Reman
Member
- Messages
- 250
- Location
- Bristol, UK.
I had to go food shopping this morning. I loaded up with painkillers to dull my whining back and ankles, and managed the ordeal without too much trouble. When I got home I still felt reasonably OK, so I took another tablet and wandered off into the garage workshop. Long story short, I'd dug out my old SIP MIGmate last week, gave it a once over and ordered a few bit's to make it work better. Today I decided to give the wire feed it's own PSU and speed controller. I cut a little corner with this as I realised that I could just move the original board, fit a new speed controller in it's place, wire in a 24v PSU, and use the original motor wires to trip a 24v relay. The output from the ESC goes to the motor via the relays switch.
So, the trigger activates the original board, and that trips the relay to power up the wire feed. I tried laying down a bead before and after this mod and it seems to be a pretty noticeable improvement.
Unfortunately, humphing that around on the bench has knackered my back again, so I'm now dosed up on codine and laying in bed.
When I stop hurting again, I've got a coiled metal liner and swan neck liner to fit. Once I've tried it running with those I'm going to do the wire feed brace mod.
Once I'm done tinkering with this, I think I need to finally do my rite of passage, and build a welding cart ! It's one thing I've somehow never got around to doing.
It will be nice to have this MIG, my cheapo stick welder, and all the associated kit/consumables together in one place and easily grabbable.
BTW, does anyone else "Recycle" old CO2 extinguishes for welding gas?
They really should be inverted in use because extinguishes have a dip tube in there so they can spray liquid CO2 out the nosel, but I've yet to have any problems with the bottles in any orientation (maybe I can add an inverted bottle holder when I make a welding cart?). I used to buy these from the local scrap man. He hates having to deal with discharging the things before recycling them, so I would buy them for a few quid a pop, run them dry, and still get a little bit back when I weighed in the empties. It worked out as a pretty cheap way to get welding gas. The scrappy's still there, but I haven't done much MIG welding in the last few years, so haven't been using the ones I've already got.
So, the trigger activates the original board, and that trips the relay to power up the wire feed. I tried laying down a bead before and after this mod and it seems to be a pretty noticeable improvement.
Unfortunately, humphing that around on the bench has knackered my back again, so I'm now dosed up on codine and laying in bed.
When I stop hurting again, I've got a coiled metal liner and swan neck liner to fit. Once I've tried it running with those I'm going to do the wire feed brace mod.
Once I'm done tinkering with this, I think I need to finally do my rite of passage, and build a welding cart ! It's one thing I've somehow never got around to doing.
It will be nice to have this MIG, my cheapo stick welder, and all the associated kit/consumables together in one place and easily grabbable.
BTW, does anyone else "Recycle" old CO2 extinguishes for welding gas?
They really should be inverted in use because extinguishes have a dip tube in there so they can spray liquid CO2 out the nosel, but I've yet to have any problems with the bottles in any orientation (maybe I can add an inverted bottle holder when I make a welding cart?). I used to buy these from the local scrap man. He hates having to deal with discharging the things before recycling them, so I would buy them for a few quid a pop, run them dry, and still get a little bit back when I weighed in the empties. It worked out as a pretty cheap way to get welding gas. The scrappy's still there, but I haven't done much MIG welding in the last few years, so haven't been using the ones I've already got.