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Good morning

I saw the plane crash into the second tower live on television 20 years ago..

Saturday 9/11/2021 I made a phone call to the friend who called me at about 8:50 am after he saw the news story about the first crash.

He was working the 6 - 2 shift at the Atlanta Air Traffic Control Center and I was getting ready to leave home for the 10 - 6pm shift.

When I picked up the phone, he said, "Turn on the TV."
I asked, "Which channel?"
He said, "It doesn't make any difference," and then hung up on me.

I watched a minute on some news channel like CNN. Then I grabbed my gear and left for my 10 minute drive to the Center.
All our TVs --- I mean standby monitors --- were tuned to the news and I saw the second crash with Wayne and the manager.

I went up to the control room in the afternoon and there was an eerie quiet. The control room normally has a constant hum of radio communications, but the whole room was draped somber absence of productivity. The only voices were at the supervisors' desk and the weather console.
The planes had been swept from the air and most controllers were sent home.

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Good morning Mossberg Owners.

I have been shopping in person and online for a new welder for some time, and there are so many choices available it is nearly maddening.

I was convinced I wanted to buy a Lincoln multifunction welder because they are still made in Cleveland, Ohio; but then I found out the new ones are made in Mexico, and they are even more expensive than the ones that were made in Cleveland! And the one I want is not in stock.

Slowly my mind is changing.

For a the price of a Lincoln multifunction welder I can buy 3 dedicated welders, for stick, Tig and Mig, as long as I’m willing to settle for a foreign made machine.

And I must ask myself, is a welder made in Mexico really worth twice the price of a welder made in China?

anyhow I am not satisfied that I have done my homework yet and so today the research continues.

Today, my granddaughter who has signed up for the Marines and has been going to ROTC, turns 18 today. She’ll be leaving for Petaluma (probably) within the next few weeks.
 
Good luck with the search. Good welds take practice and I’ve found that the older I get, the less likely I have the time or energy to maintain proficiency in 3 or 4 distinct skill sets. The little MIG won out just because I can use it in either hand, in any position to weld anything, at the end of an extension cord, on my property. Lol. As far as ROTC and your granddaughter, that’s terrific. My daughter was in NJROTC in high school and rose to unit commander. She loved it. She got offered full scholarships to the Air Force and the Naval Academy’s at the end..
 

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I have been shopping in person and online for a new welder for some time, and there are so many choices available it is nearly maddening.

If you have ANY questions regarding welders/welding feel free to PM me or post here. I have Miller, Thermal Arc and Hobart equipment that gets used on a regular basis for MIG, TIG and plasma. I have owned plenty of Lincoln and ESAB equipment, as well. I'll often pick welding equipment up at auction, refurb it, use it then when I sell I'll at least double my money.

Much of the import stuff is "not bad" but I would get from a company that provides at least a year warranty. HF, Eastwood and Northern Tool have their "house" brands which I would consider if I was in the market. I'd avoid the debay "ships from China" crap. You really need to consider what kind of welding you want to do/metals you want to weld vs your budget. There are decent multi-machines that will probably do OK for most welding you do but as the TIG is DC only, welding aluminum will be out of the question. If you can, get a unit that runs on 230v--it is always better to overbuy with a welder. And my experience with the cheapy spoolguns is poor/fair with the gun some of these mfgs offer in a "package". I use a Miller 30A that is rated for 200A 100% duty cycle for a reason. :)

PS: I would consider a used Miller before spending the same money on a new import...

A forum you'all might consider is www.shopfloortalk.com. Good group of people that have tons of experience with all sorts of fabbing. It is a good forum with very little moderation run by some real patriots so gun talk is welcome there as is political discourse. Trolling libs are quickly culled from the ranks. ;)
 
A forum you'all might consider is www.shopfloortalk.com. Good group of people that have tons of experience with all sorts of fabbing. It is a good forum with very little moderation run by some real patriots so gun talk is welcome there as is political discourse. Trolling libs are quickly culled from the ranks. ;)
Lol..as a gun loving “ lib” who only trolls in a boat, I’ve had zero problems in the 6 years I’ve had my little Eastwood machine. Have a great day,Bob…
 
Thanks guys. The cost of used welders here is stupid. Maybe nobody wants the new ones?

I am really only interested in an AC/DC TIG, and I am wired for 240vac@50amps. I probably won’t do a lot of aluminum welding but I’m mostly going to concentrate on welding and brazing of mild steel.

I doubt I will order a welder from eBay or Amazon unless it comes highly recommended, and there are a few that do.

One is the Primeweld 220 for about $900 with accessories. Some folks don’t like the pedal.

