It's not horribly difficult to switch. The worst part is how unwieldy the spool is. I wasted more wire from spring-a-ma-thinging wire cause the end slipped out of my hand than I did welding. May have to work out some kind of wire guide or straw to keep the wire from curling off the spool cause it's so far away from the rollers.
Got lots of info and ideas here from the group. Always a pleasure! Thanks.