Carbon arc gouging: the grinders angry cousin

[@ED_T]

Good information Greg! Carbon arc gouging storytime: at work we were disassembling a rather large cold rolling mill gearbox. The component we were having trouble with was a yoke that connects one of the output shafts to a universal joint. The yoke weighed 1 metric ton, to put things in perspective. So this yoke wasn’t coming off the shaft no matter how much we were heating and pressing. The engineers decided the yoke had to be gouged off so a new one could be installed. The gouging job was to burn through the 6” wall thickness of the yoke on both sides and 8” thickness on the end. The shaft stuck in the yoke was not to be damaged because it had to be re-used. Gouging the sides was done over the double keyways to not damage the shaft. As we did not have a gouging setup we had a welder with a big truck come over and do this job. Poor guy was gouging this yoke for 2 full days. He used mainly flat electrodes, I don’t remember what size but his power supply could do 500A.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Haha 2 days straight of that is definitely a job and a half 😅. Basically running an onsite steel mill with the amount of material melted and removed lol.

[@ericarachel55]

there is a guy on you tube who has the channel CEE (cutting edge engineering) who is in Australia and he repairs and rebuilds excavators, dozers, graders etc mostly from the mining industry and he specializes in rebuilding hydrolic cylinders, but he uses carbon arc gouging on occasion and it is awesome to watch, It is like scooping metal out of machines, this guy is fun to watch as he not only does all phases of welding but he is a very good machinist as well with his lathe work and milling skills

[@minigpracing3068]

Kurtiss at CEE, he does a lot of this process to take stuff apart.

[@ericarachel55]

@@minigpracing3068 yeppers

[@ramiroespinoza1338]

youtube.com/@ICWeld?si=IJR6RnJRzgmUMazM

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

That guy is awesome and is involved in a ton of stuff. I normally see clips on Facebook of his work. Awesome to watch 😀

[@notajp]

I’ve got an ancient huge boat anchor Linde in my shop that’s rated at 380 amps in my shop. Could probably arc gouge with it, but don’t know if my air compressor could keep up. I have used my plasma cutter for gouging. It actually worked quite well. I have arc gouged in the past with a Lincoln torpedo welder. Yes, it’s definitely a very loud and messy process, but quite efficient once you get used to it.

[@ypaulbrown]

Greg, your description of the Carbon Arc/ Air Arc process at 6:00 is why I like your channel.... and the heck with the guy who complains about the noise, that is why I love my needle scaler in the shop.....Paulie

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Yeah one guy (who argues with everyone that they aren’t doing their job right) is a bit intolerable so everyone makes sure to make extra noise when he is around 😅. Within 10 seconds of arc gouging he is already hollering it’s too loud. I left ear plugs on his tool box last time 😅

[@mkearn724]

Nice break down Greg. Air arcing is hell on machines for sure. I’ve smoked a few Lincoln invertec 350’s while gouging for hours on end. Removing erecting lifting lugs for days on end is something that will put a hurting on any machine. I’m sure it’s not good for the big blue 500’s that I’ve used either. I knew it was gonna be rough on the machines but I just did what I was told. That’s one reason why I’d be skeptical about buying any sort of welder that was a rental. Rockmount makes gouging stick rods that don’t require an air source, but they are like $180 for a 5 pound container. They still require stupid power to operate. Just like you mentioned about 1/8”…. They require 225amps. I saw that box in the background….. looks like arccaptian is persistent 😂

[@TheMadHatter626]

So I'm not the only one eyeing rockmount and their prices. I found ZENA NO-Gas Arc Cutting Rods for $7 for .5bl I haven't tried them yet but they might be worth looking into.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

180$ for a 5lb box is a lot lol. In a pinch I have used 6010 1/8th at about 200+ amps lol. It will cut off bolt heads no problem lol. I see former United rental engine drives for sale, I bet they have been run for thousands of hours air arcing lol. I would be skeptical for sure on one of those used.

