Diary of a Mad Scientist

I jumped at one of the Craigslist MIG welders in addition to the fantastic TIG we’re buying. It’s a gigantic old brick of copper windings on wheels- the Idealarc Sp-200, and it set me back all of $450, which I couldn’t resist.

It’s got a decent duty cycle and gives us yet another machine in the shop. The shop currently has somethign like 6 little Lincoln portable wirefeeds belonging to other shopmates, so this one will do some mid-range jobs. We’re splitting theTIG three ways so the additional MIG also gives us a backup for when one of us is using that and the other wants to work.

This machine has the ’stitch’ function, which I"ve always wanted to try out, and a couple of similar features- ’spot weld’ (how different is that from stitch?)

I’ll have to wait till after Christmas to get the gas and start playing.

Our shop’s now putting the feelers out for a CNC machining center…

Mark