We have one now...

Miller 330A/BP 300+ AMP TIG welder with foot control and water cooler for the torch.
850 pounds of welding goodness

Stuff that needs doing, before we can use it
- We need to replace the water cooled torch cables (25') as they are in rough condition.
- wire up 240 volt 100 amp or better service (its a really powerful welder)
- get a large sized (Q or better) Argon tank
- get regulator for argon and a flow meter
- need an array of different sized tungsten electrodes

This thing will weld almost any metal, but does have some costly consumables.
Going to have to work that out since tungsten tips and gas are $$.

Awesome! I don't know anything about welding, but how can I help? Obviously, it needs some dough to get it operating, so do we have a mechanism in place that we can donate funds to a specific project to get it rolling?

Well, yes, it was setup to donate to and track a few specific projects, that are infrastructural in nature, but I think if you use the donations link and put an obvious name like TIG Welder in the notes, that should work.

The link is here.
http://www.tcmaker.org/blog/equipment-e ... donations/

Thanks swink, don't know where you found it, but that's great. So am I correct in assuming it is an AC/DC TIG, so Aluminum is a possibility?

Pete

"Hey, who went home and forgot to close the valve on the argon tank!"

Unfortunately, we'd need to know, which time you are referring to?

Just trying to anticipate the worst-case scenario... that's a big honkin' tank of argon to lose if it leaks out overnight. Not sure what the duty cycle is (probably pretty high for a big unit like that), or what your electrical rate is, but electricity alone could cost close to a dollar an hour if it uses 10KW @ ten cents per KWH. The cost is going to be one or two orders of magnitude greater than anything else in the shop.

Also, if there's going to be any stainless welded, it would be a good idea to read up on hexavalent chromium. The OSHA standards are here, and the wikipedia entry is here.

If you guys can work this out it might just push me over the edge into becoming a member, because I don't have anything like that in my shop right now, and even if I did own one I couldn't locate it more than 25 feet from the barrel full of sawdust under my dust collector.

Awesome capability!

-Jim Hart

That new welder is rated for a 60% duty cycle, and can pull 100A at 240V, single phase. That's roughly equivalent to an average-sized house with all lights and appliances turned on. Definitely an impressively large machine.

cables are going to be about $100
s argon is going to be $215 (this is to buy the tank.)
regulator $110
tungston is going to be about $1-4 per depending on size. plus about $10 per person to setup consumable gun parts things like the collet collet body nozzle.

I think videoman and I are going to split the costs of the welder as a donation. But we as a group, we should start setting up a fund to get the other needed parts and electrical wiring necessary to make this a featured tool in the shop.

Brandon, would there be a way to do a call out on the donation form for "metal shop fund"?
It would be nice to have the 240v drillpress wired up at the same time as the welder.

Here are a few items I have my eye on to outfit the welder:
1. argon flowmeter by smith
http://store.cyberweld.com/smflreh11.html
2. flowmeter to welder cable
http://store.cyberweld.com/ingasho6sibl.html
3. 25' water-cooled torch cable and torch body 350 Amp Rated WP-18
http://store.cyberweld.com/db350ampwatt.html
4. torch collets and electrodes (AK3 for WP-18 )
http://store.cyberweld.com/tigtoackit.html