One thing that amazes me is the availability and variety of torches cups and accessories. All that stuff seems ridiculously cheap until you buy the tungsten.
 
. . . I would consider a used Miller before spending the same money on a new import...

I have worked at several mfg plants were all they used were Millers, So I wouldn’t hesitate to buy an old one. If I could find one for a price that I liked. I haven’t looked at a new one yet. Only Lincolns, Hobarts and some import models sold by the local Lincoln dealer.

He says he can service those welders so ehhh….maybe.
 
I am really only interested in an AC/DC TIG, and I am wired for 240vac@50amps. I probably won’t do a lot of aluminum welding but I’m mostly going to concentrate on welding and brazing of mild steel.

I can't vouch for this particular (or any Eastwood) unit but for $800 the features seem decent. LINK I would use a different torch with water cooler (such as a #20) as the included #17 is only rated to 150A. I would need to see the torch connector at the machine before I purchased. The stick terminal appears to be Dinse so that is good.

PS: I would quiz them on the construction of the pedal because that could make or break the deal. The button on the torch is just on/off so that would be removed as un-needed.

The 9 and 20 torches take the same nozzles, endcaps and collets and the 17, 18 and 26 take the same stuff. I like the 20 because the handle is a lot thinner than the comparable 18 water-cooled. A torch cooler will easily add $500 to the price.

I have a couple little lunchbox stick welders that will also do DC TIG. One is an HF80 and the other TA95, both 115v. The HF is in the possession of my dot's BF--he is a good kid and I only paid $20 for it on clearance at HF (missing ground lead). The TA stays in a bin ready to go. If I need to TIG, I have a small 40cf of Argon I can take with me. If all you are going to do is ferrous metals and copper that would really be all you really need... But they are touch start and require a gas valve in the torch. But for basic they work good.

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I could do it all with acetylene.
But I really want a TIG.

I maybe found a nice Miller 300 series TIG with cart, tank and accessories, very lightly used for $1100. I’m going to go have a look at it tomorrow.

As far as I can tell, none of the inexpensive welders come with really good pedals. I’m hoping the one on that Miller is really nice.

I don’t think I’ll be welding long enough beads in heavy enough metal, to need a water cooled torch but it’s something I can add any time.
 
I could do it all with acetylene.
But I really want a TIG.

I maybe found a nice Miller 300 series TIG with cart, tank and accessories, very lightly used for $1100. I’m going to go have a look at it tomorrow.

O/A welding is very good practice for DC TIG as the motions and reactions of steel are similar. Alum is a different animal and not easily fused with fire.

I don't know what a "300 series" is but if it is a Syncrowave machine that is a very stout transformer-based machine that should not give you any trouble. It IS about 600-800lbs so there is that. The OEM pedals are a little clunky but a quality US replacement is about $180.

PS: and an included cylinder is worth at least $100 IF it is "customer-owned" and you have a place to get it filled/exchanged.

PPS: if that IS a Syncrowave that is a fair price. By accessories I'll assume it includes a TIG torch or two, tungstens, filler rod maybe in holders and pedal?
 
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Well it was a synchrowave, and yes I missed out. It was sold before I could get to it. There were two other syncrowaves for sale in the valley locally, and both of them were a lot more money.
 
Well it was a synchrowave, and yes I missed out. It was sold before I could get to it. There were two other syncrowaves for sale in the valley locally, and both of them were a lot more money.

I'm not "liking" that you missed out on the deal but that you updated us on it. :) Sorry you missed out... :( Deals come up every so often and you have to jump on them. Look up "auctions" in your area and you might find an industrial auction house that has on-site and/or in-house auctions of equipment.

I picked up a Lincoln TIG300 for $400 at auction last year at my local auction house. It did not come with torch or pedal. Navy surplus. Similar to the Sync 300 you were looking at. Old, heavy but bulletproof. I picked up a pedal from the HF open box table. I had my own torch and lug to Dinse adapter for testing. The pedal was another 20% off because it had been over 2 wks since it had last been marked down so it was around $43 out the door. FYI, HF will further mark down open box/returns again after 2wks has elapsed--see the manager. For $20 I got an Amptrol 6-pin connector off debay to adapt the HF pedal to the Lincoln. The main thing was that both pedals used a 100K ohm rotary potentiometer. Some welders use a different resistance pedal but in this case I lucked out. Picked up a panel cart for $20 I planned on using as running gear but a visitor to the shop next door inquired about it and the next thing I know, the cart was sold for $50 and the welder with HF pedal sans torch was sold for $800! :)

With big ol' welders such as this (and Sync 300) they want a higher amp service going into them (80A?) but if you don't use the full 300A output, you rarely need the full input into them so you can run off a 50A input. You also have to make sure they are not 3-phase as many "cheap", big ol' welders will be.