[@paulhudson4792]

Hey Greg! I really appreciate your videos. I'm a total noob welder. As an older guy, i bought myself a cheap unit from Amazon a few months back, and am figuring out flux core for some small home projects and repairs. I never comment on videos as far as i can remember, this may be my first one. I really appreciate your willingness to answer questions and make videos based on those videos. Not sure if this would merit that, but if like to know what you think: I have a truck that i bought used many years ago. It now has 300k+miles on it, and it runs great. I've done all the maintenance and repairs in it, including replacing the heads and a full transmission overhaul. I did a complete overhaul of the front suspension and steering last year, and i found out that one of the bolts on one of the steering knuckles for the brake caliper was being held in with those cheap thread inserts, the springy wire kind they sell at the auto parts store, when the insert came out with the bolt. I normally would've replaced the steering knuckle, but they're no longer available, and used ones are rare and expensive. I ended up putting a new one of those cheap inserts in, but it doesn't take up all the slack in the hole in the knuckle, and every time i back the truck up while the steering is turned to the left, it makes a small thud that is really just annoying, not s serious issue. So, my question for you is: if i took out that knuckle, could i use my little welder, that i do have hooked to 220v, and is supposed to be able to put out 175 amps, and some 035 flux core wire, and fill that hole in the knuckle so that i can re-drill and tap it so the bolt fits right again? The stress on this bolts is strictly shear force perpendicular to its axis, so I'm not worried about the bolt being pulled out, i just need it to not rock back and forth whenever i hit the brakes. Grinding, drilling, and tapping a 1/2 thick piece of cast steel is no issue for me, i just need to know if i fill it with a weld, will it hold well enough?

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Thanks for the kind words and I do have advice. What you talk about is doable, possibly. There are a lot of things that will throw a wrench into the plans. Anything cast typically has higher carbon content and it will become extremely brittle when welded. This poses 4 major problems: 1: the weld will become very brittle due to carbon absorption. 2: the area around the weld will become brittle. 3: the weld may crack clean off the cast as it cools 4: the finished weld may be impossibly hard to drill. There are ways around this. The primary one being using 312 stainless filler material, preheating the part, and slowly cooling it which is a solution that doesn’t become brittle due to carbon absorption. This is limited to tig and stick which both are harder to do what you want to do. Another option would be to torch braze it and tap it. Braze metal doesn’t melt the base material so you eliminate many potential problems with castings by using it. The downsides to this is it’s less strong than a weld. Beyond the mentioned ways if the material is know to have low carbon content it would be easily welded with normal welding wire. Flux core wouldn’t be my first choice to fill a hole due to its common issue with gas bubbles/porosity when filling holes. Gas shielded might would do that far better and would be a better choice. Beyond that I really need to do a video on repairing cast parts and jobs like what you have. There is a ton of stuff to cover, far more than I could type out effectively.

[@paulhudson4792]

@@makingmistakeswithgreg Thanks, Greg. That all makes sense. I've looked into stainless flux core wire before as that's the real reason I started this whole new hobby: I'd like to make my own smoker someday out of stainless so I don't have to keep replacing it every few years. But the only alloy available in flux core is 308. And I've seen videos where they have done what you suggest with cast parts. So it sounds like to me, if I want to do this with my welder, I'll need to attach that stinger and figure out how to stick weld it. And yeah, drilling this stuff isn't great. But I've had to do it enough times, on my different vehicles over the years, I bought a whole set of drills and taps for it a few years ago. You gotta be patient, but it can be done. Thanks again. I appreciate the advice.

[@jake-mv5oi]

Great explanation about the home gamer machines. I always wondered about that. Love watching Isaac use the carbon arc like a scalpel.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

When it goes well you can literally just erase a whole weld and have a perfect clean surface left, like there was no weld. It’s far easier (in my opinion) than using a torch, it doesn’t care as much about how poor the material is, and it is far more forgiving.

