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.

[Odyknuck]

Are these the same pumps that are used in RVs?

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=/

[Rambozo]

Are these the same pumps that are used in RVs?

RV pumps are 12 volt, but yes those are the same basic diaphragm pumps, and you can get them in different voltages.

[Odyknuck]

Yea I was aware they RV units were 12vdc. I just happen to have a new one in a box that I bought for a spare for my Motor home and Toy hauler. Would need a 12VDC power supply for it. Just looking around the shop for things that could be used to build a cooler. So I have the RV pump, A 6" diameter 230 VAC muffin fan and a 12 x 12 Aluminum transmission cooler. A lot of mis match parts lol!!!!

[Spike]

A home made water cooler... I can honestly say I hadn't thought of doing that... Now that I think about it though, I don't know why it never crossed my mind. Just never put a lot of thought into a water cooler since I don't do a lot of high amperage/ long duty cycle work, I guess.

Good project idea!

[Tanh]

This might be a silly question but has anybody considered using something other than water to cool a torch? Maybe like Glycol or alcohol based coolants? Would that have any affect on the torches? It's a really interesting idea, DIY cooler. When I get my tig up and running I might venture there too.

[hooda]

This might be a silly question but has anybody considered using something other than water to cool a torch? Maybe like Glycol or alcohol based coolants? Would that have any affect on the torches? It's a really interesting idea, DIY cooler. When I get my tig up and running I might venture there too.

Hi. I posed the same question because my shop sometimes loses heat, and I wanted to use dexcool or something similar, I was told it has to do with electrical conductivity, and how it will cause an electrolytic process that will eat away at the cooler and other parts. This made more sense when I installed a new heater core in a car and the tag directed me to check for voltage in the antifreeze (one probe on batt negative, one directly in the coolant.) It said that if there was voltage present, fix it, or the new heater core would quickly fail, Hope this helps. Best to use distilled, deionized, water, or special welder cooler antifreeze.