NOT that kind of rack; listen up old men. Today we’re walking through how Mr. Ure slapped together some primer-coated solar rack extensions — in the kind of heat that’d melt a possum’s tail. If you’ve ever had to work in blistering temps but couldn’t wait on weather, there are some field-tested hints here to keep you vertical and uncrispy.
As you may be able to see in background, modern solar panels are bigger than the little ones that were affordable at the time we started “getting back at the power company” by powering the UrbanSurvival office with the Sun in 2008.
There are a million details to the over-all project. If you don’t know exactly what you are doing with solar, there are three forks in the solar road.
- Hire it out. Professionals cost money, but so do burned fingers and fried gear.
- Find a COTS solution. (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) — like the slick new stackable microinverters popping up on Amazon.
- DIY if you know what you’re doing. I’ve been running our solar since 2008 — built it myself, tested quarterly, grid-drop safe. Local linemen appreciate not getting zapped. Backfeeing can kill.
Unlike most (this isn’t a brag, but…) I’ve wired 2 houses, two radio station studios, our own here, and as an extra class ham radio fellow, I know AC and DC wiring, gauges, ampacity tables and all that. Lived on a 40-foot sailboat for a decade where shore power, wind machine on the stern rail, solar panels on the dodger, and a high output externally-regulated alternator played nicely at all times.
To us, solar is more than “insurance power” – it’s our back-up pressure water *(and fire suppression) system. Too many people go into power “eyes wide shut.”
Weather and Working Conditions
As I wheeled the welding gear up to the job site Friday morning, it was already hot. 84 with a “feels like” of 94F. Humidity was up and a single jaunt up from the shop door got the fishing shirt wet. Our first point: dress for success. The super lightweight SPF 50 fishing shirts, white or close to it (for minimal heat gain) are the uniform of the day for hot weather work.
The day’s work would involve framing with T-post and 5/8th rebar. The cost of a 6-foot T-post at Tractor supply is just a bit over $5-bucks Building with new material you’ll spend $22-bucks for posts. Then rebar – whatever-which-way your local pricing comes in. Still, less than $50 bucks in most locations.
You can buy panel racks, but with 30 main panels and eventually another 20, you’re looking at 200 lineal feet of rack. Years of hard work has revealed “Money spent on material is less money for beer.”
Welder Choices
All the welding I’d previously done was with our Old Reliable – a Lincoln I bought years ago. Wire feed and it’s been generally reliable. MIG (mixed-inert gas) is easy-to-learn and since it had been a half century since I used an oxy rig at the time, MIG was easy. On the welding table.
BUT, as I can now confirm, you can do as good, or better, using sticks and one of these new-fangled $100 class “welding guns” you can pick up on Amazon. Got a 110V Handheld Welding Machine, 20-250Amp Portable ARC Welder Hand Held Welder Machine, LCD Display/IGBT Inverter/Rotary Button Adjustment, Stick Welder Gun Kit Fits for 3/32″-1/8″ Welding Rods about this time last year.
At time of introduction these ran $145 – a bit more than a conventional “buzz box” but now? OMG $50 bucks. No excuse for not using a stick welder.
Stick Technique is Harder
If you look at the picture above, you will see there is a red plastic thumbscrew on the tip. The first couple of passes, this adapter can work loose, so pay attention. It’s a close clearance (try zero) to the plastic, so reef it down.
There are no real secrets to running a bead with stick.
I go scrap-diving at the local steel fab in town and the WIC (Welder in Charge -dandy fellow) told me some time ago that the secret to stick welding was run “hot and fast.” “Hot” means amperage. Keep that bead tight and don’t pause mid-pass unless you want to gouge steel like a can opener. If the tip is sticking, jack up the amps and burn that stick.
But, as you can see, Mr. Ure was still getting the hang of things when I paused which in “hot” stick welding is a no-no. On the other hand, it’s a quick way to drill a pilot hole if you need to put a bolt in. (I haven’t figured what a bolt could do in this location, but if I ever need one, by God I’m ready…)
Yes, brothers and sisters, Mr. Ure writes better than he welds. Which doesn’t seem to say much… hmm…
I only run thin welding rod with this buzz gun (keep up – that’s a handheld inverter stick welder). 3/32nd Forney E60013. Without emptying out welding schools by revealing too much weldinbg arcana…
E6013: Ideal for small buzz box welders due to its smooth arc, low amperage needs (70-100A for 3/32″), and ease of use on thin or mild steel. Perfect for beginners and general fabrication.
E6011: Good for AC buzz boxes, offering deeper penetration for repairs or rusty metal, but less smooth than E6013. We roll with smooth feed rates, so 6013, thanks.
E7018 AC: Stronger welds but trickier to start on low-voltage AC machines; use for clean, structural work if the welder can handle it. Focused on 3/32″ and 1/8″ as these are common for small welders with limited amperage (up to ~160A). Larger rods like 5/32″ may overtax these machines.