[@DG-fn7qg]

Dude! You totally crushed my dream! Great info. Perfect timing, I was looking at this process. Works fast and it's a lot of fun. Looks like grinding wheels and a torch tip are in my future. Thanks again for the breakdown!

[@arthurmoore9488]

Don't know if you have one already or not, but personally oxy-fuel was quite the leap for me. Figuring out what I needed, where I needed to go etc... I ended up summoning my courage, accepting my wallet would be empty and just walked into an Airgas store.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

A torch setup is very useful for the home, the only downside is the cost to refill them. It does add up over time. A torch is more useful than a plasma cutter in my opinion, and I would have a torch first. A torch you can heat/beat metal, free stuck bolts/nuts, cut steel, and you can use gouging tips which work similar to air arc. I won’t sugar coat it, a torch takes a lot of skill to use well. However you don’t have to be the best to get a lot of use out of a setup.

[@DG-fn7qg]

@@makingmistakeswithgreg Helpful, as always!

[@tsl7881]

Yeah I watch Issac over at IC welds and he works mainly on heavy construction equipment and uses carbon arc all the time. My plasma doesn't have a gouge setting so I wanted this to work but I've been looking at the numbers and kept saying nope.

[@veejaybomjay8145]

Hi Greg, if you get the chance you should see a steel bridge being de-erected by Thermal Lance, it is the Big Brother of CAG. The typical thermal lance is simply a black iron tube filled with steel wire, oxy/acc is connected to the base of the lance. Acetylene is used to initiate the process and is shut of when the wire reaches kindling temperature, open the O2 valve and the thermal lance cuts. The operator wears a full flameproof suit and is usually sprinkled with a good quantity of water while cutting. The black iron pipe is sacrificial. Impressive process!

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I have wanted to pickup a portable lance setup to play with, but the cost combined with the current lack of use for it has prevented me 😅. I was talking with a coworker who has run the process (on a smaller scale), and he told me you will blow through oxygen like nothing and it can rain Liquid Metal on you like you’re in the bathroom showering lol. What you’re talking about is even more extreme, beats trying to torch cut it lol.

[@cousinfuzzy4544]

@@makingmistakeswithgregI worked in a fiberglass factory for almost 30 years in the furnace department. We used the lances he is talking about to cut hardened glass. They would start out 10 feet long and about 3/4 of inch across. They too are extremely loud and shower you in molten metal and in our case molten glass. It would only take about 3 mins to burn one completely up depending on the oxygen pressure you were running. There wasn’t much they wouldn’t burn through including stainless steel. I’m not absolutely sure but I was told the wires inside the tubes was some type of magnesium. I do know it was an extremely hot but interesting process.

[@andyb4071]

Ooooo, a treat especiale! Thanks Greg.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Skookum for sure 😀

[@robertschemonia5617]

I have a PrimeWeld TIG 225, and it runs 6010s just as smooth as you could ask. Its a great machine. Silky smooth TIG too. And was CHEAP for all the features it has. I have a big 3 phase Hobart arc master 351 i use for the heavy stuff like gouging, and for when i have a huge amount of MIG to do. Its a 100% duty cycle machine, with a liquid cooled stinger. I also use the liquid cooler for my TIG torch. Very well spoken and explained video.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

The prime weld machines seem to be solid. I really like the fact that they come with solid tig torches and the simplified controls flat out work. Many companies overthink controls and I appreciate the approach they took. They have also proven to be reliable across the board, which is a good thing. Glad to hear yours is treating you good.

[@robertschemonia5617]

@makingmistakeswithgreg I got mine mainly for the ability to AC TIG. And you are VERY right about the controls. Having the ability to just turn a knob to make an adjustment rather than having to navigate a bunch of menus is very underrated. And let's face it, those screens won't last as long as a simple, tried and true potentiometer. If one of them does go bad, you can just get the value off of the case of the pot and order a new one. Their customer/technical support is second to none as well.

