[FetchMeAPepsi]

I'm using the next two weekends to get my woodsplitter put together so I thought I'd let you guys know what I was doing in case any of you guys wanna put a splitter together. Or wanna learn how to NOT put a splitter together. I'm an idiot, remember?

So I bought a length of 2x2 square tubing to start the frame. It comes in 24 foot lengths so I had mine torch cut at the place in thirds. At home I needed to cut two lengths at 33 inches.



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A few weeks ago I fell into this neat little bottle of Oxygen and Acetylene that I was going to cut this with. Not having used a torch before I had no idea what I was doing, but hey, they were $10.00 each. I couldn't pass it up.



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So I turned on the tanks to blow the hoses out. No problem. Then I attach the torch head and adjust my pressure to 20 lbs oxygen and 5 lbs of acetylene.



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The instruction manual said light the acetylene now and look for the flame. Then adjust the oxygen till it was blue.



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Did you miss a step? I did.



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I couldn't see for 5 full minutes.

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that'll make you pucker up, lemme tell ya.
So I rested my eyes, goggled up, and fired it up again. I got a blue flame started and put it to the steel. It was hot, but it wasn't cutting.
So I monkeyed with the oxygen again till the flame was OK looking when I pulled the trigger. It still wasn't very hot, but if I held it in one place long enough it would melt the steel slowly. Like a wild, out of control snail I melted
the steel around the pipe one side at a time. The cut looked horrible but hey, it was cut!



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Then the real trouble started. I pulled up another 33 inches of pipe for the second cut and started heating the metal. As it turned red my flame sputtered, popped, and started acting funny. I looked at my mighty mite of an acetylene tank. It was empty.

What the heck? Now I see why these tanks were $10.00. They did cost me $60 to fill though so I was pretty angry about that.


I put the torch away, grumbled at it a few times, and decided that was an expensive lesson. I put my gloves back on and went to my trusty backup Dewalt angle grinder for the other cuts. Sparks flew, muscles ached, and bits of black dust covered the ground (and my nose hairs).

Two 33 inch pipes, three 20 inch pipes.



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Pipes ready, I put a plug on the welder. I borrowed this welder, it's not mine. Thought I wish it was. It's a Miller Multimatic 200 worth two freaking thousand dollars

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I'm stick welding with it because that's what I practiced on so I could somehow try to find a cheap cracker-box welder from a farmer or something soon. If you guys know of one around $100 (ac) please let me know

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My practice was on 1/4 inch plate steel. This 1/8 inch stuff was like butter. I melted through real bad.



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I turned the amperage down to 140 but it happened again, and again...



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Finally I figured out if I move REAL fast, like writing with a pencil it would add metal instead of just melting it. I still made holes, but I was able to rebuild them. They were ugly, but they grinded off great.



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When I figured out the speed it was a piece of cake from there. I'm not ready for the pipe fields yet, but I can stick two pieces of metal together. For this newbie that's pretty good I think. This is the result of a full day's work (before grinding the welds again). I did mess up the center post and had to grind it off and re-weld it. It was crooked.



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Oh, and I wore my sneakers to do it. I won't make that mistake again.



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Burned straight through my shoes, my socks, and into my toe. My foot looked like a teenage boy on prom night. Sweaty, pockmarked, and covered in zits. Dats naaasty!