Stupid thing to do to a brand new welder

[tnjind]

PUMPKINHEAD,once again, I am tnjind on the project side, I do not (or did not til it was brought up in an earlier post) know anything about the people at toolbox talk.

If you can not wrap your pumpkin around that, then tuff. I am new here.
Give it up,ONCE AGAIN I am not part of your conspiracy theory.

Tim Beeker (AKA tnjind)

[walker]

Hey McC,

" The cost is in maintaining a dangerously large grid. We should have small generating stations in every town. "
You are saying that it costs more to maintain a grid than it does a power plant??? I live in a major city with several large power plants. One hundred miles to the north is a smaller city with no plant and they use transmission lines to get their electric power from here. You're saying that the one hundred miles of wire that is suspended on poles, and has been since the 50's, costs more to maintain that a fuel burning power plant with 24 hr staff and skyrocketing fuel costs as well as mandated EPA updates, etc? They used to need power plants in every local in the earlier part of the century, but since then they have pretty much perfected power transmission through wires and it is now cheaper to generate power in one location and transfer it to outlying locations.
With the advent of fuel cell and other technology, who knows. We may be back to generating power at idividual homes, but right now central generation and transmission are the way to go.
Also, you say it is easy to make free electricity. Tell me how! I'd love to do it. Any windmill, waterwheel, or solar panel cost money, usually a lot of it, and requires maintenance.

[bryce_burden]

Why not use a sling to lift the welder. To weld a lifting eye to a welder has some special considerations. First, how well do you weld? Second, is the part you want to weld the eye to strong enough to support the entire welder properly? Maybe Miller decided that a lifting eye was not a good idea on that model.

I agree. The folks at Miller probably know what they're doing and did that for a reason. I personally can't see the need for one but I don't use em that much. Everything I do with them can be easily accessed from where I can wheel the machine to. I myself wouldn't take the risk of welding on the machine. I even go to the precaution of unhooking both battery cables on my truck when I do any welding on it. Just my .02 on the lift eye

[FusionKing]

I agree. The folks at Miller probably know what they're doing and did that for a reason. I personally can't see the need for one but I don't use em that much. Everything I do with them can be easily accessed from where I can wheel the machine to. I myself wouldn't take the risk of welding on the machine. I even go to the precaution of unhooking both battery cables on my truck when I do any welding on it. Just my .02 on the lift eye

I sorta agree and disagree. I'm sure the folks at Miller knew what they were doing alright but whether or not that was the right decision is a matter of opinion If you need to move your machine a lot then it could be a pain not to have one. I bought my 350P at the LWS and they used a forktruck to load it into the back of my old pickup. First delima was where to hook the ratchet straps? Then when I got to my shop I was by myself so I rigged a sling fom those fancy front handles to the bottle rack and used my cherry picker. A lifting eye would have been a really cool thing IMO.

As far as unhooking your battery cables on your truck...what if yer truck WAS the welding truck...you gonna do that everyday??

[J hall]

As far as unhooking your battery cables on your truck...what if yer truck WAS the welding truck...you gonna do that everyday??

Now what did you start?

[Padro]

Battery cables

As far as unhooking your battery cables on your truck...what if yer truck WAS the welding truck...you gonna do that everyday??[/QUOTE]

Got my welder, bolted to a skid, with a folding table bolted to that, bolted to my fifth wheel hitch, bolted to the frame of my truck, with a lot of other stuff bolted to it. My understanding, Miller is afraid of fumes igniting (engine driven) from the welder. Should I be worried? 6 years no Ka-boom.

[bryce_burden]

I've never had any problems as far as using the machine while it was mounted to the truck. I was talking more about when I do any type of welding actually on the truck (as in striking an arc on it) for such things as exhaust work, headache rack fit-up, things that involve an arc being struck on the truck. As far as our welding truck goes, I don't unhook the cables every time I fire the machine up.

[FusionKing]

I'm sure you don't... but my point is when yer welding something on the back of the truck. Then, what's the difference?

[BWS29128]

I just pulled the wheels off my HTP2400 last week. I weld on my tailgate alot with my Champion 10,000...all I do is make sure the grounding nut is attached to the copper wire going into the bed of my Dakota.

I've been considering putting a lifting eye on my '2400....at 212 pounds it isn't easy to just throw it up in the back of the truck whenever I want, so I usually lift it up onto my lawnmower utility trailer first, then roll the trailer under the lowered tailgate, and then make the remaining 8" jump to the truck bed pretty easily....removing the 80cu bottle first, of course.

Two weeks ago I found myself in the position of needing to get my '2400 off the back of the truck and down a 30deg embankment of a dry pond's dam. I cut a piece of 2X8 (treated yellow pine) to length and then put two lag-eyes in each end and used a mini trac-hoe and sling to lift it off the truck, swing it out over the side of the dam, and then lower it far enough down for it to be useful to weld on the aluminum riser pipe.