[@tinkering123]

Good educational vid. You're a great instructor.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

That’s for the kind words 😀.

[@jeremys8360]

I decided to try to diy arc gouge with my esab rogue 180 with a 3/32 Vulcan 7018 and it was able to blow clean holes through 1/4 steel. I needed to drill a bunch of holes and kept breaking drill bits so I tried that and it worked great

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Believe it or not if you use a 3/32 6010 dipped in water at 180a you can cut a bolt off like a plasma cutter lol.

[@jeremys8360]

@@makingmistakeswithgregI’ll have to give that a try. I guess the water keeps the rod cool so that it doesn’t just blow apart after 5 seconds?

[@OldTantoGuy]

Awsome! Thanks Greg - glad to get an indepth first person account of something I have seen a lot in videos, but never in person.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

If you ever have the chance to do it, it’s 100% worth it. It’s literally like a magic eraser for metal lol.

[@BobWolford-q2b]

Yeah I asked my welding instructor couple of years ago about carbon arc gouging, and he replied, "Well, let me just show you what it's all about...". Took me out back, hooked up the rig to a big-ass machine, cranked that sucker up to some unGodly amperage, and said, "Watch this..." and proceeded to completely obliterate a weld on grove practice plate. And then he handed it to me and said, "Have at it!". That is a brutal process, but quite effective at getting rid of undesirable welds and all that, but good gosh almighty- the destruction and aftermath. I learned real quick to avoid the area where this was being done, as all kinds of shit are flying around. I worked for a very short period of time (2 weeks) in a forklift fab shop, and they had to do this to an assembled component because it wasn't put together within specs- so they had to gouge all the welds out and basically start over- they rolled over some old machine that was probably the size of my car and the guy guy went to work on it- made all kinds of racket with shit flying everywhere.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

That’s pretty much carbon arc in a nutshell lol. When you get everything just right it’s like a magic eraser for metal. You can lose track of what you’re actually doing, and upon lifting your welding hood realize things around you are on fire 😅.

[@joesteffens613]

It’s been a while since I was on a welding position at work, but we run the miller big blue air pac truck mount welders. We would use carbon arc cutting on manganese steel but not on high carbon steel. I think we used 400 amps for the size carbons we used. In basic welding class we had to cut and gouge a coupon to fit a 1x1x1/8 insert flush to the coupon with no more than a 1/16 gap on the edges. That was fun. I ground and sharpened my carbons to get the corners and edges. I passed but not by much. I have to admit, I didn’t used carbon arc cutting much, most times I could grind out the repair spot before I could get the welder set up. Thanks Greg.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Considering the work it takes to setup (and dealing with the hazards) for most jobs it’s simply not worth the time to use it. That test sounds challenging to say the least, that would take some decent practice. You must have had some decent skill to even barely pass 😀.

[@billsmith5166]

I've always wondered about this process. Thanks for the video.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

No problem. Everyone should try it out atleast once. It makes a big job removing welds far easier to say the least lol.

[@TheMadHatter626]

Thank you for covering arc gouging and I'm looking forward to future videos on it. Trying to find information on it can be challenging. I've managed to do some gouging with a Miller CST 280 and a 25gal Craftsman 3hp 3.5cfh compressor. It's doable but I definitely need a better setup for future use.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

The cst 280 is definitely doable to gouge with, but its output/duty cycle is somewhat low on single phase. The carbon arc process is definitely tough to find info on. My learning curve was as steep as you can get, basically “figure it out” lol. With enough power and the right rod size for what you’re doing it’s literally easy as pie to do. The hard part is not going too deep and making sure everything around you isn’t on fire 😅

[@danielsplayhouse3804]

Yes Greg I do have to say that was a very good information all video that you put on there about carbon Arc gouging. Like some of the other guys I've managed to do some carbon arguing with my Prime weld take 225x I use 5/32 rods to do my carbon Arc gouging and yes I will definitely say it is hard as hell on a machine. My machine I would say it wasn't screaming for Mercy but I did not hit duty cycle on it and it did very very well but I would not recommend doing it all the time...

