Liquid tig cooler

[sicivicdude]

WELLLLLL, It's not like I can leave anything well enough alone. I got a little taste of aluminum welding doing these case repairs and before long not only was I choked up on the tig head (for better control) but I had smoked two sets of gloves....

The answer is a $600 liquid cooling setup from Miller the Coolmate1. I paid $500 for the entire welder I can't pay $600 for JUST the liquid cooling box. So I did what I do best, went about rigging something up to work. I got a turkey cooker pot from a buddy and bought a small 1/12 horsepower water transfer pump and some fittings. I still have to get a few small pieces of tubing and hook up a plug to the outside of the welder hooked to the switch on the welder (so the pump runs when the welder is on) but it's nearly complete.

The end result, I think, looks almost like something you could buy....

 

[Awk08]

nice fabbing (but you knew that)

enlighten us to what this actually does...spray water onto what you just welded ????

 

[slickerthanyou]

BRO that is awesome! Nice job!

If you find that the tubing your useing fails, let me know I have some High purity braided stuff that is indestructable at work, they wouldn't miss 10 feet there is 4-100ft rolls, from 1/2" to 1 1/2"!

 

[the_mrs]

It will pump coolant around the tig torch head to cool it down while he welds.

 

[Awk08]

It will pump coolant around the tig torch head to cool it down while he welds.

so...is there tubing wrapped around the tig head, or are they set-up for this with internal cooling jackets ????

or am i missing something here ????

 

[sicivicdude]

so...is there tubing wrapped around the tig head, or are they set-up for this with internal cooling jackets ????

or am i missing something here ????

You're actually missing the pictures for the other half of the setup. I bought a liquid cooled tig torch setup. It has liquid path cast into the head that the collet sits inside of and two coolant lines (supply and return) made into a denim "umbilical" which supplies power to the torch head, argon to the torch head and of course the two hoses to supply and return coolant.

 

[sicivicdude]

I *think* the vinyl tubing will work well for this setup. There will be about 4 gallons of coolant in the loop sitting there pumping around (versus an actively cooled radiator setup) but my tig welder is only rated 20% duty cycle at 166amps anyway so it should keep me at least as cool as the welder can hang with....

 

[Awk08]

cool, now i understand

 

[sicivicdude]

cool, now i understand

I bought a WP18 350 amp tig torch head direct from Hong Kong (hell, that's where the brand name weldcraft one's are made anyway!) for $50 plus shipping. It came with the entire umbilical, remote switch, new collets, new alumina cups, and two new backers.... can't beat that price with a BIG stick...

With this system hooked up, welding aluminum shouldn't be NEARLY as hot an operation LOL.

 

[super noober]

killer work as usual man!! I:I

 

[Awk08]

is it that aluminum takes more heat or just produces more heat when welded ????
i noticed that it was way hotter when Slick aluminum mig welded my pro-armor nerfs back together when i shortened them 5",
we had just switched over from doing some frame gusseting,
and "holy haites"..... i even needed golves on while i was holding them in position

(which BTW, the nerfs took alot of abuse this season, and still holding strong, thanx again Slick)

 

[slickerthanyou]

AWK-Ya bro ya need alot of heat as the aluminum dissapates it very quickly! Melts at lower temp than iron but doesn't hold the heat! And glad to hear my second aluminum weld job is good! I have since found that thin stuff is sooo much easier to do with the mig gun set-up and that heavy chit (skid plate) even with 220 is a rough! TIG is the best for that stuff!

SI- When ya get it hooked up an running let the mrs, take a pic of it in action! That will explain it all!

 

[sicivicdude]

is it that aluminum takes more heat or just produces more heat when welded ????
i noticed that it was way hotter when Slick aluminum mig welded my pro-armor nerfs back together when i shortened them 5",
we had just switched over from doing some frame gusseting,
and "holy haites"..... i even needed golves on while i was holding them in position

(which BTW, the nerfs took alot of abuse this season, and still holding strong, thanx again Slick)

Slick hit the nail on the head, aluminum melts at about 1250°F BUT it's a MUCH better heatsink than steel and "wicks" the heat away very quickly. In order to keep the weld pool stable you actually have to put in more heat than you do on steel (and in a different method too!) to keep the weld pool above 1250°F.

