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Blue Jeep build

Priority's have instantly changed on this pile. Should be signing a contract tomorrow to go work in Saudi for a couple months. So need to spend a few days cleaning up the shop.

Need to measure for front and rear axle shafts, so I can order them while I'm gone, and have them waiting at home for me like Christmas.

I also have a AEM CD7 digital dash that does logging of anything on the GM canbus and 26 other channels from a separate AEM module. I've bought sensors for just about anything I can think of. Some are redundant to whats on the canbus.

Engine oil press
engine oil temp
Water temp
water press
trans fluid temp
Hyd steering press
Hyd steering temp
fuel rail press
Intake air temp
Outsdie air temp
Front brake press
Rear brake press
AC high/low side pressures
R&L wideband O2

I need to order all the fittings to install the sensors so they're waiting for me when I get back home. Most mount inline.

Cool part will be having a specific page on the dash to show all the sensors. I have 4 pages I can scroll through.
Figuring one page for street driving with the speedo, turn signals, cruise, fuel levl, water temp and oil press..... the normal stuff for any vehicle. But having a page for offroading seems pretty neat. Most of the normal stuff you don't need and other things become rather important.


I need to start hydrating now, so I don't think I'm going to die when i get to the middle east:flipoff2: Sad I have to go to the other side of the earth to work in an oil field. FJB
 
I'm still in the US.:lmao:

So I wake up Monday to a email asking if I can fly out in what amounted to 2.5 hours. Flight was at 1430.

I say I think so. So I call my son and ask if he can haul ass to my house a take me to the airport. He says he's on his way.

About 25 minutes later, I realize there's no way I'm making that flight, so I send a email saying so.

All good, we can get you a flight tomorrow. Perfect, I can do that. Call my son and say stand down, flying tomorrow.

Get a new email an hour later that said they got me a flight at 1900 today (monday). I say ok, I can do that too. Call my son again, he mumbles something about don't call until you're standing outside with your bag.

Another hour later, another email, saying the place to get a Saudi visa in Dubai is booked up until after the weekend, so they'll get me a ticket for Saturday. I called my son and said "guess what".

Finally got my contract and flight details yesterday.

What a shit show. But it's nothing new.
 
I don't miss field service work. I built and operated tunnel boring machines for Robbins tbm for years. It was neat work, but it was always the same deal. Hey, so, uh we have a dire situation and can you pack a bag and leave today? Only to find out it's a non emergency or they can't get parts for a week or two, so you're stuck on the job forever.
 
1Sinner said:
I don't miss field service work. I built and operated tunnel boring machines for Robbins tbm for years. It was neat work, but it was always the same deal. Hey, so, uh we have a dire situation and can you pack a bag and leave today? Only to find out it's a non emergency or they can't get parts for a week or two, so you're stuck on the job forever.
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Best part right now is my bag never showed up. I have the clothes on my back and I had a toothbrush in my backpack. Qatar airways says they still don't know where my bag is. When I landed in Dubai from Doha, half the plane didn't have their bags.

I have a prescription and all the pills are in the bag except for a few that I carry in my backpack for the flights. Its not supposed to be stopped cold turkey, so I guess I get to find out why in a few days.

And my fucking dip. I have two cans on me. Add that to the list of going cold turkey.

I think I'm going to be a bigger asshole in a few days:flipoff2:or fully retarded. Should be interesting.
 
Even when checking bags, the above is why I always carry a spare set of clothes (and 2 sets of socks/chones) and any other shit I need to not die. Fucking airlines blow goats. If they can fuck you over, they will.
 
Oh it just keeps getting better.

Still no bag.

Saudi Aramco just pushed the job back till the end of the month. Everyone is getting sent home for now and will be flown back into KSA when the job actually kicks off, because we all already have Saudi visas.

When my bag finally shows up they'll either put it on the boat or ship it to my house if I decide not to come back.

I'm glad this is very rare, but what a shit show.

Told the PM I wanted my bag and $150 more a day to return.
 
Rockwood said:
Even when checking bags, the above is why I always carry a spare set of clothes (and 2 sets of socks/chones) and any other shit I need to not die. Fucking airlines blow goats. If they can fuck you over, they will.
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I used to do that. But haven't had a problem in so many years, I've let my guard down. This time I paid the stupid tax.
 
I also asked for a flight home that had at least a couple hour layover in Doha.

Maybe I can find my damn bag myself.
 
gt1guy said:
I also asked for a flight home that had at least a couple hour layover in Doha.

Maybe I can find my damn bag myself.
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That was certainly wishful thinking on your part.......you dumb fuck.


