Post up your latest new or used tool purchases

Finally picked up my lista from Sénor Sideways. And while on the way home, I found another one for $150 and thought mine needed a friend.

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Also some other random bits to help keep the trailer frame from bending more by offsetting the weight.
 
Won a few items at a local auction.

$30 for a Gray TSL-50. Missing the lift pad and extension, but works otherwise. Air up and air down. 25 ton capacity. Perfect for my C5500, my dads F700 and other equipment. Lift pad is $$$. Might make one instead.

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$44. Gray Mills heated aqueous tank. Works, but haven’t ran it long enough to see how well the heater works. 300 pound capacity in the basin, 150 pound cap on the shelf. 30 gallons of cleaner. You can plug the drain and submerge parts, with over flow protection. Didn’t need it but why not?

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$60 for a Goodall Start-All 716. Missing a voltage regulator for the generators and missing a starter solenoid for the Koehler Magnum 16. Took a chance on this one, looks like it might be expensive to retrofit to their newer voltage regulator. The old one appears to be unobtainable. Might have to keep an eye on eBay. Gonna get a solenoid and verify the motor works before wasting money on this. Someone stole the cables which were in the listing. I complained and they knocked my bid down from $120 to $60 so I guess that’s a positive.

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Apparently I collect and deal in welders now. :laughing:

After 71PA_Highboy talked me out of the 200 I picked up a little while back, I stumbled across a 180 and 250 at a local .gov auction. Came from a county maintenance shop and both "worked when replaced" and from their condition, I don't think they saw too much use. 180 is complete, minus bottle. The 250 came with a stick stinger, but no torch or pedal. Luckily the last lot I got came with a nearly new spare pedal so I at least have that part covered. The 250 is way more machine than I need and is ****in' huge, but for what I paid for it, I'm inclined to keep it and sell the 180 and my Alphatig machine and put some of that $$ toward a new torch and water cooler.

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cj3a said:
The 250 is a great machine and if you do aluminum you will need all the amps it can put out.
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That's where I'm leaning. Not that I can even weld AL, but the intent is there. :laughing:

I bough the AlphaTIG 8+ years ago, tried to learn multiple times, got frustrated and parked it. Only in the last 2 years to I finally force myself to at least learn how to make steel stick together and am reasonably OK at that now, but every time I've tried to **** with AL, I just ball up the tungsten, get pissed and walk away for another few months. :laughing:
 
bgaidan said:
That's where I'm leaning. Not that I can even weld AL, but the intent is there. :laughing:

I bough the AlphaTIG 8+ years ago, tried to learn multiple times, got frustrated and parked it. Only in the last 2 years to I finally force myself to at least learn how to make steel stick together and am reasonably OK at that now, but every time I've tried to **** with AL, I just ball up the tungsten, get pissed and walk away for another few months. :laughing:
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I bought the same machine around the same time. How think is the aluminum you are trying to weld? Thicker is more difficult, and the Alpha TIG isn't a very powerful machine, so thinner is easier in my experience.
 
665.0coupe said:
I bought the same machine around the same time. How think is the aluminum you are trying to weld? Thicker is more difficult, and the Alpha TIG isn't a very powerful machine, so thinner is easier in my experience.
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Usually 1/16" or 1/8". I'm sure it was 100% user error, but still frustrating as ****.

Pretty sad that the gas hose on that AHP has actually rotted off from age and I probably have less than 3-4 hours of actual welding time on it. :shaking:
 
bgaidan said:
Usually 1/16" or 1/8". I'm sure it was 100% user error, but still frustrating as ****.

Pretty sad that the gas hose on that AHP has actually rotted off from age and I probably have less than 3-4 hours of actual welding time on it. :shaking:
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I've had decent luck with mine on AL that thick. On steel, I find myself starting out with very little pedal to establish the arc and then adding increasing the pedal to form the puddle (probably not the right way but I'm no expert). On aluminum I've found that I have to go full pedal right off the bat. If I try and ease into it, it just heats up the base metal and burns through.

Thats good to know about the hose. I need to check mine.
 
665.0coupe said:
I've had decent luck with mine on AL that thick. On steel, I find myself starting out with very little pedal to establish the arc and then adding increasing the pedal to form the puddle (probably not the right way but I'm no expert). On aluminum I've found that I have to go full pedal right off the bat. If I try and ease into it, it just heats up the base metal and burns through.

Thats good to know about the hose. I need to check mine.
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I'm glad I just went to look at it to take a picture. For some reason I was thinking it was a crimped clamp, but it's just a fuel injection style clamp. It's possible that I've already "fixed" this before and put that clamp on. 🤷‍♂️

That white rubber hose is getting dry with age. I'll cut it back and clamp it back on and probably get a couple more years out of it, but I'm sure it'll happen again. It really needs some type of strain relief, even though it really should see much strain at all.

