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Yes, You Can Build A Spoolgun From The Things You Find At Home...

Discussion in 'The Tool Shed' started by teletech, Jul 9, 2020.

  1. Jul 9, 2020
    teletech

    teletech Member

    Santa Cruz, CA
    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2016
    Messages:
    236
    I needed to weld some heavy aluminum, mostly attaching a 1/4" fin to some 1+" material for a 7' run. TIG wasn't going to work for me since the base metal had a temper I wanted to maintain, plus that's a LOT of amps, so MIG. Got a 200A Lincon with a really short gun hose, hoping the .047" wire would feed through the new liner in a 6' hose. Well, it was not to be. Jammed every time I tried to weld no matter how I set my roller tension or anything else. So: spoolgun. The cheap guns I looked at wouldn't handle the current or wire size. The expensive guns were, well expensive, typically around $1000. I remembered I had a chunk of an old ESAB wirefeeder kicking around so that and a mindset of it just has to work for one day resulted in:

    Darn, I guess this should have been in
    Making/improvising Special Tools
    if somebody who can would move it, that would be appropriate.

    Oh, and here's the new sponson in place. It's a bit wavy and I'm not that proud of the welds, but it's done and now the hull is ready for sandblasting.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2020
    Jw60, SoCalNickG, 47v6 and 4 others like this.
  2. Jul 9, 2020
    PeteL

    PeteL If it wasn't for physics, and law enforcement... 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Hills of NH
    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2003
    Messages:
    9,754
  3. Jul 12, 2020
    windyhill

    windyhill Sponsor

    PA
    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2006
    Messages:
    1,502
    That's some serious Macgyver $&*% meets mad max right there! :bow:
     
  4. Jul 13, 2020
    Admiral Cray

    Admiral Cray I want to do this again.. Staff Member

    Bainbridge...
    Joined:
    Sep 21, 2009
    Messages:
    204,347
    :clap: You ITLKSEZtized a spoolgun... :clap:
     
  5. Jul 13, 2020
    teletech

    teletech Member

    Santa Cruz, CA
    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2016
    Messages:
    236
    I appreciate the feedback but it really wasn't hard. I scavenged a wirefeed box and the Lincon welder provided the contactor and also was the same voltage output as the drive I used. All I really did was attach the bits and do a very little lathe work to splice the end of a MIG gun to the feed motor assembly. Now if I'd started with a old stick welder and made the feed from a cordless drill, that would have been impressive. :)
    I had to borrow the switch from a lathe control because all my electrical bits were elsewhere. I was really tempted to use the bottom section of an MP5 airsoft gun, but it was so heavily integrated with the mechanism, it would have been a project all it's own.
    I could have made a nice spoolgun, but if I did I'd still be working on yet another project rather than working on the CJ5 while waiting for the sandblaster to come strip the now-welded hull.
     
    Admiral Cray, 47v6 and Walt Couch like this.
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