Using carbonator pump for TIG water cooler?

let me put my 2 cents worth in.

I use a 5 gal homedepot bucket ,filled with 4 gal.distilled water, lid on the top , the same carbonator motor you got sits on top of the lid. I was lucky on my e-bay purchase because the fella' sent me the rubber insulator feet and an aluminum motor base, so the motr is susspended nicely. Anyway...... it is bolted to the plastic bucket lid.

The pumps sucks up the water from the bucket, via a plastic hose, on the pump output side: I installed a "T" fitting , one side goes to the torch, the other side of the " T " is a hort hose goes back to the bucket at the nd of the hose is a simple compressor water drain style drain petcock. It's purpose ; it dumps about half the water volume and pressure. With the twist/adjustment of the petcock valve volume and pressure to the torch can be adjusted.

From the torch water return line, I installed 2 clear plastic hose one is slightly larger than the other, the larger hose is a short hose pushed through the bucket lid.

this way there is always air in this hose, the return water is pissing into this larger clear hose allowing me to see the water flow.

I don't know what pressure it runs at the torch, but there is plenty return water flowing. the torch head is always cool,

there is no cooler or fan in this system. I use a Thermal arc 185 TIG, the water in the bucket never got even remotely hot.

the 1/4 HP motor is semi quiet I can still hear the water splashing.

I will snap some picture if some of you want to see it. (let me know)

Great post Acrobat Ants. Yes, I would love to see [good] pictures. I do not quite visualize return water pissing. Otherwise, this is about the way I would want to have it. Do you keep it running all the time when the welder is on?

i

Thanks Gunner. I read both of your posts. It's a good food for thought and I agree that simplicity, when appropriate, is best.

i

Greetings Carla, Carbonator pumps are used for tig cooler pumps in stock units. The bronze body gear pumps that is. Look at Teel pumps and you will see that they list a pump for both carbonator and tig cooler use. The pump P/N is 2P3838. ERS

The one problem I see with the relay control is that when you stop welding, the torch isn't instantly cool. Yes, it's not welding but it's still hot. Wouldn't you want cooling whenever the torch is hot. I have a cooling fan on my computer set up this way so that I turn off the machine and then come by 5 minutes later or so and flick the switch that turns off the fans. I have measured the temp of the processor heatsink with an infrared thermometer, and if you turn everything off at the same time, the temp spikes just after the power is shut off.

Like I said, my welding machine has several 24V relay contacts. Each contact has a signal whenever a certain condition is true. For example, there is a contact that is on whenever the welder is on. Another contact is on whenever the welder is actually welding (supplies power).

Yet another contact is whenever the water valve is open. My Cyber Tig keeps the water valve open for a while after the arc is gone.

The manua for the Series 800 programmer, posted on that web page, explains the meanings of these 24v contacts.

I will probably use Jerry Martes's solid state relay to turn the pump on and off. Gunner made some points about reliability and relay being too complicated, but I am leaning towards thinking that it is not really that complicated.

I am planning on wiring the relay for my water pump, to the above contact. If the welding machine thinks water should be there (and open water valve), water will be supplied by the water cooler.

i

here it is ;

pic 1 : bucket, pump ,and return line

picture 2 : "T" fitting on the feeder line, dump valve sits on top of the lid

very simple setup , right now it is manual-switch operated ON-OFF I turn it off when I put the torch down.

acrobat

Very nice. Thank you. I will keep your post in my archive and will refer to it when I start working on my own cooler. Can you keep the pictures on your site, thanks.

i

I will keep it there for a while..... till some other pictures need room (and force it out of my 5MB space the ISP gives me. :)

see if you can copy it to your hard drive, or capture it as a snap shot. no worries tho........ it will be there for a while....

PS: added some notes to picture pump 1

I saved them. Thanks. You can delete them whenever you want.

A quick question, what kind of hose did you use for high pressure side.

Do you plug your torch into the water coller itself (bypassing the solenoid on the welding machine)?

thanks

i

well .....as you can see that black hose is the torch water feed line which came with my torch, this hose connects directly to the "T" fitting which comes right out of the pump, so there is no hose in between. on the other side of the "T" 9the green hose to the dump valve) is just a plain vinyl hose, 1/4" or 3/8 I think.

yes , mine TIG does not have a water solonoid.

my pleasure

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I see. Thanks. Do these carbonators have a built in relief valve? Sorry for an ignorant question.

Got it.

I would wire it through my solenoid and add a little water air pocket to prevent pressure spikes, I think. I will think about this very carefully.

Perhaps, if I wire it using a relay and proper signal, I can bypass the valve and pressure spikes entirely.

The plus is that it will run perhaps 99% less time if it is wired through a relay.

The minus is frequent starts, as gunner points out.

i

I only use my water cooled torch occasionally. The hose fitting and a bunch of palctic tube cost 10 bucks, run it out the door. Water is cheap , relatively speaking

It is a pain to do it every time I need to weld, and cannot be done in winter at all.

i

I agree it is not suatable for everybody. my self ,as an example. I've tried using city water,it is not expensive but I find it wastefull. I've tried colecting itin a 50 gal drum to use it for irrigation purpose. in an hour or two so much was accumulated that it was hard to move the barrel around. now you need a pump to pump it out.

dump it in the drain? NO. I am in a pressurized sewer system, meaning it collects in a holding tank (about 100gal) than a grinder / lift pump will pump it out to the street sewer pipes. meaning I am paying for it twice + electricity

dump it next to the house? NO ! not me ......subterranian termmites would build a castle at the water dumpng site in the hurry, then eat the 2x4s in my garage. this is Texas baby :)

easy, simple solution = water cooler recirculator build it once...you are done.

also that distilled water will not likely to plug up the small passages in the torch head.

just my oppinion.

Yep. I just went to Walmart and bought a cute little transparent 19 qt storage bin with a locking lid. I will use it instead of a plastic bucket -- that way I would see how coolant comes back and would be able to see the level of coolant.

Also bought RV antifreeze to use as cooling medium.

i

That makes sense now. The water flow behaves sort of like the argon pre and post flood.