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Forum Index : Solar : Recycling
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| brucedownunder2 Guru  Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Years ago I dismantled an INSPIRE inverter to rewind the Toridial transformer . The case is now going to be home to my latest project,a back shed home built inverter. Aaron ,our mate from this forum ,is the brains ,I,m the metal basher,come roustabout. The case is solid,stainless and lovely finish. So ,I,m working on positioning a fan hole and a couple other stagetic positions for input,output cables. The cover ,I might put on hinges, and fix a couple of meters ,switches,breakers, etc. On another subject , I,m enthused ,because the hospital called and they are not going to operate on my neck muscle tumour ,.Instead, they have decided to give me 5 weeks of radiation,to kill the cancer cells . Happy little vegemite with that, So,it,s back to the workshop , Bruce  Bushboy |
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renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Good luck with the neck Bruce! With those cases, they are a bugger to cut fan holes on, jigsaw blades get destroyed pretty quick and it takes forever. The easiest way I found was to cut a stop sign shape (octagon) with a fine disc on a angle grinder, just make it a tad smaller than the fan. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Thanks Mark . the Ol neck things sort of crept up on me ,,,, first was a year ago ,just a sort of skin blemish that would not completely "skin-over" . Then , skin guy burnt it off , ok for a while ,then back again . ok ,so out came the knives and horse hair stitches.. still not perfect. So today after 5 Ops, They found a tutor deep down in the neck muscle and growing around the neck bone --sounds exciting ,hey ? . So, out came the husquvana and makita grinder . No, just joking .. Radiation will fix it ,they think!!. Back to the cutting holes,, I agree with you ,that stainless really blunts the old hole saws ,and they are not cheap. I thought of cutting three ,say, 30mm holes within a circle ,but leave ,say, a 5mm between them for a bit of strength . Cover them with expanded Al mesh and bolt the fan unit under that. I'd put a temp and rpm adjuster on the front cover to set it at the best temp and rpm. for noise,Etc. The Torodial will go back where it was originally ,just a bit more bulky.. You must be finished most of your fiddling ,cause I don't see you or your work on the forum lately ?? all the best , mate . Aaron is doing a good job and he's always busy on his block , handy guy , has built all his stuff . Cheers, Bruce Bushboy |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1578 |
Plasma Cutters are great for doing hard metals like stainless and thick metals tool. Cut a bit of 3/4" steel with it the other day. Wouldn't say it went through it like Butter as it's only a little cutter and I couldn't couldn't turn it up too high with out popping a breaker ( Can when it's sunny because I have a solar inverter on the same circuit nearby0 But it's certainly easier than using a grinder. I have cut Aluminium, copper and ally with it too. Even if you just rough the holes and finish them with a drill bit in the press it makes things much quicker and easier. I did buy some of those carbon arc Gouging rods last year. Been going to hook them up to some panels and see how they go. You form an arc with the rod then have a blast of compressed air to blow the molten metal away. I Imagine it would be a lot like cutting paper with an axe but should be fun to try. |
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| brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Thanks for your input ,Dave. I thought about a small plasma cutter years ago ,when there was a long discussion on this forum with many learned owners.. I have the mig / Argon welder and the plasma would have completed the package. I was fabricating my 60 foot genie tower at the time and it sure would have saved a lot of bandsaw cutting. That was wayyyyy back in my younger /sillier/ energy packed days-today I'm like my old batteries,, discharged and corroded !!!!. Oh, and I forgot , would have needed a air compressor also. Have a nice week,Dave. Bruce Bushboy |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1578 |
The plasma I have has a built in compressor. I got it off my father after he gave up on the thing. Wouldn't cut for crap. He sent it back to the local welding place several times and they said there was nothing wrong with it. It wasn't cutting worth a damn that was for sure. I rang the distributor and had a Chat with a Lovely guy who sent me a new nozzle and tip as he said they were critical to the things working properly. Put them in and it's been fine. Got new consumables from fleabay and they have worked fine as well. I think the welding place where he bought it were just incompetent. Didn't take much to " Fix" it at all. Dad didn't want it back as he had no further need for it and never really used it anyway but I love the thing. My ailments are fast catching up to me and putting the brakes on things too. Now I have most of the toys I always wanted, I'm lacking the motivation to use them. Just keeping up with the maintence around the place is often more than I can manage. I like to weld things together. Faster, cheaper, easier and stronger than bolting things up. I have a had few people say to me over time, what if you have to take it apart? I say so what? I'll UNweld it, that's what a plasma cutter is for. Fortunately haven't had to do that often, but that's how I look at the thing. A welder puts together, a plasma takes apart. I do like my plasma though. It makes things quicker and easier and quieter ( never thought I'd ever have any concern about that!) than other cutting methods. The neighbour saw me Cutting something the other week and asked If I could cut him some Sheet metal as it was a bit hard for his tin snips and didn't want to use a Grinder. Put down a bit of timber as a Guide, ran the cutter along and the job was done quick and clean. Think I made his day. He said he was going to look at one but didn't have frequent need of one. I said I have one right here, I can do whatever you need or you can borrow the thing any time you like! Friend of Mine has a MIG/ TIG/ Plasma all in one. Chinese thing but works well. It needs a compressor and the times I borrowed it before I got my own I found running the compressor and The Plasma easily over powered the Circuit in the shed. Had to get a lead and tap into another circuit for the compressor. I have had an old car LPG tank for years and for big jobs I run the compressor up and fill the LPG tank as well as the very decent compressor tank for extra reserve. I'd do that then turn the compressor off and just run the plasma. That was plenty of air for what I needed generally. If not just give the compressor another run while I was sorting out the next lot of stuff to cut. I see now there are these CNC Tables that a lot of people attach a Plasma to. They cut out brackets and parts like they are nothing. Everything they do has these professional looking rounded and custom designed brackets that look like they were made in a Precision German engineering shop. While the guys using them make it look easy, I am quite confident the programming would be well beyond my paltry and getting worse mental abilities. Thought it was amazing when I could cut metal with fire, Now I cut metal with electricity and barely give it a second thought. :0) If you want to cut serious metal, have a look at a Thermal Lance |
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| brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Nice story ,Dave. You sound like the type of fella I'd like living next door ? We,d make a hell of noise to frighten the horses,Hey? Anyhow, I think Glenn (our boss) made a nice cnc router ,mainly for his printed circuit boards, gee , that was a long time back . And Phill M has a great workshop ,He used to get wind mill stuff water cut ,not too sure how that works) . Nice finishes with all his fabrication, he's an expert .Don,t hear much of him nowadays,I heard he has a yacht, so from my memories, thats a full time hobby.for sure. Ok Dave , I'm off to my workshop to do some metal-bashing. Still fitting up this inverter case and cutting in/out cable entries and stuff like that. (I'm experienced enough these days to think ahead and do as much possible before I fit it out with the inside gear-boards, transformers, terminal boxes, cables supports,Etc. Have fun ,but play safe, mate. Bruce Bushboy |
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Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1024 |
Next time I run the saw bench I'll cut up some 20mm perspex strips, It makes good stand off's for the power board mounts, good for other mounts too. Always wanted to have a plasma cutter, even thought about building a powerful one, just another on the list of "Wish I Had That".  Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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| bob.steel Senior Member  Joined: 27/02/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 188 |
When you cut stainless go very lightly at first so it warms up then big pressure and no lubricant. That cools it. |
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