Stueeee
Old git
- Messages
- 977
- Location
- N W Kent
Have a big Ali welding job to do soon. First idea was to fit a spool gun to my 180A MIG, After wiring it in, this seems to work well but sage advice received says that the welder may just not have enough poke to fillet weld an 8mm thick casting to some 10mm thick 6208 plate.
So, as I have a AC/DC TIG welder that has 300A+ output, my thought's turned to using a water cooled TIG torch instead rather than the gas cooled jobbies I usually use. I found a WP18 TIG torch at a reasonable price, but the water coolers seemed to cost a lot of money for what they are. So a rummage through my box of "come in useful one dayjunk components" revealed a new oil cooler bought at a US swapmeet for another project. Some fans from some redundant UNIX servers, a liquid flow sensor (I think I scavenged this from a dead washing machine) and some other bits. Here's the oil cooler mounted on the back panel I made for the cooler box.
Then I added the fans.
The one thing I didn't have was anything suitable to use as a pump. After much casting around I decided to try an ebay purchased 12V caravan pump -the type that's used to provide water through the sink tap. claimed to be 6 LPM and IIRC 80 PSI - although undoubtedly not both at the same time! I decided to get the necessary 12V supply from an ATX power supply removed from a dead PC. Here's my hi-tech test rig.....
Didn't really have anything suitable for a coolant tank either, but @Pete. had generously given me a sheet of 1.2mm stainless he'd salvaged from a lift, so I cut this up and welded the seams with some 316 rods I had. I have to say that the welds weren't at all tidy before I pressure tested it, the welds looked quite hideous after I had rewelded the pinholed areas. The soldered in boss on the front is there to accept a temperature guage -I machined the boss from a chunk of Brass; the guage was a bootfair purchase.
Got most of the components in the case that I made for the cooler by now.... the components on the right hand side are for the (no) flow alarm The flow sensor I have is 'made' (i.e. conducts across the two wires) when there's flow and presents a disconnect when there is no flow. In order to use the alarm hooter (from my daughter's first bike) the sensor holds a 12v 5 pin automotive relay in the operated condition. Lack of flow will release the relay which makes the alarm circuit, sounding the horn and lighting the alarm LED on the front panel.
To be continued.....
So, as I have a AC/DC TIG welder that has 300A+ output, my thought's turned to using a water cooled TIG torch instead rather than the gas cooled jobbies I usually use. I found a WP18 TIG torch at a reasonable price, but the water coolers seemed to cost a lot of money for what they are. So a rummage through my box of "come in useful one day
Then I added the fans.
The one thing I didn't have was anything suitable to use as a pump. After much casting around I decided to try an ebay purchased 12V caravan pump -the type that's used to provide water through the sink tap. claimed to be 6 LPM and IIRC 80 PSI - although undoubtedly not both at the same time! I decided to get the necessary 12V supply from an ATX power supply removed from a dead PC. Here's my hi-tech test rig.....
Didn't really have anything suitable for a coolant tank either, but @Pete. had generously given me a sheet of 1.2mm stainless he'd salvaged from a lift, so I cut this up and welded the seams with some 316 rods I had. I have to say that the welds weren't at all tidy before I pressure tested it, the welds looked quite hideous after I had rewelded the pinholed areas. The soldered in boss on the front is there to accept a temperature guage -I machined the boss from a chunk of Brass; the guage was a bootfair purchase.
Got most of the components in the case that I made for the cooler by now.... the components on the right hand side are for the (no) flow alarm The flow sensor I have is 'made' (i.e. conducts across the two wires) when there's flow and presents a disconnect when there is no flow. In order to use the alarm hooter (from my daughter's first bike) the sensor holds a 12v 5 pin automotive relay in the operated condition. Lack of flow will release the relay which makes the alarm circuit, sounding the horn and lighting the alarm LED on the front panel.
To be continued.....