Re: (ET) Elec-Trak Welder Worked Great

[David Tiefenbrunn <dtiefenbrunn snet net>]

At 09:56 PM 2/13/00 -0600, Jeff wrote:

>The only problem I encountered, due to my inexperience, was I popped the
>120 amp circuit breaker on the welder unit once.  At the time, the unit
>was pretty warm from several sticks of welding and I was having trouble
>"striking" an arc. 

I am not familiar with the Elec-Trac welder,  but most non-industrial
welders are rated for something like 20% duty cycle.  The welder I have is
good for 100 amps all day, so I only have to worry if I am doing big heavy
stuff.

>The welder manual does mention the unit was intended
>for light repairs rather than production welding jobs.

That also makes sense,  from the standpoint of battery life,  as more,  and
deeper cycles "wear out" the batteries faster.  Once in a while,  no big
deal...every day would be an expensive way to weld.

>I wish we would get a
>big New England snow fall so I could  try out my Elec-Trak snow blower.

I have the 42" single stage blower.  It works great.  I have routinely
blown heavy slushy snow with it.  The only trick is that you have to get
the right forward speed / width of "cut" combination to avoid overload or
plugging the chute.
Of course,  it has no trouble with the dry powdery snow.  While watching a
friend try it after a light (1") snow,  I saw that the snow was actually
sucked into the auger before the blades had to touch it!

A friend has a very well done home made conversion / custom 2 stage blower,
 but I have not seen it in action.

As a future project,  I plan to build a switched mode (read efficient and
infinitely variable) throttle. 

I have to check out the bucket loader recently mentioned on the list.  I
have daydreamed about building a back hoe for mine,  although most of the
things I need to do in my yard (as far as digging is concerned) require my
bigger diesel machine.

Dave

Dave  Tief.  N1WWY
Addie Tief.  N1XQP
Tribble,  Noodles,  Cecil,  Bandit,  Scooter and Magic.
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