CGT80
Well-known member
I was asked if I had a thread on my tig cooler build, so here it is!
It seems I must not have taken pics when I built the internals. Often times, I focus more on getting the job done than taking pics, and I'm not the type that posts anything on facebook and it is more common for me to post a pic or two in another thread rather than start my own. If you have questions just ask. If someone really wants to see more of the inside, I can pop the cover off.
Back Story: I was in community college in 1999-2001 and took some welding classes. After the stick class, I started thinking about tig. My dad found an old tig welder on craigslist. It was a Miller 330abp. I didn't know anything about them. It was $1000 and complete with cooler, 248cf bottle, carbon arc gouging setup, stinger, torches, etc. It worked when I looked at it, but after moving the 1,000 pound beast, it needed new capacitors for the HF and an old relay went bad. A tech from Sim's welding, in SoCal, diagnosed the problem, at my house, and I fixed it. He had a meter that was acting up on him and had trouble finding the issue. He ended up not charging me, if I recall correctly and I think I bought miller caps from their shop.
The previous owner had the machine wired without the pressure safety valve for the pump, and it was all mounted on the top of the machine. The gear pump was very noisy and sometimes didn't want to get moving when I turned it on. He said, the machine was originally installed in the California Steel plant, a few minutes from where I live, and he bought it used.
I made a frame for the pump, a radiator, and the 2 gallon bucket which served as a reservoir. It was a bit crude and I never made a skin for it. My sheet metal skills were non existent at that time.
Last year, I got tired of the old pump and having to give it a spin by hand to get it going. A shurflow pump seemed like a nice quiet and inexpensive option. Well......a 45 psi pump is no good when it shuts off at 45 and doesn't turn on until 20psi or less. I bypassed the pressure switch and used a bypass valve back to the tank to reduce the pressure to 55psi.
The pump pulsated so I bought a water hammer preventer (I don't remember the technical name). It helped but wasn't enough. Some large pvc fittings gave me a bigger air pocket, which took out the pulsation felt in the torch. Now I don't even notice it.
The pump got warm, on the bench, so I added a fan which I bought on ebay. It was from a refrigerated food case and I planned to use it for an after cooler on my air compressor. The old pressure switch was reused as well as the little radiator, that my dad originally pulled from an old engine analyzer machine.
Here is an old picture of the first cooler I sort of put together. When I got the machine, I didn't have a digital camera and I shot on 35mm and 6x6cm film and processed my own. My AS degree is in Photography.
This one had a very noisy 6" high speed 240v fan, which it probably didn't even need for the coolant.
My brother left a sheet of 0.063" aluminum beside the house and it was quite weathered. Part of it is now my tig cooler and a 5" green surfacing disc cleaned it up.
The frame is 3/4" steel square tube, IIRC. The hinge is aluminum and is welded to the lid. Air hose works for the coolant. It has quick connects, which I think came from McMasterCarr, as well as the hinge, screws, and plenty of other items I have used in my shop in the last couple years. The cooler is now all 120v, so I can run it off the welder or another circuit. The tig pulls 104 amps, but is on a 50 amp circuit. If I run it for a long time, or push it past 250 amps for more than a couple minutes, it will pop the breaker. It ***** that this garage is 75-100 from the main panel. I can run an extension cord from another circuit and even if the breaker pops, the torch will cool off quickly. The torch is a 20 series heavy duty flex rated to 250-300 amps. the neck is a big rectangular chunk instead of the thin tube that the standard duty torch had (which sprung a leak, maybe from being over heated).
It seems I must not have taken pics when I built the internals. Often times, I focus more on getting the job done than taking pics, and I'm not the type that posts anything on facebook and it is more common for me to post a pic or two in another thread rather than start my own. If you have questions just ask. If someone really wants to see more of the inside, I can pop the cover off.
Back Story: I was in community college in 1999-2001 and took some welding classes. After the stick class, I started thinking about tig. My dad found an old tig welder on craigslist. It was a Miller 330abp. I didn't know anything about them. It was $1000 and complete with cooler, 248cf bottle, carbon arc gouging setup, stinger, torches, etc. It worked when I looked at it, but after moving the 1,000 pound beast, it needed new capacitors for the HF and an old relay went bad. A tech from Sim's welding, in SoCal, diagnosed the problem, at my house, and I fixed it. He had a meter that was acting up on him and had trouble finding the issue. He ended up not charging me, if I recall correctly and I think I bought miller caps from their shop.
The previous owner had the machine wired without the pressure safety valve for the pump, and it was all mounted on the top of the machine. The gear pump was very noisy and sometimes didn't want to get moving when I turned it on. He said, the machine was originally installed in the California Steel plant, a few minutes from where I live, and he bought it used.
I made a frame for the pump, a radiator, and the 2 gallon bucket which served as a reservoir. It was a bit crude and I never made a skin for it. My sheet metal skills were non existent at that time.
Last year, I got tired of the old pump and having to give it a spin by hand to get it going. A shurflow pump seemed like a nice quiet and inexpensive option. Well......a 45 psi pump is no good when it shuts off at 45 and doesn't turn on until 20psi or less. I bypassed the pressure switch and used a bypass valve back to the tank to reduce the pressure to 55psi.
The pump pulsated so I bought a water hammer preventer (I don't remember the technical name). It helped but wasn't enough. Some large pvc fittings gave me a bigger air pocket, which took out the pulsation felt in the torch. Now I don't even notice it.
The pump got warm, on the bench, so I added a fan which I bought on ebay. It was from a refrigerated food case and I planned to use it for an after cooler on my air compressor. The old pressure switch was reused as well as the little radiator, that my dad originally pulled from an old engine analyzer machine.
Here is an old picture of the first cooler I sort of put together. When I got the machine, I didn't have a digital camera and I shot on 35mm and 6x6cm film and processed my own. My AS degree is in Photography.
This one had a very noisy 6" high speed 240v fan, which it probably didn't even need for the coolant.
My brother left a sheet of 0.063" aluminum beside the house and it was quite weathered. Part of it is now my tig cooler and a 5" green surfacing disc cleaned it up.
The frame is 3/4" steel square tube, IIRC. The hinge is aluminum and is welded to the lid. Air hose works for the coolant. It has quick connects, which I think came from McMasterCarr, as well as the hinge, screws, and plenty of other items I have used in my shop in the last couple years. The cooler is now all 120v, so I can run it off the welder or another circuit. The tig pulls 104 amps, but is on a 50 amp circuit. If I run it for a long time, or push it past 250 amps for more than a couple minutes, it will pop the breaker. It ***** that this garage is 75-100 from the main panel. I can run an extension cord from another circuit and even if the breaker pops, the torch will cool off quickly. The torch is a 20 series heavy duty flex rated to 250-300 amps. the neck is a big rectangular chunk instead of the thin tube that the standard duty torch had (which sprung a leak, maybe from being over heated).
