Tools you have bought/want to buy feedback thread

[PeeBee]

Fair call mate. Just after those photos I ran out of wire damn it. Oh I have a spare! Winner. Turns out it was unlabled and was the Gasless wire that came with the unit. OMFG. PUSS. 2cm of weld and I was done. Junk. Went a bought a new real. The gassless is going in the bin.

LOL. Its funny Darren, we have a gasless unit on site and we drag it out from time to time when its a simple pain to get gas bottles upstairs into the plant where there is no lift. We have a pool of boilermakers from Dawsons and to be honest, they could probably weld using chopsticks they are that good. I have seen welds laid by guys up there on SS316/SAF2507 and 904L, acid affected as well, that are absolute works of art, verticals, overheads, just head shaking unbelievable. My little 24/36V Rediwelder runs flux core and it lays a good bead, but dragging the batteries out of the truck to do it, nope, not happening.

[MudRunnerTD]

Don't throw it out. You need to reverse the polarity when using gasless.

Ha! Yes I remember that...... now. Hahaha.

Good to know you are lurking mate. I hope life is great for you.

[MB]

Electrically & Electronically challenged, may need some advice again pretty please NP.com.au Team
We bought this old 3 Phasey generator for off grid paid yard work plans a year or so ago for a steal and won’t be using it down there anymore.
Have brought it on home for storage and pondering whether it could be worth fixing up/commissioning for two home issues in the hills?





1) Grid power is horrific up here and underground 150m pole power to my shed sees a max of 180amp settings on my Mig welder for thick plates although is capable of 250amps :-(

2) Regular day/week long power outages to the house occur, windy nights & lightning we’re living like the 1900’s at times :-)

Would it be worthwhile getting this old beast up and running to power a serious welder on weekend warrior tasks and doubling up as a backup for converter boxy 2 phase house running in times of need?

Scratching my head thinking a decent diesel backup genset for house and smaller diesel powered welder for shed but somehow nuffy thinking too that it’s already possible off this already purchased donk maybe?

Cheers Mark!



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[MudRunnerTD]

Electrically & Electronically challenged, may need some advice again pretty please NP.com.au Team
We bought this old 3 Phasey generator for off grid paid yard work plans a year or so ago for a steal and won’t be using it down there anymore.
Have brought it on home for storage and pondering whether it could be worth fixing up/commissioning for two home issues in the hills?





1) Grid power is horrific up here and underground 150m pole power to my shed sees a max of 180amp settings on my Mig welder for thick plates although is capable of 250amps :-(

2) Regular day/week long power outages to the house occur, windy nights & lightning we’re living like the 1900’s at times :-)

Would it be worthwhile getting this old beast up and running to power a serious welder on weekend warrior tasks and doubling up as a backup for converter boxy 2 phase house running in times of need?

Scratching my head thinking a decent diesel backup genset for house and smaller diesel powered welder for shed but somehow nuffy thinking too that it’s already possible off this already purchased donk maybe?

Cheers Mark!



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That looks like a Beast mate. @mattfew; will be all over that brother. It would be awesome if you can rig it up on an Auto start relay so it just starts like a UPS system. Killa. Also, instant 3 phase sounds like a very very cheap way to get 3 phase at home!

[MB]

I’ve given up on poor old busy @matfew these days mate, been working under a dark lightless shed mezzanine for an eternity now awaiting


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[MudRunnerTD]

I’ve given up on poor old busy @matfew these days mate, been working under a dark lightless shed mezzanine for an eternity now awaiting


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Yeah poor bugger is getting hammered. Spends a heapnof time in Gippsland. I was able to wrangle a day to get some lights in the shed, still a temporary connection but way better than an extension lead and split to 4 separate distribution boxes. Not ideal. I felt bad knowing he was away so much but needing him for another day away from his family. Killer.

I reckon he can guide you with some options for that jigger though mate.

[MB]

We speak regularly, off Facey platforms, voice to voice
He’s currently working/testing our Alaskan mill out NE rural allowed on a coupe of his own but always makes it back to family nightly
Seriously wish I had that ADHD for 2hrs nightly sleeps again too, LEGEND


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[matfew]

bahahaha I keep thinking of it bro. I will have a weekend pencilled in very soon for you. Winter wood rush is over. Cattle work next weekend I think but should be able to work something.


As for the gen we can work some magic with it. Wont be simple to do but possible. You don't have 3 phase at home do you? It's very possible to setup. Auto start might be tricky but with the right controller its possible.

I'll give ya a call tomorrow to work out.

[MB]

Family First Old Mate


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[PeeBee]

Mark, I have been down this path with a project at the mine when I was there the first time. What looked simple ended up causing some issues in the details.

1) the generator you have is incomplete or do you have the radiator and an aux fuel tank for it? You may also be up for containment bund in case the fuel tank ruptures, and a fire suppression system - again I don't know what the local regs are for this. I had to install a triple brick wall 3m high and an IR detector for hot spot detection and a sprinkler system, but it is a minesite and was located immediately adjacent to a brand new medical clinic i built so had to be as safe as possible.
2) is its output 415V only or does it already have 240V take-off? I am guessing you might want the flexibility of a 3 phase outlet perhaps, then acouple of higher amperage GPO's ?
3) voltage brown-out detection is fairly mature technology so that would be easy - integration of this power supply into your house supply may be trickier regards local regs - I am not an electrical engineer, and doing things on a mine site are totally different, so we had to have an entirely new, stand alone sub board that fed into the existing 'house board', and then ran into earthing trips between the two systems - something called an MEN link from memory as the potentials of the genset to earth and the 'house ' to earth were different - its a while ago, but it was resolved eventually. The genset i used was a 10kva 240V genset, so we didn't have to stuff around with taking load off individual phases. I think it was around 12K from memory.
4) you have already mentioned the feed from the underground service being a bottleneck, so I would think you may be up for an upgrade if the cable is not up to the rated capacity of the genset. Location of the genset closest to the highest draw would make sense, so either way you are going to have a long cable run, but then you might say the most frequent use is for house power loss as against the powering of the welder.
5) I am wondering if this is best resolved via a conversation with a remote power grid supplier, simple candid discussion, maybe some opportunity to get them involved down the track in some way, but I would have the length of run from the house in hand, the incoming power capacity you have now and what the size of the cable is from house to shed, and breaker sizes in that sub board, the config of the portable unit also, on hand so it builds a quick and dirty picture. They may come back and recommend the genset as shed only for example? Or if hunting for work come out and give you a proposal. Either way, I think there is going to be a bit of money needed to spend. Not easy.

The capacity of the unit looks good though if you can make it work - really does need a sparky to appraise and resolve though. I am lucky at my place as have 3 x 80amp supplies to the house, so my garage has 80amp 415 which is broken down to 40amp sockets and then a big 240V outlet for the welder as well. When the estate transformer used to go out in the early days, we only ever lost 1/3 of the house, whilst the rest of the neighbor's lost every 3rd home - bit like a cheshire cat in 45 degC with the lights and a/c blaring!

Just saw Matty's reply, so leave it to him.