Tig welding tips, questions, equipment, applications, instructions, techniques, tig welding machines, troubleshooting tig welding process
Pump option - too good to be true?
Post Reply
User avatar
  • Posts:
  • Joined:
    Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:38 pm
  • Location:
    Scranton/WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania

MosquitoMoto wrote:http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/301367002996 ... EBIDX%3AIT
I don't really need a Tig water cooler (hobbyist only) but I'd like to build one just for fun and practise.
So how's this one?
Kym
I have a 10 gallon stainless cooking pot. I tried a few different pumps $50-$75 pumps .
With a stopwatch and filling a Ratio Rite premix cup, none of them gave me the required flow.
I think that although they could pump unrestricted to their specs, they just couldn't handle the torch head restriction.
I returned them and on suggestion I got a Shurflo model 8000 912 288 . It does the job. I've had it running a few months and this past week it got a real test with the dump body job. It ran from morning to night on 3 consecutive days with no prob. I have a little 4" desk fan (from wallys) that sits beside the pump, the pump gets only luke warm. I also have a "T" and small inline valve on the output hose that allows me to bleed a little pressure off the output and back into the pot. Before I installed this, the pump would occasionally oscillate on and off because of the pressure. It was difficult to set the pump adjustment for this. The bleed off T resolved this . I used pressure washer quick disconnects from home depot. I did have to buy one special brass connector for the reverse thread on the CK20 water hose. I run distilled water and RV coolant in mine. I might need to look into aquarium fungicide drops ...the coolant now has a slight funky odor .
The pot never moved more that a few degrees during any welding here at home. On the dump job it did get pretty warm about 5 hours in . Anticipating this, I had a frozen gallon of water I brought. I put that in there and we were good the rest of the day . This was after a lot of continuous welding on a big project. The whole thing is very quiet, about as loud as an aquarium pump. The welder is much louder. Anyway, good luck if you build one. I could take some video if you like .
Top
User avatar
  • Posts:
  • Joined:
    Sat Aug 01, 2015 8:38 am
  • Location:
    The Land Down Under

subwayrocket wrote:
MosquitoMoto wrote:http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/301367002996 ... EBIDX%3AIT
I don't really need a Tig water cooler (hobbyist only) but I'd like to build one just for fun and practise.
So how's this one?
Kym
I have a 10 gallon stainless cooking pot. I tried a few different pumps $50-$75 pumps .
With a stopwatch and filling a Ratio Rite premix cup, none of them gave me the required flow.
I think that although they could pump unrestricted to their specs, they just couldn't handle the torch head restriction.
I returned them and on suggestion I got a Shurflo model 8000 912 288 . It does the job. I've had it running a few months and this past week it got a real test with the dump body job. It ran from morning to night on 3 consecutive days with no prob. I have a little 4" desk fan (from wallys) that sits beside the pump, the pump gets only luke warm. I also have a "T" and small inline valve on the output hose that allows me to bleed a little pressure off the output and back into the pot. Before I installed this, the pump would occasionally oscillate on and off because of the pressure. It was difficult to set the pump adjustment for this. The bleed off T resolved this . I used pressure washer quick disconnects from home depot. I did have to buy one special brass connector for the reverse thread on the CK20 water hose. I run distilled water and RV coolant in mine. I might need to look into aquarium fungicide drops ...the coolant now has a slight funky odor .
The pot never moved more that a few degrees during any welding here at home. On the dump job it did get pretty warm about 5 hours in . Anticipating this, I had a frozen gallon of water I brought. I put that in there and we were good the rest of the day . This was after a lot of continuous welding on a big project. The whole thing is very quiet, about as loud as an aquarium pump. The welder is much louder. Anyway, good luck if you build one. I could take some video if you like .
Hey Sub.

Glad you're getting good results. Would love to see some pics some time.


Kym
Top
User avatar
  • Posts:
  • Joined:
    Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:38 pm
  • Location:
    Scranton/WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania

haha it was late last night . Reading back, I see you already got a procon pump. Good luck with it man !
Btw, a large stainless reservoir works really well. Don't use aluminum anywhere in your system, I had an old alum pot I tried, I started to get electrolysis discoloration the first few days I used it and switched to the stainless pot.
Top
User avatar
  • Posts:
  • Joined:
    Sat Aug 01, 2015 8:38 am
  • Location:
    The Land Down Under

subwayrocket wrote:haha it was late last night . Reading back, I see you already got a procon pump. Good luck with it man !
Btw, a large stainless reservoir works really well. Don't use aluminum anywhere in your system, I had an old alum pot I tried, I started to get electrolysis discoloration the first few days I used it and switched to the stainless pot.
Good tip Sub, thanks.

There's a scrappy near me that often has old industrial junk for sale including stainless vessels. I'll take the kids and go there on a treasure hunt some time.


Kym
Top
Post Reply

Return to “Tig Welding - Tig Welding Aluminum - Tig Welding Techniques - Aluminum Tig Welding”