Shopmade TIG watercooled torch system

[Xnke]

So I am working on a project that requires a lot of welding on thick aluminium, and when I get the casting up to temperature I want to keep it hot and keep welding...it just works better that way. My torch is an air-cooled 250A DC, 150A AC torch...and I've been dropping the full 250A AC through it too much. Overheats nearly instantly, and just stays HOT. Not hot enough to fail, my hands can't take that kind of duty cycle, but hot enough to make me cuss at the end of a bead as I toss my gloves off!

 

I am upgrading to a water cooled torch, I can get a complete no-name torch for about 80$ delivered, and a no-name is good enough for me and my chinese welder...which until I took the cover off it and showed my friend who works for Miller, was indistinguishable from his Miller, except for the bombproof foot pedal. That thing could be used to beat the spindle pins out! I like it pretty good, and I've put it through some challenges already. 694$ including tank lease, torch and accessories, and shipping for a 200A AC TIG with pulse, arc control, and adjustable duty cycle is a pretty decent deal.

 

Anyway, I looked at the price of the torch assembly and thought "wow, that's not so bad!". Then I saw the price of the coolant circulators to go with it! LWS had two options...one was 600$ and the other was 900$...too rich for me. I asked to see inside of one, and the counterman grinned and pulled the cover off, so I could see what I needed to see. Didn't look too complex...certainly not 600$ complex. Circulating pump, resevoir, fan, radiator, and a few bodgy-looking bits to get hooked up to the torch. I can do this.

 

Headed down to the scrapyard/recycling center and kicked around for a bit, unloaded my bags of aluminum cans and scrap copper wire, some old cylinder head castings and a few other things, got my cash, and headed out to the "unsorted" area. A literal gold mine for scavengers. I quickly located an old soda fountain and yanked the carbonator pump and motor, check to make sure it still turned, bought it and tossed it in the car. Hunted up two aluminum fire extinguisher bottles, a huge load of 6061-T6 aluminum bar stock in varying sizes, (Major score!) and some bits and pieces of aluminum angle. All done, and I still left with 60$ in my pocket, having shown up with lint and a few pennies. Headed to the hardware store and got some copper tubing, flare nuts, flare fittings and some screws, then back to the house.

 

An hour of cutting and welding, two hours machining a nice heavy o-ring sealed threaded cap, and then I realized I didn't have a 3/8 NPT pipe tap. You know what they say, don't scrap it, J-B it! So I did. If it doesn't hold up, I'll weld on some bosses and go buy the right tap. Hunting around in the leftovers I found a 280Z A/C condenser and evaporator core, and some wire for the power cord and other important sparky bits. This is the result:

 

 

The black hose is just looping the pump output to the evaporator core, I was leak checking. Total cost: A few hours, about a gallon of gas, and some scrap metal.

 

So far, so good!

[24OZ]

I'm impressed, that's very ingenious, Mad Max style.

[johnc]

Impressive!

[Xnke]

Using an old 10" radiator fan scrapped out of the Z when its partner died, so now I have to work in a 12V transformer or find a 120V fan... leaning toward finding a fan. Trying to keep the system as uncluttered and as small as possible. Going to build a case to go on it, panel-mounted connectors and interlocks to prevent lighting up without the coolant flowing. Such can be disastrous to the torch and cabling, since the cable is cooled by the coolant as well as the torch head-no coolant flow, and your cable burns up in under a minute.

[cockerstar]

Something along the lines of this has been on my to-do list for a little while now, but I haven't had the need yet.

 

Thanks for posting up some pics! Any details on the pump you're using?

[Xnke]

It's a PROCON carbonator pump...can be had on ebay for 50$ or less, they're in every soda fountain. Brass body, 1/6HP motor ususally. Direct drive.

[grumpyvette]

http://www.grizzly.com/products/7-Gallon-Coolant-Tank-System/H8140?utm_source=google&utm_medium=productlisting&utm_campaign=google%2Bproducts

 

http://weldingdirect.com/sr1825.html

 

 

this might be useful in a similar custom fabrication

 

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=6812&p=22001#p22001

Edited April 16, 2012 by grumpyvette