These descriptions are tailored to the capabilities of small Chinese buzz box welders, which often have low open-circuit voltage and AC output, making rods like E6013 and E6011 more forgiving. Ours runs 67V open circuit.
Now, in my little project, the getting of the MIG rig (stand, tools, anti-spatter cans, etc.) was a real PITA. My little “buzz gun” gave a stronger weld, but remember the MIG is only good to 1/4″ or so, and doing butt joins double beading and maybe a 3-bead gusset would work best.
5/8 rebar is out of the MIG range, but with patience and s l o w you can make it work.
Extension Cords – WYCG
WYCG = Wisdom you can’t Google…
The buzz gun runs on electricity. And of course, the lighter weight 50 foot #12 ended 10-feet too short of the job. (Repeat after me: “Shit.“)
We keep a 100-foot (read: very heavy duty) extension cord because one of our fallbacks is to have power anywhere we need it off the power center.
So there I am, on about my 8th ten-minute cool-down time out in my office drinking water like a fish, and the idea of standing outside in super-humid and almost 100F on the feels like and I get angling clean-up hacks.
“Ure a smart fellow…so come up with a way to make a neat hank of cord, but without having your left arm holding 25 pounds chest high and sweating out…”
Then it came to me! I had a squeeze clamp at hand. And I keep a wood ladder under cover at the welding table (shop north door) because ladders are always useful.
The hand clamp is squeezed on into position. Then you put a turn of wire on, repeat, giving each the same amount of dangle off the ground…
Then you finished the job by plugging the plug into the outlet end.
“Why?”
Isn’t it obvious?
We’re in Texas — peak mud dauber season. And apparently, old man sweat is nature’s Gatorade to ’em. Leave a plug open and they’ll turn it into a wasp daycare. Trust me: plug it in when not in use.
Hydrate hydrate, hydrate. Take cool-down breaks. Watch pulse rate. Cool down to 90 BPM before resuming tasks…
Get good and cool inside, until the shirt stops dripping. Then another 10-15 minutes on task, got it? When done, reload the sodium and other electrolytes. A couple of hot dogs will hit the salt numbers. A bar-type dill (huge, delish) will make sure you’re ready to sweat more when you get back out. 8 ounces of milk to help on sodium. Doesn’t sound Gourmet, but it works and it’s quite refreshing.
Hotdogs are hot weather consumables. Use a pulse-ox or BP cup to track vitals is you’re over 75.
One More Arcane Shop Lesson
Again, if you are a dedicated coop-dweller and never plan to leave the impact zone of foreign enemy targeting packages, you may not be around long enough for this to matter, but…
20-years ago, there was an outfit called Cummins Tools (not related to the big trucks) and they used to have traveling tool shows all over the country. They set up down at the Civic Center in town and they’d sell out a whole 40-footer of tools over the course of a day.
I picked up a dandy 4 1/2 inch grinder back in the day and have used it every since.
Why do I care?
Well, rebar and T-post only take a few seconds to cut IF you remember there are two kinds of grinding wheels every home handy-bastard must know. Thick wheels are for grinding. Thin wheels are called ‘cut-off’ wheels. They are thin and just for setting the T-posts to length ate about half a cut-off wheel’s worth. The are planned to wear out so that’s why these are “consumables.” Elaine worked construction when she was younger, so I don’t need to read her into shop arcana. But if you’re wife can’t run a jackhammer, Sawz-all, and field strip an M14… (*I get an unlimited consumables budget because it means I’m building something we both benefit from.)
Tool Slut Week Ahead!
Yeah baby! Still have that Alaska Pro bike from Freesky in my sights. Amazon Prime Days just ahead. July 8-11. Keep the neosporin ready (for credit card burn) and click here for details.
Me? Think I’ll have another cup and ponder this from the AI stack about the passing of Cummins tools:
“A lawsuit from Cummins Inc., the diesel engine manufacturer, forced a name change around 2008, as the tool company’s use of the “Cummins” name infringed on the engine maker’s trademark. They rebranded to ToolsNow.com and later operated under names like National Liquidators, but their reputation for poor-quality tools and declining interest in their traveling sales model led to their eventual exit from the tool market. Their last known shows were reported around 2013-2015 in some areas, though exact closure dates are unclear. Today, no direct equivalent exists in that niche; Harbor Freight has largely filled the void with permanent stores, offering affordable tools in rural areas, while online retailers like Amazon dominate broader tool sales.”
Don’t get me started on having to drive an hour plus to get a Harbor Freight do-dad. Hate it. Loved the shipping.
Next week plan on the Evolution table saw report…and don’t hit the tool lists on the Zon without a card ready.
Write when you get rich, or check into rehab for chronic tool addiction,
Read the full article here