rankrank1
Platinum Member
- Joined
- May 23, 2007
- Messages
- 749
- Location
- SW OH - near Dayton, OH
- Tractor
- 1978 Kubota L285, 1951 Farmall h, 1946 Farmall m, 1950 John Deere A, 1953 Ford NAA Golden Jubilee, 195? Ford 850, 1948 Case DC, 1948 Case SC
Well, Let's try to do something different regarding all the mig or flux core wire feeder talk that has been bantering:
Whether, 115 volt or 230 volt, I really do not care. My question is have any of used your wire feeder as an improvised handheld 3-d printer?
I will admit that I have. While not textbook, or suitable for high loading requirements, sometimes as a repairman you just run into scenarios that are too difficult, too expensive, or too time consuming to repair with the proper textbook methods especially when dealing with complex shapes.
I will admit that have used my wire as a 3-d printer to repair two mower decks on cheapo riding mowers. Proper repair procedure would have involved extensive use of fab tools that I do not own or investing immense amounts of time that I was not willing to invest on items that were otherwise basically worthless. I have used the one mower for 4 years now and the other for 3 years and my improvised repair has held fine. My portion is in better shape than than the remaining portions of the decks. I even used flux core and did not worry about slag inclusions either. (I know not good practice)
I have also used it to improvise 3-d print complex shapes that would have otherwise required milling in a milling machine to repair. Was my method the ideal repair method that I would do if selling my services (answer No). That said, was it very cheap, fast, and relatively easy compared to doing it the proper way? (answer yes and no regrets).
Whether, 115 volt or 230 volt, I really do not care. My question is have any of used your wire feeder as an improvised handheld 3-d printer?
I will admit that I have. While not textbook, or suitable for high loading requirements, sometimes as a repairman you just run into scenarios that are too difficult, too expensive, or too time consuming to repair with the proper textbook methods especially when dealing with complex shapes.
I will admit that have used my wire as a 3-d printer to repair two mower decks on cheapo riding mowers. Proper repair procedure would have involved extensive use of fab tools that I do not own or investing immense amounts of time that I was not willing to invest on items that were otherwise basically worthless. I have used the one mower for 4 years now and the other for 3 years and my improvised repair has held fine. My portion is in better shape than than the remaining portions of the decks. I even used flux core and did not worry about slag inclusions either. (I know not good practice)
I have also used it to improvise 3-d print complex shapes that would have otherwise required milling in a milling machine to repair. Was my method the ideal repair method that I would do if selling my services (answer No). That said, was it very cheap, fast, and relatively easy compared to doing it the proper way? (answer yes and no regrets).
