HughF
Member
- Messages
- 6,466
- Location
- Work: Dorchester, Workshop: Corfe Castle, Wife's place: Frome
Having picked up an engine drive that has dedicated cv output from 15-30v, I figured I should get a wire feeder to go with it. I sold my 3-in-1 machine and thought about picking up an ln25 to use. However, being tighter than a Yorkshireman I figured I could build something more suited to my needs and pocket some cash.
A quick trawl of eBay turned up a suitable wire feeder to use as a donor, all that was left to do was figure out a suitable Peli case to house it all. We have at work a few spare 1650's but they are massive, far larger than I wanted to go, so I hunted around on eBay again and settled for an explorer brand. This seemed to offer more depth than the Peli or storm offerings.
This is where we are up to as of today, the Peli case turned up this afternoon.
The feeder was a technical arc f140, from their Eco range. I got in touch with them and purchased a set of suitable drive rolls and also a 110-24v transformer to power the board from the original feeder. Something was obviously up with the board though because it went up in smoke when I powered it up. I am now going to go for a Pwm drive instead of the original AC input board. I'm undecided yet whether to build a 24vdc psu from the transformer I purchased, or whether to fit a switched mode supply in the case. I think I will go for the former.
The milc5015 connector is a 2 pole to provide power to an external spool gun, using the speed control that is in the suitcase. I have a euro torch fitting spool gun, so this can also double up as a spool gun control box.
I will fit an 8 pole connector on the back for 110v, remote voltage and contactor control wiring back to the engine drive. 2 pots will go on the suitcase, 1 for wfs, 1 for volts.
A quick trawl of eBay turned up a suitable wire feeder to use as a donor, all that was left to do was figure out a suitable Peli case to house it all. We have at work a few spare 1650's but they are massive, far larger than I wanted to go, so I hunted around on eBay again and settled for an explorer brand. This seemed to offer more depth than the Peli or storm offerings.
This is where we are up to as of today, the Peli case turned up this afternoon.
The feeder was a technical arc f140, from their Eco range. I got in touch with them and purchased a set of suitable drive rolls and also a 110-24v transformer to power the board from the original feeder. Something was obviously up with the board though because it went up in smoke when I powered it up. I am now going to go for a Pwm drive instead of the original AC input board. I'm undecided yet whether to build a 24vdc psu from the transformer I purchased, or whether to fit a switched mode supply in the case. I think I will go for the former.
The milc5015 connector is a 2 pole to provide power to an external spool gun, using the speed control that is in the suitcase. I have a euro torch fitting spool gun, so this can also double up as a spool gun control box.
I will fit an 8 pole connector on the back for 110v, remote voltage and contactor control wiring back to the engine drive. 2 pots will go on the suitcase, 1 for wfs, 1 for volts.