fork

No ------- way im building tha thing, a ------- stun gun and running wires into a bucket of water, Sounds like like a death trap. I'd definitely do the welder though

FURACERMAN

Electronics own me, but I've been wanting to try and build one of those to run on my trail rig.

accordepicenter

swap i didnt know you were on here? Youve got a Turbo A20 project too? Your homemade welder is freaking cool... i never thought of that. Not sure how long that alternator is gonna last with that kind of a load on it, itll prolly depend on duty cycle.

SQ is the SQUAD

damn, 3geez.com is really repping over here huh. anyways, i just happen to have an old gm 1 wire altinator in my basement. sounds like i got a new weekend project. we must have like 10 different a20a turbo projects right now

0b00st0

That's a great thing about alternators, is that they can run on 100% duty cycle.

G2turbo_terror

Heres some of the links I've stashed away for stuff like this
tig welder
http://members.thegeekgroup.org/~js530/tig.html
DIY welder forums
http://forums.diywelder.com/forum/index.php

BUCKETHEAD

how would you go bout making it a tig?
i do heating and airconditioning so we have tons of motors in the where house, i have argon tanks in the garage too, i guess i can go to hf to get a tig gun but how would i wire it all up? can you make a schematic of how it would all be hooked up with a coil
also how many rpm does your motor do?

rexsk8er

for someone with a bit more experiance in the electronic field http://www3.telus.net/public/a5a26316/TIG_Welder.html

Swap_File

Yeah, I have been on HMT for a while, but I have mostly been lurking. Right now I am thinking about building a manifold similar to the Mosselman log. That way I can keep my AC and power steering, and I shouldn’t have to mess around with push fans or anything. I should have a prototype made out PVC done soon, but I still have to finish my manual swap, and OBD-1 swap before I can work on getting the turbo in. It will probably happen this summer when I am home from college.

While people do say that these alternators are 100% duty cycle, I know they are not made to take this kind of a beating. I got a cheap $5 digital thermometer, and put the sensor on the alternator. When it gets too hot I can just stop for a while and let it cool down. I also will be putting a fan on it.

Swap_File

If you have a DC stick welder (either like the one I built above, or store purchased), just go to www.weldingdepot.com and get a TIG torch and accessory kit. Something like the WP9 is cheap and should work. Then just hook it up to the DC stick welder in place of the normal "stick holder", and then hook your argon up to the torch, and you are done. If you want you can hook up some solenoids to turn the gas on and off with a switch, otherwise just use the ***** on the tank. You just can't weld Aluminum with it, because that needs AC. If you want to do AC TIG you need to make one of those complex controller boards that others have posted links to. Eventually I may build one of them, but I wanted to start simple.

My motor does about 3450 RPM , and then it is stepped up to about 6000 RPM at the alternator.

Edit:
Accessory kit: http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/we...epot/AK-x.html
Torch: http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/we...pot/WP9-x.html
These torches have either 12 or 24 foot long cables. Torches have either have two cables (one for power, and one for gas), or a combined cable. Units with combined cables are supposedly more rugged. If you get a combined cable unit you need a power cable adapter:
Power Adapter: http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/we...ot/105Z57.html