Homemade Tig water cooler

[welderdude]

I finally have everything together to start my water cooler project. I made the mistake of ordering an electric motor off of ebay that was shipped from somewhere in Alaska. It took a month to get here. The price was right though. Its a 230 volt 1/3 hp at 1725 rpm. The pump is a Procon pump from ebay that was new old stock. I'll post pictures tomorrow as I continue working on it.

[MoparCar]

Looking forward to the pictures. There are a lot of cooler projects both on this site and the internet. All a little different. I just started picking up small parts for one if I decide to build my own. Got a nice 6" 120 volt Dayton muffin fan out of a large commercial power supply last week that we were scrapping from a project. I figured that could work mounted to the cooler/radiator piece eventually.

[performance]

On demand small sprayer pumps work well. They are available in 120V. You don't need but a gallon a minute or less flow.
http://www.agrisupply.com/D-Duplex-M...05/&sid=&eid=/

[MoparCar]

Mark-Great idea and link. That's a nice unit all in one!
Thanks

[performance]

It's compact too. Overall fairly quite and has a switch in it for "demand" running, which turns the unit on and off based off of pressure... Also has a chemical resistance factor. They'll run hours on end if needed.

[welderdude]

My first idea was to use a diaphram pump like that, but I was concerned about how long it would last running hours at a time. Also, It ended up being the same price to buy the pump and motor I got. I only spent about 90 dollars on the pump, motor, and the lovejoy coupler. here are some pictures.

[SeanMurphy265]

I'm going to break down and build a tig cooler. I've been looking at pumps on amazon as well. I was going to build a tank myself for the tig time, and use a transmission cooler since they are cheap! How many gallons of fluid should your tank hold?

[Rambozo]

It all depends on what kind of cooling you have. I have a Bernard cooler that looks almost garage made. It's basically a stainless tray from food service, and one of those Procon pumps mounted to one end of a dual shaft motor, with a fan on the other end and something like a heater core for it to blow over. Nothing fancy at all. Holds a couple of gallons max. Yet I think they want quite a bit of cash for them. (This one came with a welder.)

The shop next to mine had about the simplest design I've ever seen. The guy built an aluminum tank about the same size as his argon bottle about 9" square and four or five feet tall. It fit in his cart where a second bottle could go. Then he just had a submersible fountain pump in the bottom, feeding his torch. Not even any fittings, the hose and cord came right out of the top. It held enough water so it could just dissipate the heat and no fan or cooler was needed. Hot went in the top and cool was pulled from the bottom. I saw him weld aluminum all day at 300 amps with no problem. Not the most portable design, but simple and did the job. I'd estimate he had around 15 gallons in there.

Here is one version.

[welderdude]

I don't even know how much my little tank holds. maybe .5 to .75 gal. I got it for free so I can't complain. I would think that its size isn't too important though.

[redbeard]

I don't even know how much my little tank holds. maybe .5 to .75 gal. I got it for free so I can't complain. I would think that its size isn't too important though.

If you are using the reservoir itself to dissipate the heat like Rambozo's friend then size would definitely matter. With a radiator/fan setup, not so much.

[performance]

I don't even know how much my little tank holds. maybe .5 to .75 gal. I got it for free so I can't complain. I would think that its size isn't too important though.

If cheap is what you want, a couple of milk jugs drilled and tapped would work for that matter.

The size of the tank is farily important as it does provide additional cooling. Our 300+ amp water coolers use a 2 gallon reservoir.

[everlastsupport]

The shop next to mine had about the simplest design I've ever seen. The guy built an aluminum tank about the same size as his argon bottle about 9" square and four or five feet tall. It fit in his cart where a second bottle could go. Then he just had a submersible fountain pump in the bottom, feeding his torch. Not even any fittings, the hose and cord came right out of the top. It held enough water so it could just dissipate the heat and no fan or cooler was needed. Hot went in the top and cool was pulled from the bottom. I saw him weld aluminum all day at 300 amps with no problem. Not the most portable design, but simple and did the job. I'd estimate he had around 15 gallons in there.

Wonder what the weight was on that thing.

I have the procon pump on my Bernard cooler. They are good pumps and the tank is stainless.

[Rambozo]

Wonder what the weight was on that thing.

With a 330 A/BP on the cart, the extra weight of the water wasn't much of an issue. I saw one Syncrowave 300 cart where the cart itself was a huge reservoir under the welder. I can't remember the brand, but it was a big name.

[MoparCar]

That's a great "passive" cooler idea. Basically mass loading/cooling.

Has anyone used a discarded water cooler/drinking fountain and its refrigerated components and added a pump fit for full duty cycle? I'm an electrical contractor and I see older water coolers/drinking fountains from officse thrown out all the time.

[redbeard]

That's a great "passive" cooler idea. Basically mass loading/cooling.

Has anyone used a discarded water cooler/drinking fountain and its refrigerated components and added a pump fit for full duty cycle? I'm an electrical contractor and I see older water coolers/drinking fountains from officse thrown out all the time.

OOOH! That just gave me a really over-the-top idea, with a bunch of added engineering and fabbing, you could make it do double duty as a refrigerated dryer for your plasma cutter.

[Rambozo]

OOOH! That just gave me a really over-the-top idea, with a bunch of added engineering and fabbing, you could make it do double duty as a refrigerated dryer for your plasma cutter.

Don't forget to include a beer cooler in the design.

[MoparCar]

I think we're on to something! The all in one garage big torch, beer, refrigerated cooler and dryer! Big old multi-port manifold on that thing and a mine-fridge to the side!

[everlastsupport]

I think we're on to something! The all in one garage big torch, beer, refrigerated cooler and dryer! Big old multi-port manifold on that thing and a mine-fridge to the side!

Looks what you guys have done to Welderdudes cooler thread... OK, maybe 4 cup holders on it too. Heck, add a fan across it and sit around it to keep cool. Where do we place orders? Welderdude better get a cut...

[MoparCar]

Lol....so true. Now back to original programming! I think it was the mention of beer.

[welderdude]

LOL! I can dig the beer cooler idea, but thats what my mini fridge is for. I hope to finish what I started pretty soon.

I have been busy with other project that don't include welding and trying to get a full time job.
The lack of cash is causing issues.