Song: “Groove Is In the Heart” by Deee-Lite
Mood: 6.5
I slept pretty well last night and only woke up for nightmares twice. This morning, J and I had breakfast together and then I went back to bed for just a short nap because I wanted to get outside and try some welding before it got too hot out.
I’ve got two welders – a little SP-135T MIG 120V welder and an AC-225 240V stick welder. The stick welder weighs around a hundred pounds so it’s a bit of a pain to move it around the garage. Last year I started building a cart for it. I started with a log carrying cart that was on sale and tacked some angle iron to it so there was enough room for the welder to sit on properly. Today I cleaned up those welds and did a standing test with both myself and the welder on the cart. It didn’t bend or sag or anything, so I’m pretty happy with that. If I have some time tomorrow I may do a bit of grinding and then paint it.
After I was done working on the cart I thought I’d just run some practice beads on some scrap metal with the stick welder. I started with the 6011 and it worked fine – about the same as I remembered. Then I went and opened the little box of 7018AC rods and went to run a bead. No matter what I tried, I could not maintain an arc (for those times when I was actually able to start the arc). I was getting a little flummoxed – after all, this stuff is supposed to go down easy and look great. I took a closer look at the rods and they just say 7018 on them. I checked the box again and it said 7018AC. Using a regular 7018 rod on a little AC machine like my stick welder is nigh impossible. Unfortunately, I can’t remember when or where I bought them but at least I didn’t buy 10 pounds of it.
I should take a moment to say that the new welding jacket that J gave me for Christmas worked like a charm. No burn through and I didn’t even set myself on fire!
After it warmed up to the point where I was sweating like crazy, I shut down all the welding gear and sat outside in the breeze to dry off a bit. After that it was lunchtime and then I thought I’d do some writing.
I have my Dr C and Dr W appointments tomorrow. It’s been two weeks and Dr C hasn’t heard that I’ve been on my motorcycle yet. I think she’ll be happy to hear about it. I think both she and Dr W will be pleased that I got back outside and did some welding, too.
This evening, J and I finished watching the original Magnificent Seven. It was a pretty great movie and it was interesting to see so many big-name actors in a movie. It kind of reminded me of The Great Escape in that way. I’m not sure what we’re going to watch next – we’re out of westerns.
Stay safe!