Welding Tips and Tricks

Home made tig cooler just about done. Tested it and at 50psi runs almost a litre per minute through the CK20 torch and 25' feet each way of hose. Flow limit must be the torch head I guess. Anyway, google says a litre a minute is ok.
New Stronghand Tools PCB clamp
I made up a timer for the coolant pump. Basically its a box with a male mains plug coming in one side and a female coming out the other. It goes inline from the power point to the pump motor cord. I has a third cable which is the trigger which comes from the welder. Basically I wanted the pump to kick in when its first powered up for a preset time, say 30 seconds, just to make sure there is water in the lines. Then only to turn on when when there is argon flow. So I opened up the machine but unfortunately the argon solenoid is 240v and I only need 12v for a signal.

So I traced it back and and found the relay that controls it which is 12v. Unplugged about 15 connectors, took out the 4 screws holding the board and soldered on a pair to piggyback the -12v and +12v to coil of the relay.
I ran these wires to the back panel and installed in to it a female plug connector thingamajig
This is the timer box. It has a microprocessor control relay module ($10 on ebay, fantastic for what it can do), the guts out of the smallest 240v to 12v plug pack and a solid state relay. The wire from the back panel of the tig switches that solid state relay on, supposed to be 10milliamps or so but was only using 4 when I tested it. Wasn't sure if extra load from a conventional relay would do something funny with the electronics in the welder hence the SSR, I'm sure 4millamps isn't going to hurt anything.

So when its all plugged in and turned on the pump starts straight away and runs for whatever the preset time is then stops. As soon as the argon solenoid opens and you start welding, the pump starts back up instantly, actually earlier, preflow initiates the pump before the weld. So long as the argon is flowing the pump is on but as soon as the argon stops (postflow) the timer starts and counts down from whatever you set. Pump gets switched off when the timer reaches 0. 30 seconds should be more than enough to cool off whatever heat is left, actually probably 10 or 15 would be enough. So basically I don't have to remember to turn it on, because it goes on with the welder, and I don't have to listen to it going all day when I'm just tinkering around. I couldn't even remember to turn on a gas valve on a torch and that was in my hand, so this should remove the risk of burning out a torch because I forgot to turn a pump on.

Actually it was really just an excuse to stuff around in the garage all arvo with six pack. Oh and don't try this as there is 240v present and well because safety... or something.

Man I have always wanted to get into electronics like that... I even bought an Elenco electronics lab, but I never make it past transistors....

Love your work. But you definitely make me feel a bit thick.

Now, to clarify, was that 'don't try this at home' or 'don't try this at home without a six pack?'



Familiar looking machine...hasn't taken you long to get under the hood, that's for sure!


Kym

I'm considering using an inductive sensing clamp and just an external led / idiot light mounted next to my welder as a reminder.

Is it possible? to to tell me the link of relay in ebay to do something similar . I have the same problem my tig cooler makes a lot of noise when I do not weld and Im looking for a similar solution.

Look fo an inductive sensing relay from any HVAC supply house. They come in almost any voltage you might want. There usually rated by required amp draw to switch the relay. You just run one of your power wires through the hole and if the motor is drawing power it will switch on. I'll see if I can find a good link.

http://www.grainger.com/product/AIROTRO ... 1?$smthumb$

Just check ebay for a "multifunction relay" there are a few kinds but they look like what's in the link below.

Still need to tap a signal off the internal gas solenoid relay or use Poland308's suggestion of a inductive clamp. Either can be used to trigger a 12v coil relay with mains rated contacts. This can switch the pump on and off with with current flow to the torch. I used the timer to keep the pump going after the welding is over for another 15, 20 whatever seconds. Alternatively if you do use the gas solenoid method you can use gas pre flow and post flow to keep cooler running a little longer as one is tied to the other. Thats what I was originally going to do but I waste enough gas as it is and I wasn't sure how long you need to keep water flow through the torch after a 200amp bead for example. Its a pretty slow flow of water as it is.


http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FRM01-Multif ... 1e973c9eb5


http://www.easydiag.cz/fotky29604/fotov ... Manual.pdf

THANK YOU , I'm working on it ...

Very impressive !!
I wish I had done something like this

Bravo

Adam



707 / 579-9290
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Start here --> http://makezine.com/

Fatjackdurham wrote:Man I have always wanted to get into electronics like that... I even bought an Elenco electronics lab, but I never make it past transistors....

WerkSpace wrote:Start here --> http://makezine.com/

Fatjackdurham wrote:Man I have always wanted to get into electronics like that... I even bought an Elenco electronics lab, but I never make it past transistors....

Once you get into the basics on Makezine, also check out http://Hackaday.com.

Hackaday wanders far afield through various tech areas, but there are some great articles and projects.

(Just don't put too much value on the commentary after the articles. Some people keep getting offended if there is/isn't an Arduino microcontroller in any particular project, or debate the value of any article as to whether the contents are a proper hack or not.)

There's a lot of really cool stuff on the MAKE website.
Almost anything that you can imagine. Try the search feature...
http://makezine.com/2015/08/18/prepping ... e-forging/

hey_allen wrote:

WerkSpace wrote:Start here --> http://makezine.com/

Fatjackdurham wrote:Man I have always wanted to get into electronics like that... I even bought an Elenco electronics lab, but I never make it past transistors....

Once you get into the basics on Makezine, also check out http://Hackaday.com.

Hackaday wanders far afield through various tech areas, but there are some great articles and projects.

(Just don't put too much value on the commentary after the articles. Some people keep getting offended if there is/isn't an Arduino microcontroller in any particular project, or debate the value of any article as to whether the contents are a proper hack or not.)

When i bought my Coolermate 3, I had to put in a new radiator, a new driveshaft, a new pump, a new flow meter, and some other new stuff. Spent about 250-300 to bring it back to life.

Seller on eBay whom sold it to me gave me a full refund since it was all fubar.

Almost wish I built something like this instead!! I am very much into the home-brew side of things.

Adam

I only did it because I can't help myself lol. I have a long history of "I'm not paying that!!! I can make that myself"

I see a coolant pump as just a motor, pump, tank and bypass and perhaps a little radiator. I suspect most hobby/home workshop types like me could get by without the radiator with a big enough tank. Anyway it seemed that $700 for the above was a bit on the ridiculous side so I got together some parts. In truth its probably cost me $400 but I have enough capacity to run 2 torches as I'm bypassing a lot of water, and its got a 18 litre tank so if you compare to commercial models its probably equivalent of one of the $1000+ units. But if something goes wrong there is only a handful of generic components that are easy and cheap to replace. Plus it was a lot of fun to make, very rewarding when you do something like this and it actually works.