Well as I write this I ready to go retrieve a spare radiator from my donor I had a shop look over and clean up. They could not or would not do a complete job as they did not have heavy enough equipment to lift and handle a 200+ pound radiator. The shop sits 35 miles from me down some old US and state highways, the next closest is close to 75 miles further away where in the not so distant past radiator shops were dotted to almost every city in the region. There are truck, tractor and a few remaining old auto radiators that still are serviceable as well repairable but the shops have gone away with no one following save to sell replacement units. I am finding the same with hydraulics, iron/steel suppliers, general purpose machine shops and so on. What will we do in ten or fifteen years when these old hands shops are ALL gone?
it is a disturbing trend.... I see it here in Canada also. Years ago we had auto wreckers (Parts recyclers), Alt/Starter rebuild shops, appliance repair etc! All gone now of course... It's incredibly short sighted, everyone is clamoring to reduce emissions and yet you are hard pressed to find a refrigerator/Dishwasher that will last for more than two years. I can only imagine the amount of waste and increased emissions directly related to every day items not lasting like they used to.
My exact point, we become the same as we once were as a throw away society and nothing gets better. Cannot recycle what cannot be kept functional either.
The various chemicals used to clean and flush radiators have come under the scrutiny of the state and Federal regulators. My former radiator man told me that if he complied with the storing and disposal requirements demanded by the bureaucrats, the expense would make his shop a non-profit enterprise. He now makes his living installing new radiators and heater cores.
Hell, try to find a chrome shop, especially one that really does good work for restoration projects. Seems like there's only a handful left in the whole country. Same deal chemicals and emissions. In thirty or forty years there won't be many real operators left either, maybe a few guys doing small jobs and excavation work. Site prep will be either operated with machine control or full autonomous. Agriculture is basically there now, easier where's there's open areas with no people, they have full autonomous tractors running without even a cab, they're just powered boxes with three point hitches. We've seen the double whammy of increased automation and cheap labor overseas, which leads to lower wages for all of us and a huge ballooning of the numbers of people in the "safety net". Minimum wage used to be starting wage, now it's career wages, thanks Walmart, et al. The small shops die from the Walmart syndrome, and then when the big boys find it's not profitable to maintain a presence in your small town, they leave too, leaving behind the empty stores of all the businesses they killed and the unemployed. Hell CAT just announced they're ceasing production of some mining equipment lines as non profitable, these are brands they bought up last year (or slightly farther back) in their expansion drive, now those names will fade away thanks to CAT, when if they'd been left alone they probably would have weathered the storm just fine. Progress. Another word for destroying everything in your path without a second thought.
Yair . . . Spot on lantraxco . I was critical on here a while back about the use of autonomous haul trucks . . . some folks seemed to think the technology was fine. Cheers.
years ago one could buy a bucket of carb cleaner and 30 to 45 min the dirtiest carb would come out clean. i bought a bucket of so called great cleaner 25? years ago put in a relatively clean carb and left it 2 days and still wasnt as clean as i wanted. 100 plus bucks for 3 gal. of junk glad this old man is "retarded" and out of it now. some of the agencies out there need to be removed period
We are fortunate to have an industrial rad repair shop an hour away refurbishes all kinds of HD rads. Last year we sent the rad from our D6C out to them & they re-cored it for us. They even have a delivery truck on the road who picks up & then delivers when completed.
We are SOOO lucky to have a EPA rep on my worksite, I asked the moron last week as to the point the people running and working these old repair facilities were like ancient when they finally retired, some into 70's even 80's when gave it up living out even more years at home. How come they are not dying horrid deaths early in life as so dramatically presented by the Environmentalists? How is it they basically lived in these "Harmful" chemicals and do not show the results as badly as is depicted of people with incidental contact?? He stated "They were not normal People" ignored any attempt to repeat the question and walked away. I contacted my Congressman and Senator asking this ******** be fired for biased attitude.
Who benefits from this trend? Bankers and globalists. Everything we buy shall be financed and shall self-destruct shortly after it's paid off. A few Global elites shall control all commerce and use it to weaken and destabilize nations who are most resistant to the New World Order.
Well we have a POTUS Trump, maybe he can turn around the trend of EPA to self implode all we have. The rules kept getting more and more extreme with no real answer as to the whys, just appeared that they wanted all the old machinery and old timers gone to allow a next generation to take over. I cannot see anyone or any machines from the next generation being functional in two decades.