Nope, sitting in the Dubai airport right now, waiting on a flight to fucking Frankfurt Germany. The flight has also been delayed an hour too.:shaking:
 
Rockwood said:
50% sparing is key.
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That would have helped.
Unfortunately in my pertictular case, the boat was supposed to sail to Saudi a couple days after I arrived in Dubai. It's going to remain in Saudi for at least the next year.
So, without everything in my bag I was going to be fucked anyway. I was planning on being there for 60 days.

I got lucky when they said the job was pushed back two week, cause I figured there was time for the bag to show up. But when it was pushed another two weeks back, that's when the company decided they didn't want to pay for us to be basically doing nothing for a month.
 
Got word that my bag finally arrived in Dubai and the agent took it to the boat. In the end, it took 10 days for it to show up. Captain sent me a email saying they will hold it onboard for the sail to Saudi.

In the mean time I've continued practicing my header welding. One thing's for sure, my shit will never look like it came for someone who does it for a living.......no perfect stack of dimes.................I'm ok with that. All I want is a sound weld that stays together.

I've just been practicing without purging cause I didn't feel like wasting the argon. But I've learned you can only go so far without the purge. It really does affect the whole weld, not just the inside where the sugaring happens. Boy what a difference a little inert gas makes.

I found it very interesting, so I thought I'd share.


Here's two welds. No change on the machine. Amps set so I can just stomp on the peddle, so no change in heat input.

Top weld is no purge. You can see that it's concave. For me anyway, it was hard not to end up with a concave weld that actually got full penetration to the inside.

Bottom weld is with the purge set up. Notice that it's convex the way it should be. And it has full penetration.

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This is what no purge looks like on the inside. Sugar city. Pretty sure it's the reason the welds all come out concave. Not sure if gravity takes over or the sugaring of the molten metal pulls the bead down.


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Flashlight in the end of the tube. Sugar all the way around.


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After I did the purge weld, I cut the tube close to the weld to get a good look at it.


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Flashlight in the end of the tube. Can see a nice little bead all the way around


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It's not perfect, but I'm a bit more confident my headers wont fall apart now. Maybe the ceramic coating will hold them together.
 

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You're running too hot. Just a few amps. Or a hair too slow. Do you have pulse on the machine? Also been doing some experiments at work. We've started using straight nitrogen as a purge gas and it works the same as Argon. As long as it's pure, there's no air, no air = no oxygen = no sugar. Lot cheaper than Argon. This is for Aerospace research fyi. Worth trying.
 
I have had the pulse running for the past few days. I have a Dynasty 210. If I remember correctly it's at 100PPS, 80% peak, 40%background, and amps set at 80. I didn't change anything when I did the one purge weld.

I do have a tiny bottle of nitrogen, but it's for my shocks and bumps. I think it would last about 5 mins using it to purge. I just swapped to a dual flow meter reg on the argon bottle on the tig rig. I'm pretty much stuck with that.


I'll give turning down the machine a try. Before I started using the pulse, I was running 60amps. I was hoping my pulse settings ended up with about the same basic heat input. It's not like I used a calculator to figure it out though, I just pulled the numbers out of my ass.:flipoff2:
 
No worries there. I always start low and work up to see where it should run. And have my share of experiments. Here is some 90/10 copper nickel for a special project. I'm building the weld procedure. First bead I burned it up (.050" thick) by the third bead its pretty close. These are just tester beads. The actual part is so fucked up we don't even know if it can be manufactured. Is essentially a # sign made out of those plates. With double fillet welds layed out in a radius thats supposed to fit into, and be welded to the shell of a 90 degree fitting. So we'll see if i can make it work.
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Just got out to the shop..........and realized I had to shit.

But the machine was set at 75amp max, 80%peak and 30% background....................then I had to run back to the house:flipoff2:
 
I went ahead and turned off the pulse and went back to just running 60 amps. Hadn't tried it since adding the purge.

top bead in the pic

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Starts and stops are still a bit sloppy.:flipoff2:


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I think I'm just going to leave the pulse off. Less variables to deal with.
 
For your starts and stops, ease off the pedal (just a little) then start pulling the puddle towards the edge of the weld while simultaneously easing the pedal to zero. If you wanna get real fancy, take a file and knock the little Nipper off the end puddle. Helps clean stainless welds up a lot. What size filler rod are you running?
 
1Sinner said:
For your starts and stops, ease off the pedal (just a little) then start pulling the puddle towards the edge of the weld while simultaneously easing the pedal to zero. If you wanna get real fancy, take a file and knock the little Nipper off the end puddle. Helps clean stainless welds up a lot. What size filler rod are you running?
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1/16" 347 filler.

I've been tapering off the peddle, but I've just held the torch static as I do. I'll try walking the little butthole I'm getting off to the side.
 
1Sinner said:
For as thin as the header material is, you might try. 045 filler. It takes a lot of work to get it right.
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I do have some .045. It's what I originally started with. It just seemed like I was having to feed a ton of it in. When I switched to the 1/6" I felt like I had better control.
 
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