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bgaidan said:
That's where I'm leaning. Not that I can even weld AL, but the intent is there. :laughing:

I bough the AlphaTIG 8+ years ago, tried to learn multiple times, got frustrated and parked it. Only in the last 2 years to I finally force myself to at least learn how to make steel stick together and am reasonably OK at that now, but every time I've tried to **** with AL, I just ball up the tungsten, get pissed and walk away for another few months. :laughing:
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A buddy of mine has a 250 like that one and he let me use it to weld some aluminum panels and that when I built my last buggy. I ended up buying a used 250DX model after that one and did the rest of my aluminum work with it.

You should collect some aluminum coupons (scrap) and play around with it. I enjoy welding aluminum. Aluminum welding has its own set of rules but easy enough for those. Only use ss wire brushes or other items on the aluminum and nothing else to clean prep it. In other words, buy new, use it in aluminum and nothing else but aluminum.

There’s other rules but you can find tons of good YouTube videos on it out there explaining a lot of it.

It’s a little like ss as it wants to pull and warp on you.
 
bgaidan said:
That's where I'm leaning. Not that I can even weld AL, but the intent is there. :laughing:

I bough the AlphaTIG 8+ years ago, tried to learn multiple times, got frustrated and parked it. Only in the last 2 years to I finally force myself to at least learn how to make steel stick together and am reasonably OK at that now, but every time I've tried to **** with AL, I just ball up the tungsten, get pissed and walk away for another few months. :laughing:
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So, there’s a technique to form a tiny ball at the end of your electrode for when you weld aluminum. Memory serves me right, you do a fresh sharpen, then set welder on DC and go to a chunk of steel then light it up maintain a certain distance away until a tiny ball forms. Then switch to AC and start gluing aluminum
 
Landslide said:
So, there’s a technique to form a tiny ball at the end of your electrode for when you weld aluminum. Memory serves me right, you do a fresh sharpen, then set welder on DC and go to a chunk of steel then light it up maintain a certain distance away until a tiny ball forms. Then switch to AC and start gluing aluminum
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I use a scrap piece of copper and mash the pedal to the max. That will ball up the sharp point of the tungsten.
 
[486] said:
wtf? how do you get by without one of at least that size?
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Had a couple of smaller ones with the pullers for a while. Used the **** outta them. But have just been too cheap to buy a big one that wasnt a POS.

Borrowed the one last week. And ordered one the day after :laughing:
 
Been on the hunt for awhile for a anvil but didn't want to pay ****** tax that they go for. Ended up scoring this from a buddy moving for free.

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Modelo for scale. Thinking about putting it in the sand blast cabinet to clean it up but I might not do anything with it other than beat it.
 
I'm honestly not sure, it has some form of tapered plate welded to it.
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Little bit of research confirmed that it's a 100# Columbian.
 
The Irate4x4 members who were the purveyors and delivery source for these tool holders and stand may identify themselves if they wish, but holy buckets of 50 Taper! Thanks again gents! I am going to have to put the stand on wheels as the last open floor space in this shop area is where I bring the heavy **** in and out so making the stand into a cart will help with that.

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A very good friend of mine owns a Vineyard / small Brewery in the area and although I don't do much drinking these days, I do spend some time over there just hanging out, helping out, and enjoying the beautiful farm that it is on.
One of the patrons there saw my odd drill bit tattoo and mentioned that he retired from running a machine shop recently in another part of the state and just moved up to the area. One conversation led to another and I ended up picking up this pack of 100 brand new discs and the backer in exchange for front loading his tab for 8 beers in his future. Still quite a fair price and I was even kind to my buddy's business and didn't use my discount.

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Also, a machine popped up for a deal that turned out to be too good to be true, but in the grand scheme of the transaction, horse trading, and two weekends of excavator and skid steer work, acquired a Miller Bobcat Welder / Generator. Its a 2015 model with 128 hours on it. Need, it... no. Use it, yes. Will be useful at the family farm as well as a buddy's property that he has been starting to develop and will be putting a house, barn, and BIG shop on. He wanted to weld something on his gate the other day and we both said "it'd be nice if one of us had a mobile welder / gen". Ta-da!

Only came with Stick leads
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Got this 17-1/2 ton OTC push puller for $20. It's missing the pushing screw, which I think I can just get some 1" 14tpi all thread and some 1" ID thrust bearings and make my own. And it's missing the spreader bar for the internal puller... Might be able to take some measurements and find another puller that would work for that so I just have to drill some holes, or just go ahead and mill one out of some bar stock.

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AlxJ64 said:
The Irate4x4 members who were the purveyors and delivery source for these tool holders and stand may identify themselves if they wish, but holy buckets of 50 Taper! Thanks again gents!
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Darn weirdos. :flipoff2:

AlxJ64 said:
I am going to have to put the stand on wheels as the last open floor space in this shop area is where I bring the heavy **** in and out so making the stand into a cart will help with that.
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I was thinking that you lob the back of it off and wall mounted it behind the mill?
 
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