Tagging Matt Hayden as we'd communicated earlier on dual shield questions. Wasn't happy with the performance of the Lincoln 71M dual shield wire I tried. No matter what I did, there was random worm tracks, lousy root fusion in 1F, and man it was smoky. Decided to try another flavor and wow what a difference. This is Eutectic DO266S set at 25V/250 IPM 40 CFH 75/25 gas. The first thing I noticed was a fraction of the smoke, and no worm tracks. Wet in really nice. And even in 1F there's root fusion. Very promising. Still need to get used to it. Definitely need to slow down for more fill, and shift my aim up a little, as I'm favoring too low in the fillet. This may end up my go to dual shield. It's a little spendy at about $8.79/pound, but it works.

In the process of adding a motor drive to a rotary positioner kit, that was originally designed to be driven my a cordless drill motor. I bought the positioner kit knowing this, and never intended to use the drill motor, as that seemed pretty useless. Welded an adapter plate to one of the shoulder bolt axles, so it all moves as one unit, and happy with how it works. The combo of the 100 RPM 12VDC gearmotor, and the 40:1 gear reduction in the positioner, makes for a turntable that rotates at 0-2.5 RPM. Next is to make an enclosure for the motor, and a control box that will have the speed/direction control board and the battery( this will be powered with a Milwaukee M12 tool battery ). A foot switch will start/stop the table.

Before sinking too much effort, decided to run a test bead in DC and AC to make sure the HF start and/or AC freq didn't screw with the electronic speed control and motor. Didn't miss a beat, so will proceed with the remainder of the project. First beads ever using a positioner. 

Edit. Thought I'd add a rundown of the major parts I used to motorize this Weltables rotary positioner. My subscription here expires in a few days, and not sure if I'll be renewing. Some work came in, so I won't have time to finish this project until next week. 

Motor-https://makermotor.com/pn01007-100-10mm-2-flat-shaft-electric-gear-motor-12v-low-speed-100-rpm-gearmotor-dc/

PWM Speed Control-https://makermotor.com/pn00218-cyt13-25amp-7v-58v-high-voltage-dc-motor-driver-speed-controller-md25hv/

I got the flex coupler, 12V battery adapter, and foot pedal on Amazon, and should be simple enough to find in a search. I had to turn the hex end of the positioners shaft on a lathe. You could also simply adapt a socket to the motor shaft.

Edit to add: Another follow up, with a few photos of the final assembly of the motor housing and battery holder. Positioner works great and has plenty of torque. Set a 60 pound chunk of 1045 bar on the plate, and it rotates it smoothly at any speed. Very happy with it.

Yesterday's project was welding up today's V-day gift for The Woman.