I will agree with the current machines being obsolete in a couple decades. Recently moved a old dragline, for display (1930's-40's). I think with a day's worth of work and some brake bands and new cable, and some carb cleaner and new fuel, you could go to work. I had 3 aftermarket crane scales, digital readouts were becoming hard to read. Called company "that model was made in 2001- its obsolete. We stock no boards or displays, we've switched suppliers, new one's are available- $4,000 per unit. Shall we send them out?" (I had to buy new ones- but used a different company-that has better support). Grove pat ds350gw series crane controller LMI systems (late 80's-mid90's) are no longer supported. When your display or board goes, the "fix" is a $8,000 "upgrade". The newer all terrain 150-250 ton cranes have single telescope cylinders, and locking latches. It's all proximity switches and relays, solenoids etc. These are 1 mil-3million dollar machines, liebherr says 10year service life, then the crane should be dismantled, and every hose, wire, switch replaced, and cylinders resealed. Who has the time to do that? It would take 2-3guys who really know what they're doing 6months to a year to do it. The company would rather sell new cranes. How long until the computers and controller boards are no longer available, and a machine that is structurally sound, is parked because the electronics are unavailable? Grove is great about seal kits/ holding valves etc on my late 70's cranes. They've recently been in financial troubles with their parent company manitwoc. I dread them being bought by terex. Terex swallowed P&H- american- and many other companys. Parts for my P&H (1987) I no longer call terex for. I simply find them aftermarket. Terex takes 2 weeks to tell you if they even have the part. Grove has us spoiled, I can get most any seal kit overnighted. I was recently on a good customer's site. "The guys we used to use, before you, had a lot newer equipment, but it seemed like every time they were here, they were broke down." That's not to say I never have break downs, but that my older equipment doesn't require a laptop to fix. I've heard tech's explain how nice it is to hook up the laptop, see what sensor is bad, replace it and down the road they go. If its mostly the sensor's that go bad- and its not usually the machine- why even have the sensors? I run mostly older mechanical diesel engines, if it has fuel and air- they should run. If I've got oil pressure and the temp gauge is good, I'm good to go. No derate, or CEL light on all the time, because no one can make the light shut off.
Most electronic heavy machines are stable large component wise with the delicate electronic gizmos failed. I try to stay away from those as well just too much expense and grief to overcome. Company I work for is experiencing much the same with tge inability to gain or retain qualified repair techs. Looks bad for all around if the trend continues.
When I was in jr-high and highschool I worked in a rad shop and would tackle anything. One day I get to work and there's a radiator sitting in the middle of the floor, it must be 7 feet square, boss said its leaking and clean it out! Holy cow, luckily it was on its side, maybe 200 quarter inch bolts to remove the tanks, found a leaky gasket, rodded it out by hand and scrubbed the tubes clean, made new gaskets and put it all back together, even painted it but could never move it. We never said no to anything. One shop down the way refused to work on Ferrari radiators, we took the job, just like any old other radiator and this turned out to be an excellent customer with a big exotic business, we'd clean, pressure and flow test and recore if needed.
Probably spent too much but bought a 240v stick welder. Is also TIG capable but no attachments and new. Looked for the last six months at old, well used up, some not so good working yet pricey welders and gave up to buy a New Miller CST280. Had to do some serious considering before bought but will find out how good in a week when it gets here. 100% duty at 240v single phase 120amps, 50% at max capable 200 amp 240v s.ph. On three phase can go to 240amp 50% duty or 160amp 100% duty; Luckily I won't have to do that as have a Thermadyne Thermalarc Predator for heaviest field work. Just over $2100 no leads, I already have those on Dinse connections. I did this as the local weld shops are covered up, way more work than can handle and no one to hire for full time to do it. AND NO NO NO I am not going to go to work as a welder full time, have enough here to do for my own stuff! Am going to rebuild a loader bucket, had considered shopping it out but cannot wait the six to nine months for the shops waiting lists. Hell just a refi surveying of our farm took three weeks to get a guy to do it, also waiting lists.
As far as planned obsolescence, bone yards are seeing newer machines around here with as noted structurally sound just electronics are crapped out with no reasonable cost repairs available. Hard watching a Liebherr loader get cut up as the processer and electronics upgrades to repair it was more than the tractor was worth. Deere set that into motion.
That will be a nice compact inverter welder, right? Should be a handy one with it's portability around the shop. They will do tig, but most likely not AC for aluminum? I have a Miller Syncrowave 250 DX which is a stick/tig machine with AC capabilities, but to be honest I used my Millermatic 252 way more. I am fixing up a spot in my heated garage away from the equipment yard where I plan to set up the Syncrowave more permanently for finer work. I use this old 400 Amp stick welder for the heavy gouging or dirty work outside. We bought it new 25 years ago & it is still going strong!
