I ordered my Crossfire Pro back in August and recently started assembling after many weekends cleaning out garage. One space of a two car garage will be the small shop.
I’m a long time civilian Navy employee after I did one active duty ship tour in late 1980’s. I plan to retire in two years, and have been planning CNC cutting as one retirement hobby.
I have enjoyed reading many different posts here. People here are low key, and emotions seem to be not a factor. Maybe it’s the demographic
Another hobby of mine is astronomy/astrophotography, but I avoid those forums.
I gave my 25-year old Craftsman air compressor to a friend and have a new Ingersoll-Rand 3HP/ 60-gallon 11SCFM compressor. I modified it right away, but based on that long string about aftercoolers pre vs post tank, I already restored the piping back to original, because I agreed with the rationale of keeping cycle time reduced. (And no, I don’t want to open that topic here again!!) I’ll do another post of build stuff with pictures of both setups.
Oh, and I suck at welding, but purchased a new Miller Matic 142 to learn and use with cut materials in the future.
I have lots of time and not in a hurry. I look forward to learning more here.
Welding: I like to say that I weld in preparation for grinding.
The nice thing about the CNC plasma cutting is that you can design so that you have tab holes in your connecting pieces, weld thru the holes and it is not as noticeable.
Welcome to the forum. CNC will be a great retirement hobby. Metal working in general is additive.
Using a MIG welder and laying down some beds with it is pretty easy. Knowing when you have a good strong weld and how to get there is another story. Jody on welding tips and tricks makes some excellent fact based, no filler (pun intended) videos that are great for learning all forms of welding. The guy is awesome. He stresses getting in a comfortable position, simulating your weld w/o pulling the trigger (muscle memory), and trusting the recommended settings for the welder until they are proven wrong. I’ve been MIGing for 25 yrs or so and I have about 10% of his skill.
Nice to meet you Burnie. I to am new to this forum as well, but have been welding about 50 years. That machine should make it easy to focus on learning the hand/eye technique. It should be great for putting together thin gauge metal projects. One of the many keys to good welding is good prep. I think you’re on the right track combining it with this plasma CNC stuff. Parts that fit together nicely before you start welding helps a lot but don’t forget to clean the parts before welding. Angle grinders are your friend. I really like those flap disks. They work much better then the old wheels we were limited to when I started.
Really good advice because mill scale will kill a mig weld. I started soaking most of my signs (that fit my bath bath anyway) in concentrate vinegar solution and they come out super clean.
Thanks. I purchased the smaller 120V welder because I only plan on thinner metals. The welder will handle up to 3/16”. I don’t envision ever cutting and working on larger.
The weight of sheet steel, even the thinner stuff is quite heavy. I don’t want to get hurt for me this will just be a hobby.
and some of the thinner gauges are just to flimsy to handle easily.
Those are two of the reasons many of us have purchased machine torches for our setups: so we still have the hand torch untethered and available for processing incoming 4’x 8’ sheets down to manageable sizes.
The “affordable” local source I have for steel sells in minimum sizes of 4’ x 8’. Some gauges only offered in 4’ x 10’ min. I pull half the sheet off the back of my trailer and onto jack stands. I then hand torch it to 4’ x 4’ before its off the trailer.
Welding thinner stuff typically gives me the most problems.
It is way more difficult to control the “weld puddle”, relatively easy to ‘blow through’, and easy to warp.
I much prefer welding thicker stuff as opposed to thinner stuff.
And I have only put in one order to my local metal guys so far, and I had them cut it to 4x3 to fit my machine.
I paid a little extra for my first order, cause I had a lot going on and the last thing I needed at that time was “one more thing to do”
To save money in the future, now that I have some experience, I will probably order full sheets and cut them down with my 'upstairs Chi-com Plasma cutter" as others have described.
Good advice. Local tech schools often have non-certificate classes for those of us who aren’t looking to become journeyman welders for a career. A few hundred $ invested in a class can save thousands in ruined projects and frustration.
Im not that bad at welding, just rusty. The Newport News Shipyard taught me how to weld when I was 18 (44 now) and I enjoyed it. Tig is my favorite. Right after I left the yard I went to New Horizons Adult Education Classes and took their welding coarse just to get a certification. Did the same for Heating and Air years later. I never went to work in the field for either, but now since the welding machines are more affordable to me I now have two. Also with the CNC PRO I have not been able to get enough time to play with them.