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Good morning Mossberg Owners.
It’s another lovely California morning but no rain in sight.

This is my new American grinder, really made in China.
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@Bobster
You are right in that it was a big heavy welder and it was old but had not been used and looked almost like new in the photos. The cylinder was at least a 120, & the cart was very heavy made out of rectangular tube.
so it wouldn’t bother me to own something smaller and lighter, although big heavy welders don’t walk off on their own as well.

I have a lumpy brake rotor on my Toyota and I’m going to change it today. I should’ve done this when I changed the pads, and now I am unhappy about that because I have to tear the truck apart again.

Well it’s an easy enough job.

I’ve got a bunch of scrap steel that I collected. I’m cutting up the pieces I can use and piling the rest to go to the junkyard.
 
This is my new American grinder, really made in China.

I have a lumpy brake rotor on my Toyota and I’m going to change it today. I should’ve done this when I changed the pads, and now I am unhappy about that because I have to tear the truck apart again.

I saw a piece on History channel where the guy toured the DeWalt factory in I think GA. So not ALL DW tools are made in the usual place... ;)

I had a similar issue (new pads pulsing) with the GLI so I pulled the rotors and had my buddy turn them for $10ea. There was plenty of meat so why not? Been going fine for 3 years now... :)

Did the rears last week. At $65 for the set of rotors/pads, it was NOT worth having them turned. The old were pitted as shown and probably not thick enough anyway...

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I have a DW grinder, just like that one, and a DW Sawzall. Both have been trouble free as expected. In my working days,the company trucks were stocked with DeWalt and Milwaukee power tools exclusively, so I have complete confidence in them for my sporadic at home needs. My Bosch rotohammer gets a thumbs up from me also. As far as rotors, lol, I don’t drive enough to have warranted a replacement in 20 years… I just yesterday rolled over 4K miles on the Accent..lol not bad for a 2016..
 
I have a low mileage rotor that didn’t even need turning.

I dressed it up last night and today I put it on there in about 30 minutes, not including Coffee breaks and looking up the torque values. It’s nice having a place where my tools stay where I put them. I didn’t have to hunt or fuss around at all.

Since I’ve only really used a TIG welder once, I have been looking at some online demonstration and lessons for various operations. This is giving me the idea is that maybe all I want is scratch start to do mild steel.

Or maybe I’m just feeling cheap because I spent all this money recently.
 
Since I’ve only really used a TIG welder once, I have been looking at some online demonstration and lessons for various operations. This is giving me the idea is that maybe all I want is scratch start to do mild steel.

Look around for one of the little HFs (used) I posted above. HF was clearancing them for $80 or so last year. New version is black and about $160. Add $60 for a cheap ebay torch ("#9V"), $40 for an argon regulator, $20 for some ceriated 1/16" tungstens and you can weld up to 1/8" mild steel, maybe 3/16", with no problem.

My local HF had one of these fancier versions for $200 on clearance/display model but it was missing the pedal but did have the torch. LINK The manager dropped it to $160 but that was still more than I felt like paying considering it was a "special" pedal and not like the one they have on the shelf for their Vulcan welders. Maybe your local store has one? This manager is a "company" man and does everything (including markdowns) "by the book". :rolleyes: The previous manager would definitely deal but moved to a different store. :( You do NOT need a pedal to scratch TIG and can adjust amps on the fly if you have to.

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I looked at welders at our local Harbor freight store and I found the prices have almost doubled recently, which was totally uninspiring.

I am going to avoid buying anything from them just because of the name stigma.
 
Good morning Mossberg Owners.

I was looking at general Miley’s comments recently, and frankly my opinion about him has soured completely. The man has become a total wind bag.

When I listen to the guy, every time I hear him subtly pandering to the communists and the leftists. I think he wants to run for president. He just sounds too much like a California politician and too little like a soldier.

Also he’s turned into a total lard ass who is way too heavy to be on flight crew.
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He’s clearly the least fit man on the joint Chiefs of staff and as the leader he should be admirable in every way.
 
Good morning Mossberg Owners.

I was looking at general Miley’s comments recently, and frankly my opinion about him has soured completely. The man has become a total wind bag.

When I listen to the guy, every time I hear him subtly pandering to the communists and the leftists. I think he wants to run for president. He just sounds too much like a California politician and too little like a soldier.

Also he’s turned into a total lard ass who is way too heavy to be on flight crew.
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He’s clearly the least fit man on the joint Chiefs of staff and as the leader he should be admirable in every way.
uhm.. is that the general who called the Chinese during the Capitol "riots" ?
 
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