[TowerTalk] Cad Welding tips

Gene Smar ersmar at verizon.net
Fri Nov 4 22:36:15 EDT 2016 

Kim:

      If you haven't already done the Cadwelding (I'm behind on my email reading this week), and assuming you're using One-Shots, I suggest you put a snake of electrician's putty around the wires and ground rod where they enter the ceramic mold.  My first attempt at using One-Shots ended badly when the molten material leaked out from around the openings.  I used the putty to plug the molds and had no problem with subsequent shots.

     And yes, make sure you immobilize the wires in the molds somehow.

     Good luck.


73 de
Gene Smar  AD3F

-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Kelly Taylor
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2016 10:14 AM
To: William K Carr III <k5tu at att.net>
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Cad Welding tips

For Cadwelding, I'd recommend also to secure the wires from movement, as the force generated by the combustion can shoot loose wires free, leaving you with a useless blob of weld material and no connection to show for it. 

As for using a torch, not sure: the ignition temperature of the weld material is deliberately formulated to be very high to reduce the chance of unintended ignition. The instructions say most flames are not hot enough, only sparks. 

73, kelly, ve4xt 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 1, 2016, at 08:23, William K Carr III <k5tu at att.net> wrote:
> 
> I am about to embark on use of cadweld for bonding my ground wires to copper ground rods.
> 
> Has anyone used a pencil tip propane torch to light the cadweld? It would offer a little more distance to protect knuckles, etc.
> 
> Also, I have a K0XG rotating tower base. Richard recommends large diameter (in my case 4AWG) stranded welding cable to ground the tower (above the rotating base) to the ground rods. Has anyone used cadweld on stranded welding cable successfully?  Or, just go with a bronze clamp?
> 
> Your experience and/or suggestions are appreciated. 
> 
> Kim K5TU
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from Samsung tablet
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From Larry Loen <lwloen at gmail.com>
> Date: 11/01/2016  00:22  (GMT-06:00)
> To Gary <gary_mayfield at hotmail.com>
> Cc towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject Re: [TowerTalk] Cad Welding tips
> 
> I like that idea of an electric igniter.  Wish I had had one.
> 
> Even the gun made me a bit nervous.  This stuff is really hot.  You do 
> not want it touching you during the "exciting" moment and it is always 
> a pretty 'instant" (startling) moment when it ignites.  If your hand 
> is in the wrong place when it ignites, zero chance to escape undamaged.
> 
> 
> Larry WO7R
> 
>> On Mon, Oct 31, 2016 at 5:46 PM, Gary <gary_mayfield at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> One shots with a battery powered igniter.
>> 
>> https://www.therfc.com/cadweldnew.htm
>> 
>> 
>> The RFC will rent you the igniter - works awesome. Standard 
>> disclaimer
>> 
>> 
>> 73,
>> 
>> Joe kk0sd
>> 
>> [http://www.therfc.com/Images/cadweldscan2.jpg]<https://www.
>> therfc.com/cadweldnew.htm>
>> 
>> CADWELD Plus - The RF Connection Home Page<https://www.therfc.com/ 
>> cadweldnew.htm> www.therfc.com CADWELD Plus. The CADWELD ONE-SHOT 
>> unit consists of the ceramic mold which contains the CADWELD WELD 
>> METAL, a metal disk, a flared sleeve or sleeves and cover.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: TowerTalk <towertalk-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Bob 
>> K6UJ < k6uj at pacbell.net>
>> Sent: Monday, October 31, 2016 7:36 PM
>> To: towertalk at contesting.com
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Cad Welding tips
>> 
>> Larry,
>> 
>> Thanks for the info.   I will get the igniter gun too.
>> Safety first !
>> 
>> Bob
>> K6UJ
>> 
>>> On 10/31/16 5:26 PM, Larry Loen wrote:
>>> You can get the one shots all over the web.
>>> 
>>> This link:  http://kf7p.com/KF7P/HargerUniShot.html
>> Harger® Uni-Shot - kf7p.com<http://kf7p.com/KF7P/HargerUniShot.html>
>> kf7p.com
>> What is it? Exothermic welding is a welding process for joining two 
>> electrical conductors. it uses a superheated copper alloy to 
>> permanently join to conductors ...
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> . . .includes various one-shots.  Study carefully to find the exact 
>>> right one, including the diameter of your ground rod.  That, you can 
>>> get a lot
>> of
>>> places.  The real value is the little "igniter gun" farther down the
>> page.
>>> 
>>> Scroll down until you find their igniter product that looks like a 
>>> little gun.  We had a lot of cadwelding to do and accidentally 
>>> experimented.  I tried a couple of other methods and frankly, as we 
>>> discovered, they were dangerous.  Some use ordinary sparklers to 
>>> ignite these things and we had some singed knuckles when we tried 
>>> that.  Likewise, ordinary flint-and-steel of various sorts.  Never 
>>> again.  Could have easily had
>> 3rd
>>> degree burns.  This little "gun" version of it gets your hands just 
>>> far enough away to be reasonably safe.  Try and ignite it at an 
>>> angle for further safety -- the stuff mostly goes straight up.  But, 
>>> you need a gap between you and the actual ignition.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Larry WO7R
>>> 
>>>> On Mon, Oct 31, 2016 at 5:12 PM, Bob K6UJ <k6uj at pacbell.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I will be connecting no. 6 copper wire to 8 foot ground rods and 
>>>> plan to bury the connections.  I did my homework reading Tower Talk 
>>>> archives and have concluded that I will cad weld the connections.  
>>>> I am a newbie at Cad Welding any advice,  and where is the best 
>>>> place to get cad welding supplies ?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Bob
>>>> K6UJ
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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