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Cool to hear you atleast tried it on your machine. That machine has a pretty high rated voltage and amperage, so definitely better odds of it running. Everyone should be able to try it atleast once 😀.

[@maxscott3349]

I run 3/16 and if I really have to 1/4 off this old lincoln mig. You have to put a rubber band on the trigger and turn the voltage all the way up, but it definitely works and it is much more cost effective than a die grinder for anything the least bit hard to access. Or even a regular grinder. Edit: 29 volts, and it's a 260 amp machine I think. 240v 50 amp service probably. You're probably right that it's not good for it though

[@melgross]

I occasionally do some plasma gouging. It’s a lot simpler. But I don’t do work on really heavy/thick steel. 3/8” is the heaviest I would do.

[@ypaulbrown]

hey Greg, wishing you and the family a Happy Mom's day......

[@stevedaff9774]

Excellent info!

[@Ryansroga-wm6pj]

Very informative thank you for sharing bud

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

No problem 😀

[@sebastianleicht]

Hi Greg, very good explanation why not to try CAG at home. I personally substitute this with plasma at home. Still an fairly "energy hungry" process but way more suitable for home. But hard to find a plasmasource that does not break after half an hour qauging for reasonable money. I did this to my Cheap chinese one. Got a bigger that works well but the consumables are quite bad and wear quickly. As always: great content. Take care of you.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I have heard consumables get eaten up fast. I had a hypertherm xp45 that I gouged with, and it seemed to not eat consumables. I ended up selling it due to not really needing it. I might have to pickup a more reasonable setup and try it out. When you say break do you mean never works again? Lol

[@sebastianleicht]

With "break" I men that a relais Was cooked up and I had to exchange it. Found out is was this relais "by accident" while fiddling around with the cheapo to find out how it actually works (did this because it had already fallen defect the Relais sounded somehow weird). Giving this device to repair was no option, because it was €79 brand new. These cheapos come with come with ag60 or p80 torches which are uncompareable minor in quality compared to hypertherm, cebora or telwin. This may by the cause for the rapid wear...

[@damianporter7114]

I used the big rods everyday. It's loud. Especially when it echos in the distance. In a confine space compartment, it sounds like a jet or a Bruce Lee sound effect

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I bet a confined space would really up the volume 😮. The sparks having a easier time coming back at you must be a trip 🔥

[@engjds]

Interesting, I read about this a few weeks ago, the only process possibility for home, seems to be a mini-thermic lance, made from brake tube fed by an oxgen bottle (stuff wire wool in the end to light it with blow torch), but I am guessing it would be too violent to blast out welds?

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Thermal lances are great at cutting off pins/bolts, and burning through pins stuck in bores. The downside to that process is you can’t really control it to be useful for melting off welds, and it burns through oxygen so fast it’s pretty expensive. A option a person has at home is using a oxy fuel torch and a gouging tip. This works, but not nearly as clean as air arc. Basically you have one shot to get a clean pass on cutting out a weld. If you butcher it the dross and slag left on the surface is impossible to clean gouge through (basically it goes from worse to terrible lol). Plasma gouging is a possibility as well, it’s just slower than torch and requires a plasma machine that can do it.

[@mike-yp1uk]

Awesome

[@genegilseth2625]

There is another option to research. I watch another channel that discussed the Hypertherm Powermax85 sync. It is capable of plasma gouging. Might be a viable option for the home diy'er.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Plasma gouging is better suited for home use than carbon arc for sure. It requires far less power, a much smaller air compressor, and for average repairs it will work great.

