POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

@savarin
:grin: Karked it? I've not heard that one before, but I'm guessing I understand the meaning. :grin:

Are you sure the problem isn't simply a dead battery in the helmet?

My guess is that your pictured set-up is fine (ground clamp on the workpiece) but I'd avoid welding on a lathe for fear of some bearings being in a current path. Maybe unplug the lathe (so it's not grounded) when welding there?

Your non-darkening auto dark reminds me of a personal aww-$hite story.
I was on a pistol team in the U.S. Army. We were at the significant match and I was on the firing line (with about 50 other shooters) for a .45 Caliber rapid fire (5 rounds in 10 seconds) stage. After it was too late, I discovered I had forgotten to put my ear protection in place. No way I could fix the problem and be ready to shoot when the targets turned, so I said to myself "F it. How loud could it be?" Well . . . I got the first shot off fine, and then the noise hit me. It was so loud that my eye lids involuntarily slammed shut so fast and hard I think they made a clapping sound. I fired the remaining 4 with my eyes closed. I didn't score well. :grin:
 
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no battery in the helmet I looked everywhere, lathe isolated, just going to make simple tacks to keep the heat down.
I need to do it as pictured to keep the alignment spot on.
Karked it is an old pommy expression for snuffed it.
Then to add insult to injury I defrosted a Barra fillet for dinner and it was rotten, wont accept fish from that mate again.
 
savarin said:
no battery in the helmet I looked everywhere
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This is very strange. Is this an auto-darkening helmet?
My automatic welding helmet once "broke down" - and it also has photocells, but probably only as a fraud, because it stopped working.
The filter of this helmet was theoretically unassemblable, but not for me :) - I forcibly dismantled the filter cassette.
Inside I found two 3V 2032 lithium cells soldered into the board - both half-dead.
I replaced them with new ones and the helmet started working normally.

By the way: I noticed an important thing in the past - helmet detectors DO NOT RESPOND AT ALL to light of the wavelength at which energy-saving LED "bulbs" work, even when they shine directly into the detector (the light of a traditional incandescent bulb darkens the filter).
Hence the obvious possibility of using such an LED bulb (e.g. 10W) to illuminate the welding site - and good, strong lighting makes work exceptionally easier when positioning elements/welding electrode tip, especially in dark corners.

PS: Or maybe your helmet model has photovoltaic cells that charge a supercapacitor (capacity of several farads), and this is the power source for the helmet's electronics?
Then it could be a failure of the photovoltaic cells or the supercapacitor.

PSII: Personally, I would keep the precision lathe guides as far away from hot welding spatter as possible (I mean MIG and MMA of course, because TIG is basically... "clean").
 
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extropic said:
for a .45 Caliber rapid fire (5 rounds in 10 seconds) stage.
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I remember having to "qualify" with one of those things. I think I actually put a couple of holes in the target. I didn't join the Navy to use guns. I was there to see the world. Saw an awful lot of ocean & some interesting places.
 
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Have been working on CAD skills and designed an ER32 holder that is angled to work with the holders that I have endmills permanently attached to. This allows me to save some space by tucking the bottoms in under the endmills. Ran out of filament so I'll have to wait for them to arrive before finishing. It took me three iterations before I got it to where I liked it. The cut outs for gripping are a little too shallow, but I can just grab them by the but anyways, so they're more for saving filament than anything else.

Version 2 next to version 1
IMG_5706.jpgIMG_5707.jpgIMG_5708.jpg

Lined up in the drawer. Removed the liner so the magnets would work a little better.
IMG_5710.jpgIMG_5711.jpg
 
wnchstrtnfldvlle said:
Have been working on CAD skills and designed an ER32 holder that is angled to work with the holders that I have endmills permanently attached to. This allows me to save some space by tucking the bottoms in under the endmills. Ran out of filament so I'll have to wait for them to arrive before finishing. It took me three iterations before I got it to where I liked it. The cut outs for gripping are a little too shallow, but I can just grab them by the but anyways, so they're more for saving filament than anything else.

Version 2 next to version 1
View attachment 516502View attachment 516503View attachment 516504

Lined up in the drawer. Removed the liner so the magnets would work a little better.
View attachment 516506View attachment 516505
Click to expand...

Anything stopping you using a loose Zip-Tie as a way to lift them out of the holders? Or maybe design a "J" shaped lift for where the finger slots are, so it goes around and under the shaft of the holder?
 
Not really, but they're large enough that I can just grab to collet nut to lift them out. And to be honest, if I lift from the cutout, it'll bump the end mill into the shaft of the other one since they're very front heavy.
 
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