Built a weld positioner - Photo_013009_001.jpg (0/1)

SO I had this pile of pieces I had acquired from Beoing Surplus over the years with the hope of building a weld positioner.

A cool variable speed motor drive unit, a right angle worm gear box, a nice cast iron rotary platen table, a heavy duty foot switch, and the worm gear from a large wafer valve.

This week I got the bug to attack it and today I managed to get it mostly assembled and working fine. I do still have to rig up some BIG motor brushes and a copper collar for grounding the main shaft.

The table can be rotated from Horizontal to vertical.

I think you missed his second axis. The red gear box and black handle on the side.

Pretty cool Ernie. All you need now is to pick up a good deal on a cheap

3-jaw chuck.

Looks like about a $1000 to me.

Quit, will ya. You are making me want to go putter, and I've got honeydo work to be done!

Steve

--Never could figure out how to decipher one of those things! Got any photos up on your webpage??

I have a cheap 3 jaw chuck for sale, 8 inch diameter.

I had it on my lathe and it would not point exactly straight due to bad inside of L0 mount.

In this application, you will throw away the L0 backplate anyway, so it does not matter. I can take pictures so that you know what you are buying.

Price is $40 and shipping is $14, ASSUMING IT FITS a priority mail large box.

i

Maybe a 4 jaw Chuck. A wood working one would be fine and lower cost.

Sometimes the holding spot isn't the centerline spot. Use the 4 jaw to shift it to align.

Mart> Pretty cool Ernie. All you need now is to pick up a good deal on a cheap > 3-jaw chuck.

For medium-sized items, all he'd need is 4 "L"-shaped lengths of 3/4" allthread (preferably ground flat-ish on the short side), 8 washers, and 8 nuts to turn the table into a large-sized 4-jaw chuck.

I installed the optional 3 jawed chuck today. Works great.

I used the positioner to weld the pipe ends to the flanges. Worked great. I slid a bronze bushing on the back end of the main shaft and just clamped the ground clamp to that. Worked OK.

Not yet, but I will post them in the dropbox

(snip)

Cool!

Most positioners just have a spring loaded brass brush electrically isolated from the frame running against the face plate (sometimes 2).

Gleason and other welding lathes (my homebuilt also) have graphite brushes running against the spindle (or in my case against the face of a

6" washer) and the bearings are isolated from the frame.

I may still have some brushes at the shop, about 1 1/2" to 2" wide and

5/8" to 3/4" thick, each brush good for 100amp continuous duty. I have 4 in my roundabout (running for about 10 years now). The running surface should be polished and I had about a .2 volt drop when built.

Matt

That's that ticket. An old 4 jaw might be nice too, but tabs are almost as easy once you get the hang of it.

Welding connector suppliers offer a bearing filled with conductive grease.

None of Ernie's posts with pictures in them make it into my news server.

i

I don't think we are supposed to be posting pictures here are we?

I just posted the pictures to the metalworking.com dropbox. I am not sure when they will be available.

I just saw that somebody else posted some pictures of their weld positioner. I might have to rename my files and resend them.

With most people having broadband, I had accidentally included a few pictures in the posts. They come through as UUencoded pictures.

Anyway I posted the pictures to the dropbox.

The other weld positioner is mine. You named yours weld_positioner_00x.jpg and mine are named weld_positioner_x.jpg so they should both be fine on the dropbox. Nice piece of work by the way.

Regards, BobH

Ernie -

Now with the 3 jaw on, a Grizzly or such wood chuck or metal chuck with 4 jaws mounted on a plate with a pipe or rod for the 3 jaw to chuck in.

Then both would be available.

Mart> >