Back on the farm half the challenge of fixxing the broken baler/tractor or whatever was coming up with the tools (everything breaks on Sunday afternoon with the crops ready for harvest and a evening storm threating!)....try an episode where the welder is "on the fritz" and the torches are out of gas (as usual) . Let them build a new one(car batteries or generators or chemicals) ....and then have them use it to build or fix whatever to win.

-- James Allen (Greenkitty@earthlink.net), December 05, 2000

Answers

You can make a "not too bad" stick welder out of an auto alternator, a battery, and a lawn mower engine. Can't do heavy rod, but it works. Built one when I needed a portable rig, a friend has it on his (hobby) farm now.

A couple of months back, I ran out of acetylene, but still had some oxygen left. I needed to braze a part back onto frankenbike. So I used a propane torch (the kind with round air outlets at the bottom), and held the nozzle of the real torch up to it, and fed it two psi of oxygen. The propane got a lot hotter, and I was able to finish the job.

-- Jeff - The NERDS (dp@the-nerds.org), December 05, 2000.

I understand welders and such can be improvised from very ordinary things....with two or 3 cars batteries in series you can weld damn near anything....I have...also with a some rust and aluminum fillings you can weld large things quickly (thermite welding). My "Question" was more a challenge and suggestion for another episode. Sort of a gilligans island episode.

....Stone knives......

-- James Allen (greenkitty@earthlink.net), December 13, 2000.