Making a tube for storing welding electrodes
In the absence of permanent heating in the workshop, welding electrodes can get damp. As a consequence, until they dry out, they practically do not weld. To prevent the electrodes from absorbing moisture, you can make a tube for them with a quick retrieval system.
Materials:
- 5-10 l plastic bottles – 3 pcs;
- smooth PVC pipe d40 mm;
- M6 bolt with nut.
How to make a tube
From two plastic bottles cut off the necks for the carrying handle. It is best to do this with a hand hacksaw for metal, so that the cut is even and without sharp edges. If you cut it with a knife, you will need to sand it down later with a sandpaper.
A cork from a third bottle is attached to the cap of one of the necks. After that, while they are docked in them is drilled two holes. One in the center, the second with an offset to the side.
It is clamped tightly, but not all the way, so that the caps can rotate relative to each other. The second side hole should have a diameter of a few millimeters larger than the cross section of the electrodes that will be stored in the tube.
Then it is stuffed onto a plastic tube already cut to the length of the electrodes. The tube is a couple of millimeters smaller, so it should go in. To make it fit deeper, you can heat its tip with a hairdryer or over a flame.
On the second end of the tube is stuffed with a neck with the caps fastened together. If the tube does not sit tight, it can be secured with glue. It is even easier to take a red-hot nail and pierce the neck and the tube with it in several places so that they are point-bonded together. This should be done before the electrodes are put into the tube, which can knock out the plug with the neck and fall apart when carried.
Then, to get one of them out, you need to turn the upside down cap on the second neck until the hole in it comes together with the bottom cap. Through it the electrode is shaken out, and the plug is turned aside. In essence, the design repeats the principle of the toothpick box.
In this way you can make several tubes for different electrodes and sign them. For each size of electrodes you need to drill a corresponding hole in the spliced cork. For storage, the tubes are hung by the handle left on one neck.
A simple container for storing electrodes with their own hands.
For a long time I have wanted to put in order in my garage, to distribute the electrodes by diameter, because they are lying around like for nothing. Here today I will tell you how to make containers for different electrodes from ordinary pvc pipes, left after repairs.
For this we will need:
The remnants of pvc pipes with a diameter of 50 mm. Necks from 5 liter bottles, you can from the other, the main thing that fit in diameter. Screwdriver, glue, hairdryer technical and a hacksaw.
We take a piece of pipe and cut it a little bit bigger than electrodes.
Then cut off the neck with a lid from a five-liter plastic bottle and the handle from it will also be useful.
A little heat pipe, heated with a hair dryer, then a screwdriver slightly expanded in a circle and inserted the neck from the bottle there.
After it all cooled down, smeared glue and fixed it.
On the one hand we had a bottle neck with a cork and on the other hand put a simple plug.
I made a container for the electrodes 3mm. You can probably fit a whole pack in there.
This is of course the result
For the 2 mm electrodes I took a 40 mm pipe, but here I also needed a towel holder, which has long served its purpose.
I got the neck from another bottle, a little smaller.
The whole pack fit in without a problem…
The second container is ready.
Now we make a container for 4 mm electrodes.
But as luck would have it, I’m out of bottles, but I got out of it by taking a jar of paint (I usually dilute the paint). Then I cut off the bottom and put the can in it by heating the pipe. By the way I liked it better with a can than with a bottle.
That’s how the container turned out, and all 3 of these containers I made in about 20 minutes.
Take the idea for it, they are good containers for storing electrodes.
