We have been staggeringly blind to China’s rare earth dominance | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

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Thanks for all the tips and information.

Some thoughts of mine on welding machines. Basically, you get what you pay for as usual.

Much of the new stuff such as home use wire feeders have rollers that are not really the best. Basically companies like Miller have combined stick welding, wire feed welding and TIG welding machines all into one unit you can carry around. It's a bit heavy so in my mind, not really portable like it's marketed. You just plug it in, set it for the process and go to work. Ones like mine can be used with 240 or 120 ac.

I prefer 240 if I can get an outlet since with 120 ac you need the shortest possible heaviest grade extension cord you can get. Too long an extension cord and you lose too much power so your arc doesn't really have the voltage to get a good weld.

My Grandpa had an old Lincoln stick welding machine that hadn't been used in many years so I replaced the 240 plug and electric cable with some new stuff as the old power cord and plug was out of date, cracked and worthless. I put in an appropriate outlet and the thing worked wonderfully for stick welding. I was able to build the frame for a deck behind his double wide trailer house, drag it in place and even weld on extensions per Grandma's request and cover it with 4" by 4" cedar joists and then red wood deck planks from Home Depot.

A cousin came by after it was done and complained I had way overbuilt it as he stood on the deck jumping up and down and saying you could drive a Mac truck on top of it. Uh, ya? And how is that a problem? The frame for the deck was the steel frame from under another old trailer house that had been languishing on the property for many years.

I did use my wire feeder rig to create a steel gate for the front of the property using old well drilling pipes from the oil industry.

A guy out in the countryside on some property can do quite a bit with a welding machine, an acetylene torch and a grinder. Of course you need an active imagination and some ambitions to make things better. For Grandpa's garden I put in a prefabricated steel gate he bought to replace his ragged barbed wire gate and then put in a small gate for persons. The small gate I rigged up with some fancy double latch system that had a turn crank to activate the latches. Very cute little system but unfortunately, our guard dog they had picked up from the pound decided he hated being left alone in the garden to fend off bears and deer and in one day figured out how to activate the latching system. We put on a lock for night time and he figured out how to climb over the gate. I extended the gate to make it seven feet high and extended the fencing on either side but he figured out how to climb over that. We got a collar for him but since he had very loose neck skin he finally realized he could just back out of his collar. So, Grandma got a heavy duty harness for him and would release him in the morning from his chain so he could have daytime freedom. He snuck back and chewed through the main straps on the harness making it unusable. We gave up and let him stay up at the house to keep an eye on us. LOL. I got a kick out of how this escape artist dog got by my gate system.

Thanks for all the tips and information. Some thoughts of mine on welding machines. Basically, you get what you pay for as usual. Much of the new stuff such as home use wire feeders have rollers that are not really the best. Basically companies like Miller have combined stick welding, wire feed welding and TIG welding machines all into one unit you can carry around. It's a bit heavy so in my mind, not really portable like it's marketed. You just plug it in, set it for the process and go to work. Ones like mine can be used with 240 or 120 ac. I prefer 240 if I can get an outlet since with 120 ac you need the shortest possible heaviest grade extension cord you can get. Too long an extension cord and you lose too much power so your arc doesn't really have the voltage to get a good weld. My Grandpa had an old Lincoln stick welding machine that hadn't been used in many years so I replaced the 240 plug and electric cable with some new stuff as the old power cord and plug was out of date, cracked and worthless. I put in an appropriate outlet and the thing worked wonderfully for stick welding. I was able to build the frame for a deck behind his double wide trailer house, drag it in place and even weld on extensions per Grandma's request and cover it with 4" by 4" cedar joists and then red wood deck planks from Home Depot. A cousin came by after it was done and complained I had way overbuilt it as he stood on the deck jumping up and down and saying you could drive a Mac truck on top of it. Uh, ya? And how is that a problem? The frame for the deck was the steel frame from under another old trailer house that had been languishing on the property for many years. I did use my wire feeder rig to create a steel gate for the front of the property using old well drilling pipes from the oil industry. A guy out in the countryside on some property can do quite a bit with a welding machine, an acetylene torch and a grinder. Of course you need an active imagination and some ambitions to make things better. For Grandpa's garden I put in a prefabricated steel gate he bought to replace his ragged barbed wire gate and then put in a small gate for persons. The small gate I rigged up with some fancy double latch system that had a turn crank to activate the latches. Very cute little system but unfortunately, our guard dog they had picked up from the pound decided he hated being left alone in the garden to fend off bears and deer and in one day figured out how to activate the latching system. We put on a lock for night time and he figured out how to climb over the gate. I extended the gate to make it seven feet high and extended the fencing on either side but he figured out how to climb over that. We got a collar for him but since he had very loose neck skin he finally realized he could just back out of his collar. So, Grandma got a heavy duty harness for him and would release him in the morning from his chain so he could have daytime freedom. He snuck back and chewed through the main straps on the harness making it unusable. We gave up and let him stay up at the house to keep an eye on us. LOL. I got a kick out of how this escape artist dog got by my gate system.

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