[@michaelwhiting878]

Great video and information on a subject I have been wondering about after seeing “Melting Metal Anthony” use on heavy equipment. Looks like you would want some serious FR and HD PPE, especially gloves! Too bad this process is out of reach for most home welders. Although not nearly as effective, what about Plasma Cutters as a way to remove (gouge out) metal? My emails are not getting through anymore. Could you please check your Spam folder or Blocked list. Thank You

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I will check my email when I am home tomorrow. I have not see anything from you in a long while, thanks for the notice on that. As far as plasma gouging, it works great, but it can be hard on consumables and it is best on smaller welds. I find it to work better than torch gouging, especially in poor material.

[@williamdavis4511]

And the good ole boys club swindled that assets out the door years ago and glad I'm really close to retirement..

[@TheDom0]

Hi Greg, Does this this process create a similar affect to a gouging nozzle, one that you use on an Oxy fuel torch? Cheers Dom

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

A gouging tip on a torch washes away metal just like a carbon rod. The big benefit to the carbon rod is it will work on anything that conducts electricity, the torch won’t do much other than steel. The air arc also takes far less skill (in my opinion) than the torch. I am by no means a expert in torch gouging, but I find you have one shot to get a good pass or you will have a ton of issues with dross affecting the quality of a second pass. Air arc doesn’t require near perfect first pass to go back for a second if needed. Torch is so much quieter and pleasant to use though lol.

[@dennisyoung4631]

You too! with self-ignition?

[@michaelc9507]

Great video I’m sure a lot of folks would like to see thermal Lancing! That is 1000x more hot flowing everywhere lava. All kinds of color smoke coming out and heat it’s some skill to know how to operate.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I have been wanting to get a portable kit for doing loader pins and stuff. You might see a video on it in the near future. Lots more molten lava, which is definitely fun 😅.

[@mikeadler434]

👍👍

[@VashStarwind]

Wonder if you could do the old school method at home. Just using a regular welding rod, and an air compressor and blow the weld away. I wonder how that would work. Might get you by, but idk ha

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

So the issue is you wouldn’t want anything that deposited metal. With carbon arc you’re able to create a “weld” pool without depositing metal. The air blown in doesn’t react with the carbon rod either which is an issue with say tig or stick welding. The closest thing you could do at home would be a torch setup with a gouging tip. It is able to wash away metal much like carbon arc, but it’s doable for fairly cheap. The downside is it’s actually much harder to get good results with the torch than with carbon arc. I can make nice gouges all day easily with carbons (as could most people), but the torch is far harder to get even halfway decent results.

[@Boodieman72]

I suppose you could run it at home if you have an engine driven welder parked outside like a Big Blue Airpak from Miller. How does the carbon arc gouging process compare to plasma cutting?

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

So plasma can gouge, but at a much more limited weld size that can be removed. A plasma cutter with gouging functions is a much more reasonable setup for use at a small shop or in the home. Far more affordable and reasonable.

[@TL-zh9qq]

I use a 250.00 $ BestArc Plama cutter to do gouging at home,, works very well.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I have heard that it can be hard on tips doing plasma gouging, but the machine I did it with in the past seemed to be ok. Definitely far more reasonable for home use lol.

[@andrewbradstreet4218]

What did you do to your hand? Safety third!

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

A pack of angle grinders jumped me in an alley. I got the best of them though. Bastards always wait when you’re tired as hell, want to get something done, and not wearing gloves. 😀

[@andrewbradstreet4218]

@@makingmistakeswithgreg that could happen to anyone, if you're not careful. Try walking in pairs maybe. Ha

[@dennisyoung4631]

Generator welder for arc-gouging probably needs a 4-53 Detroit-Diesel engine, and a thousand amps continuous!

[@tdm8817]

It is possible to carbon arc at home. Heres a link to one of videos of carbon arc gouging off a 160 amp everlast invwrter welder in my home shop. kzbin.info/www/bejne/havKqpeXbc-Cqrssi=sdndQAyM613TgLJD Granted with a machine this small its slow compared to a industrial sized machine but its still way faster than a grinder. Give it a try with a machine you got at home and it might just work great for you too.

