welder

After an awkward conversation with my mate at work regarding my temporary use of my old mig welder I sold him, I decided to buy my own. I wanted one that tig welded this time, and after some searching found an incredible deal on craigslist from a guy who had just split with his wife and wanted cash. I wasn't intending to spend this much, but when he showed me everything for sale, I warned him about my now-soon-to-be-low-ball offer as that was all the cash I had to spend. 

He took it.

For $1400, if I recall correctly, I bought a hardly used Thermal Arc 211i with a few accessories. It came with two industrial sized bottles, both filled, one co2 mix and one argon; a tool box full of cups of all sizes and torch kits, some in brand new packaging; line plumbing and crimping tools, connectors galore; about 5 full tig torches; at least 3 regulators, one a dual feed; a set of slag hammers; enough air line to sink a ship; the mig gun, ground, 110 and 240 adapters, a 110 extension cord; an extremely large spool of unused mig wire, 10 lb (?); a fire blanket; a home made but very stout cart with casters for the bottle/welder/accessories; two masks, one solar auto adjusting; a Milwaukee chop saw with about (10) new 14" cut off blades; an empty oxyacetylene torch with bottles, tips, and cart; two packages of unused flux core sticks; two packages of mild steel tig wire; an entire tray of various diameters and grades of stainless tig wire...

At least he could have included some tungsten, I mean come on...   ...   ...   ?!?!?!?

I completely filled the back of the 620 with this unexpected craigslist find.

Time for some drinks, a bike ride, a bbq and a sleepy cat...

Back to the basement, I unpacked some of the gear to attempt to quantify the welding store I had just purchased for pennies on the dollar.

steamroller rollers

www.just-eat.co.uk are my hero's.

Back to my pile of cardboard boxes, I decided to put together two of the wheel dollies. 

Really I just wanted to use the new tools.

After prying apart the bases, assembly was pretty easy, consisting of four steps per dolly, all of which were the same.

Bolt on wheel 1. Repeat until there are no more wheels.

Every piece part of the SGS equipment and hardware is super sturdy. a+

These seemed much wider than the photos online would suggest, so I thought I would measure to confirm.

I'm going to have to get wider wheels.

Another package in today's mail, a 3.5meter 6.5ton tow strap with closing hooks.

more tools

As promised, more or less, I went back and got more tools. Remember, half off.

The socket sets previously purchased came with normal Halfords advanced professional drive ratchets. I was looking online at their "extreme" ratchets which have 72 teeth (5* motion between clicks), a curvier shape, gripier handle, and of course as with the previous advanced ratchets, lock. These were about 3oGBP each, as they were not on sale. There was a kit however that included 1/4" and 3/8" drive extreme ratchets. The kit also included 62 other pieces from their advanced line of tools, and of course was packaged in the nice rugged matching case. Because this kit was half off, it was priced under 6oGBP, which means you were buying the two ratchets, and getting the rest for nothing.

I love corporations and their nonsensical nature.

It's a very complete socket set, and yes, I realize it's a mixed drive set, but again, it included the ratchets I was looking at anyways, and the rest was a bonus. Including additional extensions and t bar, uj's, every single metric socket up to 24 with no wasted space for AF sizes, additional deep set sockets, drive handle, and even a precision screw driver with bits. Perfect travel case.

Dinner consisted of a kabab with just lamb, sauce, and pita. Even the humus and pita side had a crazy ratio.

To keep the streak going, I ordered from a different place the following night, including garlic naan, and some more lamb, but this time in curry. It was much more dry than the previous night, and I recommend London City Kabab for your kabab delivery needs.

To continue with the tool show I picked up a set of stubby sockets ranging from 1o - 19. As usual, halfords advanced professional.

One of the reasons I got the above set was the below set. I'm sure these exist elsewhere, but I haven't seen them before. Great idea. Essentially it converts normal non-ratcheting spanners into locking drive ratchets. Of course they're 72 tooth, 5* motion adapters, and if used with a stubby set, create a very compact ratchet.

Finally, I needed some pliers.

Fully functional, packaged backwards. Go team.

Last purchase rounding out the set.

I was a bit angry when leaving the store when my arm was attacked by a bicycle advert stand selling yet more hand tools, but, it happens.