You are correct, no AC, just DC and only 45# machine, call them suitcase welders. I wanted something not quite as big as your 252, no need as I only have my farm machines and could handle those with the Predator. The old 'Buzz' box welders are not that great as I found out years ago, can stick a weld but otherwise pretty useless for duration and depth welds. I have to do a lot of my work in the barn where I can get to the machines or get the machines to. Is it snowing up there already?
No snow yet this year........that was a picture I had on file. It will be here soon though. Post some pictures of the new welder when it comes in. It should be a nice one for your shop.
Little welder arrived, entire box and all(no leads) 44 pounds. Should be pretty handy with the wiring I laid out in the shop and barn. Stick and TIG rated, all I need is a fitting, a tank of gas with regulator and a #16 TIG gun to try my hand at that style welding. Pretty simple add on.
This is it, after working with monstrosity welders all my working life these seem like toys. But at the price. eeehh. Dinse connectors so can use the leads off the field welder and vs a vs.
BTW 41 pounds as it sits.
Nice machine there DM. I was just about to ask where the pictures were!! I believe my Tig may have the Dinse connectors on it. Up here for our field machines we run the LC-10's or LC-40's for our twist type quick connectors. Not sure why Dinse are in existence, or if they have an advantage. BTW, what is the mig machine your new one is sitting on? Can you run flux core on that one or is it a bit light?
DM, Big fan of the Miller Brand, nice looking machines you have there. Looks like a maybe a 212 under your latest acquisition? I run a 251 with .045 fluxcore, real nice stuff to work with. Thought I would post a picture of my latest find It's a CANOX brand however it was made by Miller and is identical to a Dial Arc 250. My only stick experience thus far has been with an AC buzzbox and I was stunned by the difference using DC on this machine. Anyway i'm enjoying the direction this thread has taken!! Do you guys have much experience with Plasma Cutters?
The under machine is a 210 Very good wire feed and can run flux core or solid wire Currently have .035 wire in it and does as I need for light work as trailer fenders or quick tacks For bigger work either used an old Hobart that finally shot craps on a jobsite to the Predator I have had since 2000 to replace it. Otherwise always a garbage buzz box that weighed a ton and welded like bird poop!
As to Dinse All the machines I have had with removable leads had Dinse Harder to get Tweco than others and earlier machines were hard bolted Just more prevalent here
That's Dialarc 250HF. What do you need to know about plasma cutters?
Hi Dave, Picked this up from Amazon and so far been thoroughly impressed with how its been working. Its one of those tools after the first couple of uses you're thinking to yourself "I should have had this years ago!!!!" Saves so much time and grinding discs... Anyway my questions are in regards to the consumables and usage 1. What is an acceptable lifespan for the consumables on this machine? 2. How do you tell when the consumables need to be replaced? 3. Operations to avoid with this machine? Thanks guys!
Quite a few will argue but the welders at work replace consumables on each new job. I could see changing every third/fourth for my work or as I saw wear or distortion in the cutting action.
I'm not familiar with that machine but basically when the cut quality deteriorates, you change the tip and the electrode as a set. Use the old ones for cutting scrap or junk metal. The BEST thing you can do to improve consumable life is to put a large water trap/filter on the air line like a Motorguard. Water and electricity don't mix and water will rapidly wear plasma consumables. Hard to say how long consumables will last. Don't pull the trigger to cut unless you are about to cut. That wears out the consumables too. Turning it down for the required thickness will probably extend consumable life as well.
Luckily the shops here still repair radiators, alternators starters ect. Just sent a radiator for a D4 out for repair. Had the alternators off my service truck and bobcat rebuilt. Even found someone who rebuilds steering sectors on trucks as well. Saves tens of thousands of dollars every year
Shoot man we still run a 1971 815 packer. Now last year we modified it has an 816 sterring and has a different engine in it now but before last year still had the factory engine in it
It isn't that I cannot get mechanisms worked over, I just have to drive forever to get to those shops that still perform around here. Radiator shop in Columbia MO is more a sales office than repair, one in Cuba MO and Belle still repair but have limited staff and are aging fast. Electrical repair is 55 miles away, fuel injection service 45 and they too are not looking so young or finding youth to work for them.
Yeah they are older. The youth cry about jobs and college tuition prices. But they don't want to go to trade schools to learn something that will pay the bills months after getting out. Im out of GA we have several good repair shops several for radiator, injector pumps ect from about 15-40 miles.
Have noticed Plasma Consumable last longer when the tip is not dragged.