[@josiahwales4736]

You can tag team that electrode with 2 machines. We hooked 2 xmt 350s to one arcair stinger to run a half inch gouging rod. Man it's such a noisy violent process and I'm glad I'm no longer the bucket bitch for cat 988h loaders.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I would have never thought to run two welders lol. I use a xmt350 to gouge with and it has been holding up good so far. Definitely not a process worth making a career out of… probably would wind up dead and blind lol.

[@stevenaylor5163]

Seems like a plasma cutter with a gouge function would be better for home use.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

100% right. Plasma gouging for average jobs (especially like cutting off bolts and such) is an easily controlled process with far less collateral damage lol. Far cheaper, more useful, and a simpler setup.

[@stevenaylor5163]

A video on that process might be cool.

[@JonDingle]

Have pondered this system and given up on it in preference for gas gouging. It's cheaper and can be run without electrickery.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Great point and I totally forgot to mention that. I will be honest, I am not very good at gouging with a torch. I have a bunch of tips and use it on occasion, but I struggle getting consistent results. It seems it does good for a few inches and then everything goes to hell lol. It’s far quieter than air arc and can be done with far cheaper equipment that anyone can get ahold of 😀

[@mattsmediasource6238]

Dumb question, why do you have a bar of Irish spring on the table?

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I use it on grinding discs and flap discs to prevent aluminum from sticking to them. It works great, and allows them to actually cut aluminum.

[@samuelchamberlain2584]

Could inverters be paralleled ? Has anyone tried it ?

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I have heard this could be done, I have not tried it. This would be a way to achieve higher output with less powerful machines. The power requirement will still be pretty crazy. Depending on the welders you would need about 16-18k watts drawn from the wall (66amps on the low end) to run a 1/4in carbon. Two 40 or 50amp circuits and two cheaper 200+ amp stick welders would be needed.

[@signalmaintainer]

No doubt that arc gouging is more of an industrial process. However, some plasma cutters can gouge pretty well with the right tips. Still puts out a lot of sparks, but can remove most smaller welds. Guys that use the big carbon rods will use full-suit welding outfits with outboard air supplies. Nasty the bigger they get. I would hate to be one of your co-workers!

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

The plasma end of things is definitely versatile and far more useable in the home. I have heard tips don’t last long but that didn’t seem to be an issue for the machine I used to own. The suit a person would need to be running 800a on a 1/2in or bigger carbon would have to be extreme lol. At that point you pretty much are running a mini arc furnace 😅

[@tsl7881]

You're just a killjoy. I already had determined Impractical. Plasma gouging?

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Plasma gouging is pretty useful, but what I used (hypertherm xp45) is not exactly a big material remover. It seemed more useful for washing away bolt heads and studs than a multi pass weld remover. The other issue is access, the plasma torch is far harder to get into places than the carbon rod. Plasma gouging is also hard on tips. I wish there was something between plasma and carbon arc. I guess oxy fuel with a gouging tip would be that. It’s just hard to get as clean of a gouge with that vs plasma or carbon arc.

[@OldGuy70s]

Ah huh.............

[@BobWolford-q2b]

Yes, this is purely an INDUSTRIAL process meant for INDUSTRICAL settings- do this in your home, and you'll be calling the fire department in short order to save your house.

[@mixpick138]

Lol. I was gonna' ask if you could get a few seconds of the beast in action and then you said you were gonna' try. Clearly not worth any aggravation it might cause at work unless the boss is on-board with it... Maybe tell him/her the company will get free advertising in return?? Lol.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

So I now work for a municipality, and the boss is a pretty cool guy. I am sort of a person that does everything I can to get a job done fast and efficient. I will have to find a way to get some footage of it while not slowing down on the job 😀. I have a couple heavy plate in field repairs to tackle soon, I will likely do it then 😀