Changing goals and speed

[greybeard]

lso picked up a welder at the auction. It's an oldie for sure! It's a Twentieth Century 260 amp arc welder with a cutting torch setting. Never used a carbon cutter, at least I think that's what it is, and those leads are gone but it was said to work and I got it super cheap. It's on wheels and it's a big sucker, I read that Lincoln bought out Twentieth Century a long time back but have no guess on the age of it.
I learned on an old Lincoln, but I need to do some reading on this one before I fire it up.

There's several ways to use the cutting option on a stick welder. Carbon rod by itself--makes a heck of mess to clean up..carbon rod with air blast (you need the cac leads and holder) , and .........cutting with any 1/8 mild steel rod like 2010 or 2011. You'll want to put the 2010--2011 rod in water for a few minutes. Use +ground, crank the machine up to a high setting (200a+/-) Lay the rod down at a shallow angle and cut moving forward. It's gonna smoke like the dickens but the wet flux creates steam to help dislodge the molten steel, and keeps you from burning thru rods like mad.
Should be some videos on youtube.
They do have some specialized rods just for cutting without air with a stick welder nowadays..I never bothered with any of them.

With the CAC holder and rod, make sure you do it away from anything combustible. The air jet is going to blow molten stuff about 4' away.

 

[AClark]

Sounds like ya made-out-like-a-bandit at that auction. Hope the goats and equipment serve ya well. If we stay here and stay at it, I'd like to get a couple of young Kiko does....we'll have to wait tho and see what the outcome is.

These guys went for $87 each, that was the reserve. Not bad in an area where most go around $200, even mixed. Of course, cheap livestock isn't cheap, since you have to dump feed and care into them.

@greybeard I was hoping you'd chime in about the welder. Thanks for the tip on the 4 ft of blowing hot crap. I've never used that kind of cutter at all, I've used a plasma cutter plenty, but it doesn't look like it works the same at all. I did read that it is messy cutting and not pretty, so if I get the lead and all for it I'll reserve it for stuff I just can't hack with an angle grinder or reciprocal saw. Really just wanted a heavy duty arc welder, my stock trailer needs some spots fixed and I'm a lot better with an arc welder than a mig. I really think if I want a cutting tool I'll just do oxy-acetalyne and call it a day, I at least know how to work those.

 

[Bruce]

They stay sharp for a very long time and you can send them back to be sharpened for $100.

$100 to SHARPEN them? How much do they cost?!?!

Ruby is getting around 100% better, even last night she was moving around great and off her knees entirely, though she's a bit tender but I expected that since I cut so much off and completely re-angled her hooves.

Poor thing has to learn how to walk again. But she clearly knew you had fixed her up when she started walking on her feet as soon as you were done.

 

[AClark]

@Bruce about $260 a pair. You can use and resharpen them for a long time as long as you don't gouge them and it takes a lot to gouge those. Horse hooves can be very hard and tough to cut, you can get cheaper ones for around $70 a pair, and I have an old set of cheapie Diamond nippers. The diamonds are now used for pulling horse shoes because they are gapped and gouged so badly that they are trash, but good enough to use like a big set of pliers.

 

[Bruce]

Why so much to sharpen them??

 

[AClark]

I'm not sure, they have a specific place that is authorized to sharpen them, probably something with the warranty on them. It's well worth it, and if you only have to do it once in a great while, like this pair has never been sharpened since the factory, they're well worth it. When you send them in for sharpening you basically get what looks like a brand new pair back, they completely recondition them and they are sharp enough to shave with. Definitely have to watch even sliding it across a finger or hand for a long time because they'll knick you up good.

 

[Mini Horses]

Generally, things like these have heat involved -- forget what it's called now, too early. But it makes the edge almost scalpel sharp & it holds. First pair I used felt like you were just cutting butter, not tough hoof.

 

[AClark]

Exactly, they come from the factory as sharp as a razor blade.
Way back in the day, when I was a small child, we had a stud that reared up during a storm and caught his neck between two panels that were connected with a pretty sturdy chain. He hung from his neck like that for quite awhile, was even "dead" (required resuscitation after being cut down). When we saw him, my grandmother grabbed a pair of these nippers since it was the only thing around and cut a steel chain with them. Oh it gouged the edge up pretty good but they actually cut through the chain. She kept the pair as a reminder, since they're pretty wrecked. The stud lived another 7 or 8 years and died at a ripe old age of 28. They are no joke at all when it comes to being sharp and sturdy.

 

[AClark]

The wait is still on with my two does that could have been due the day before Christmas, all the way up to Jan 28th. One is wider than she is tall.

Figured we could do something fun, anyone want to take a guess at how many they each have? I'm betting on at least twins on each. Or take bets on due dates? They were bred in August - sometime. Latest date I expect is the end of the month.

 

[Bruce]

Move aside, wide load coming through!

I guess something between 1 and 4 per doe. How's that for improving the odds to about 100%?