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TIG Cooler Progress

I am in the process of building a TIG Cooler and had an old single diaphram Shurflo pump in my junk pile. It will make adequate flow and pressure but the pressure pulses were way too much to be tolerable for a TIG cooler. Several people suggested making an air over water damper but I did not think it would work well enough and thought that the air in the column would dissolve in the water and stop damping.

I made the damper out of a foot long piece of 2" ID tube and welded endcaps on it, drilled and tapped the endcaps. It really does solve the pulsation problem! Without the damper, the pressure gauge needle covered about 45 degrees of the scale. With the damper, there is no noticable vibration. It really surprises me how well it works. As for the air dissolving, I will have to play wth it for a while and see how that works out. Seeing how well this one works, I would probably be willing to spend money for a damper with a diaphram to keep the air from dissolving. A commercial damper costs about 1/3 of what a new pump does.

learning on the fly, Bob

Reply to
MetalHead
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I can't see how air dissolving in the solution would be a problem. If the hardware was made of steel then there might be increased corrosion but with plastic and brass alloys it shouldn't be a concern. In any case there would have to be serious turbulence in the dampner. Also only so much air would go into solution before the solution would be saturated with air. In any case your solution is not supposed to warm up to any noticeable degree if designed properly. I have had experience with a water cooled MIG gun run on a power turntable running a full shift. The coolant only felt warm to the touch after a full eight hours of production. That is considerable more heat input than you would experience with a handheld TIG torch. Randy

Reply to
Randy Zimmerman

I'd recommend one of the small charged bladder type of dampers you can get at HD or Lowe's for about $10. They're little copper tubular things about 5" long or so. Two types I've seen, one has a single 1/2" male NPT fitting, and the other has a "T" with male and female 3/4" garden hose type fittings to be installed inline with a washing machine.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

How about drilling a hole in the top end of your damper and putting a tire valve in it. When the air is gone pump in a bit more. Easier to do before you welded on the end caps.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Randy, I am not sure on this one, so its more experimentation. My thinking on why the air would dissolve into the coolant is based on the fact that the pressure in the damper will be between 3 and 4 atmospheres (45 - 60 psi) when the cooler is running and 1 atmosphere when it is off. Most of the liquid will sit in the pressure tank which is always at 1 atmosphere (it's vented). It shouldn't get hot, I have another homemade cooler that I have been running for 15 years and the hardest I have ever pushed it has been warm to the touch, but it will get warm.

It will be interesting to see.

Bob

Randy Zimmerman wrote:

Reply to
MetalHead

I did drill and tap the top piece and there is a small valve threaded into the hole for just that purpose.

I looked around for dampers like Pete C was describing before I built this one, but never saw them. MSC had multi-hundred dollar monsters, and the local RV place had a plastic one for $36US. I picked up a piece of aluminum tubing for a couple bucks from the scraps bin when I went to the metal yard last weekend and turned and welded some endcaps.

Bob

Reply to
MetalHead

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Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

^^^^^^^^ holding

Reply to
MetalHead

Plumbers have used the shock absorbers on washing machines for as long as I can remember with no problems. Just a piece of pipe with a dead end held vertically. they are reliable enough to be placed inside the wall with no access. Anytime the system is drained the air will be restored if something happens to remove some of the air. Don't confuse the concept with the pressure tanks on wells. They need a bladder because the opening is large enough that turbulance can pull some of the air out.

All that said .. I let my son try out the Dialarc tig unit tonight and he turned off the water hose (or I turned it on and he turned it on again .. which turned it off)...melted the hose and destroyed the line. The fuse link held up just fine. Now I know why nobody has fuse links for TIG. the line blows before the fuse! Now I need to find a new power hose.

Reply to
Glenn

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