Nicholas –
Thank you. As it happens someone at work did give me a short lesson in MIG welding one day, but not long after that the company decided it was more economical to sell the welding plant and bring in a contract welder, rather than have the occasional welding done by someone still employed anyway! So that was a one-off lesson.
I also have some training-materials written for welding and fabrication courses However, although that brief lesson and those books give me some background, I appreciate it also needs much practice and a very steady hand even just to put a ridge of weld metal along a bit of scrap plate.
What is the difficulty with flux-cored wire? Does it need an especially steady hand to maintain the right gap for the tiny bit of flux available to work properly?
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Grindstone –
I don't have the advantage of a friendly local welding supplier who can refill bottles for me, but a quick search once I'd found the right name, shows the nearest Hobby Weld agent is not very far away.
That culinary tip's new to me! I know the sound should be steady and fairly quiet but I must admit I've never really thought about the acoustics of bacon and sausages.
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A good question, Nick (Farr) -.
There is an RCD labelled "Shed" in the panel by the meter, in the home's front porch, but nothing to tell me the rating.
The cable down the garden looks armoured, by a very short section exposed across a path between the lawn in which it is buried, and the house wall. It goes through the wall into a junction box. I do not know the armoured cable size but the continuation upstream looks like 13A flex. Hmmmm. It vanishes into Goodness-knows-where, but my suspicion is an otherwise-isolated twin socket below the kitchen work-top. Very Hmmm.
At a guess, there is a good 20m of cable involved; possibly nearer 30. The house and garden are not very large but the cable has to follow walls etc.
My thought was to run a new cable but in conduit along the garden wall. I don't know the circuits in the shed but I'd replace with a surface-mounted ring-main for the sockets with a spur for the lighting (l.e.d. strips).
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As far as the metalworking goes, I have largely worked out an alternative assembly so it is not welded and can use that steel that prompted my original question. It is fine for bolted, screwed-in or rivetted work, and indeed as candidate material for some of the engine components.
I have accumulated much off-cut and re-work scrap I could practise on. Some of it is steel box-section (ERW tube), 50 X 50 X 3mm, maybe only 2.5mm, and I know that can be welded.