After Gunner pointed out the DYI, state-of-the-art, TIG welder @
I contacted the guy behind the product and tried to excite him with potential of community forming, PCB-selling and stuff like that (Shumatech is a good example of such a DYI project that probably is mildly profitable for the authors).
Unfortunately, the guy, while a true gentleman and a scholar, is indeed very bz and doesn't have much time yet to dedicate to this project.
How about we start a little Yahoo group and see where we can take it ?
I started doing some of the legwork:
- the components, assuming Digikey and Ebay, will prolly run about $200 or less, depending on how lucky one gets on Ebay. If we get a proven reference design, a bunch of us can pool the resources to get better deals.
- one'd probably want to buy an HF $100 buzzbox, just for the case and power supply in it
- the documentation is fairly complete. PCBs don't have component markings, but it shoudl not take long to figure them out. Again, bunch of us can pool up to get a smallish batch of PCBs made at one of the many PCB production houses or we can get our own made. alternatively, one can reenter schematic into a one of 1000 routing programs and get another design done.
- I am thinking about dumping the HF start and adopting true lift-arc (in reduced current mode, the tungsten gets red hot that ionizes the gas and gets the arc going). HF is rather disruptive,expensive to build and will take up a lotsa space in the unit.Let alone you can fry some electronics in a car or other expensive thing you weld, unless really careful.
The end goal is to have a complete DYI state-of-the-art TIG made for $400 or under, that rivals Miller Dynasty 200DX in feature set :) and one that you can understand 100% and be able to repair should anything break .