tony uljee

its an old machine and low to medium range quality, so repairs would be more expensive than its worth , thats if its faulty, if the transformer is gone ,definitely too costly to repair, i cant say for sure looking at the pics ,but it does nt look like it has been "cooked" ,its just old, as said-- just give it a gentle clean up ---un plugged of course and then a  low setting with a small 2.5mm rod  to try out. Theres a thermal cut out on these to prevent overload ,so if that has failed thats when or how they overheat from over extended use at high settings. Some have a fan for cooling the trans down that is too small or jammed up /damaged .   The pic of the front of the machine shows an approximate guideline of settings and the arc welding rod size diameter 2.5 to 4 mm to match them , the metal printed on plate  is showing its rated output and use time at settings, its 45 amps draw at its max of 200 amps .These old tech welders are at the limits of most older electric boards and the 13 amp fused plugs , they also lose efficiency as they age , so okay for small jobs and repairs, but bloody annoying for when you want to make something like a trailer as it will slow you down and keep tripping the rcb or worse ----the main fuse. When new it had a 30% use at  200 amps ---flat out --max setting   , so 3 mins of use and then 10 mins of cool down ---if the thermo cut out was working.

those are iron plates all stacked  together as the core for the transformer , they are first varnished to insulate each plate from the next ,then stacked and pressed and either bolted or tack welded to stay compressed, and then dunked into varnish again , giving an old brownish colour to it all ---then a few years of dust thrown in , those could just be old solidified  drips and runs of it . But if theres any blackening  to the varnish and the drips are black crumbly charred , could be that the machine was running far to hot and the core has overheated causing the varnish to melt and leak out between the laminations of iron plates.

forgot this, the nhl5 lime is a hydraulic setting lime ,so it is lime but with added pozzlans and has been manufactured /processed to accelerate its setting time, which the added in portland cement would have a similar  effect on  ordinary lime as well , the ordinary lime is hydrated lime ,which is made from purified lime and water putty mixed  and then has been dried and milled to a powder. Sorry for sounding like an expert knowitall, just have a friend who has worked all his life as a stonemason on historic conservation sites mostly--i get corrected or guidance from him on my projects

my own interest in lightweight mixes was for the making of  panels ,for a raised bed and the best info i have seen so far is from a site ---man about tools---  , he has done various experiments and all recent stuff  ,but i have since had a re think about light weight panels though might be too fragile for the project i am planning ,hope it helps , the weather heat problem sounds trying---could it get worse in the future ?, maybe a start for going underground totally or even partially with a root cellar type build and earth roof.

sorry no experience of using this method, helped out a friend do the aerated concrete stuff --needs a compressor though of decent volume out put ---but from this and my own preferred h/crete use for my project. The dry mixing first of the various ingredients then adding in water helped us on the small batches of stuff we were mixing  , but that means 2 mixers ,as one has to be kept dry and tipped into the wet mixer for each batch.

Read that article, and they want to develop a fertile seed based miscanthus, why ? , ,just another problem to deal with when it escapes , wont be popular around sorghum growers or sugar cane , as that will create hybrids, good to see it being used as an alternative to straw bales though ,its possible to use it as feed stock for bio refinery and butanol production but thats all out our backyard /in the shed capabilities. It was chipped and dried in ireland to supply furnaces /steam/electricity ,thats were the farmers came into it , it all ended in tears/swearing, as the furnaces stopped taking it in very suddenly and abandoned the whole scheme. For home/farm use maybe square bale it and build a furnace heater for it like the giant hay  bale burning ones that featured sometime ago on some large european estates and farms.

this has been the most interesting and informative talk on soil plant interaction i have ever heard, it just ties in to obvious and in front of our face problems we see in farm soils yet are blind to it , i can see the look of disbelief in some friends faces already as i try to introduce them to this, brilliant ,thank you

My grand lavish plans to have my season my way this year ,have failed , i was going to start off a small selection of seeds in my new tunnel ordered in feb but took ages to arrive ---fuel hikes ,no drivers ,further costs and delaysf, then a local shortage of some basic materials and now the weather and wind have delayed further progress .  Only the base and end panels plus framework are up so no further potting up was  going to happen , but then my order of french vinyard peach pits arrived and a bonus of some free walnut s with it . The idea was to just pot them up and place outside for the rest of the season to stratify or germinate if luck was onside, i soaked the walnuts in water for 2 days --all failed the float/sink test--and then ignored them for a few days ,they all germinated on the kitchen window sill--now in pots outside to carry on growing. The peach pits i decided to experiment with the method  of cracking open in a vice ---a controlled squeeze --extract the pip and soaked in water for a day ,then gently peeled away the brown outer skin layer, placed them i a little dimsum parcel of tissue paper---paced into a plastic lunchbox---no lid ---into a cubboard in the kitchen. These sprouted after 3 days and have come along now to about half inch of root, when leaves show they will be potted up for a life destined in the tunnel ---eventually

just re reading the post , cob applied to the inside walls wont help much as its very dense and not insulation but more of a thermal mass heat storage ,it also needs to be able dry out  on both sides ,then limewashed or clay plastered to water proof it  ,your stone walls are going to be damp inside for awhile so the cob mix might fail as it can not breathe out moisture all the while ,maybe once the house is warmed up by putting  a fire down over several months the building will start to dry -- old cottages had chimney / open fireplace -to help draw out moisture  as well as cook and warm up people---not always very efficiently though. Hotmix lime is not lime mortar ,its the start of lime putty which has to be matured under a water layer for quite sometime then used as a basis of making up a lime mortar with clean sharp sand and applied as a pointing  , usually hydrated lime powder is used and  an add into the mix of some hydraulic lime or very fine crushed fired clay ---from old brick and clay tile is used as an accelerant to set up the mortar . A limehemp mix on the inside of about 4 inches thick would provide insulation value and will breathe/vent off moisture , it can also be lime plastered and limewashed over to a smoother but still rustic finished surface.

There is the Traditional Lime Company in Carlow ---they have all the stuff you would need and have demonstration days, and in the north Prof. Tom Woolley who runs courses in lime and lime based insulation , dont do dryline boards on the inside ---its the incorrect advise, causes a major headache years later when it will have to be torn down and replaced ---or if you stick to the advise ---replace it and repeat the cycle. Just like my old cottage was done ---yes it lasted  15 years --but eventually the mold grew  from the back out to the front of the boards.