I turned it on last night but I only had about 3/4 gallon of antifreeze to put in it I might snap some pics tonight of the entire setup. The only thing I'm "lacking" now is the thumb switch and I'm going to wait to put that on until I've got the wiring diagram handy (and need the welder cover off again for some reason)

 

[sicivicdude]

I used the liquid cooler tonight and let me tell you, it's the difference between the night and day.

I got done welding steel (DCEN) at over 100 amps (1/8" plate) and was using thin leather work gloves choked up on the torch head successfully. After I was done welding I was able to pull the gloves off and immediately grab the torch head to hang it up in my table loop. The setup is SOOOOO awesome!

Better pictures of the entire setup tomorrow night to let everyone get a good idea of what was needed for this setup change.

 

[Awk08]

gotta luv when a "homebrew" plan comes to fruition !!!!!!

 

[Whitty21]

you are bat sh*t crazy!

 

[stephen]

Man i don't want to live next door to you! Who knows what you are building in that workshop of yours!!!
But it is looking nice and working great! So work on Frankenstein.

 

[sicivicdude]

gotta luv when a "homebrew" plan comes to fruition !!!!!!

The biggest pain was the fact that in order to build the liquid cooler to make welding aluminum easier, I had to weld aluminum! LOL Otherwise this is a homerun homebrew.

These are the other options direct from Miller:

Miller - Accessories - Water Coolant Systems

And believe it or not, the "knock-off" brands aren't a whole lot less expensive.

I've got about $10 in aluminum, $30 in fittings and tubing, $40 in a NOS pump ($65 brand new), and $20 in antifreeze. The turkey cooker bucket was free but I'm pretty sure anyone who wanted to build one of these could either find some other sort of container or buy just the cooker bucket off CL or something.

Man i don't want to live next door to you! Who knows what you are building in that workshop of yours!!!
But it is looking nice and working great! So work on Frankenstein.

The shop's fairly mundane actually... my neighbor does keep a weary out across the fence though.... just in case!

 

[sicivicdude]

Alright, so it's time for some explanations.... I bought a liquid cooled tig torch, a WP18FV from an Ebay store 3-river-store on Ebay:

WP-18FV-12-2 TIG welding torch Flexible Water cooled | eBay

Of course the fittings are funky so I ordered brass 5/8" "B style" barb fittings, nuts, and sockets from this website:

Argon Y and Quick-Change Couplers, Fittings, Nipples Etc. : Arc-Zone.com, The Welding Accessory Experts

JUST the fittings were like $40 but they're the "standard" fittings for liquid cooled tig welders so the torch is now interchangeable with any welder using the standard "miller fittings".

The tig torch with argon valve and aux swtich:

The demin jacket and front panel setup now. The block on the right of the electrode connector is where the gas and coolant lines connect now.

All of the connectors and the aluminum block I attached to the side of the welder:

The supply coolant from the pump is plumbed into the 1/4" rubber line. The return back to the tank is clear vinyl so that I can see the return flow. I'm kinda paranoid about coolant flow shutting down and messing up the supply wire (the wire that carries the power to the torch is small and cooled by the return coolant) so I wanted to make sure coolant is flowing visually. The level in the tube drops to match the level in the tank when the pump is off. If antifreeze is all the way to the top of the vinyl tubing, I know there is return flow into the tank and I'm still good to go.

And on the other side, I hooked up a single 115V outlet inside the cover and wired it to a single leg of the main input switch so the output is switched on when the welder is on, the output is off when the welder is off. The plastic tube with the green liquid is a "level" sensor for coolant level check so I can visually check to make sure I have adequate coolant level.

 

[slickerthanyou]

I"M digging the level sensor! Nice set up bro!