Home built spool gun for 120V wire feed

[iron man]

Well I did not really need it I would not go out and buy one but I always wanted to build a small version of a spool gun similar to the one I had to use when I worked in a machine shop something that I could hook up to a 120V wirefeed or a pair of car batteries. I am sorry I did not do a picture by picture on how I made it I just thought I would post this I just got done with it and some testing everything appears correct good isolation of parts, steady motor speed and drives the wire through the liner perfectly, the liner is teflon.

The motor is an army surplus motor it started its life from the directional stabs on an ICM missile I have a few of these motors and love there small size and power. I made every part on this with the exception of the motor and a few screws I did make the off set gearbox for the motor however so the handle would be centered I made the gear box out of aluminum and the gears are about a 1/2 in dia. It balances out real well and is small for tight spaces. You can imagine the small size of the gun because the wire spool is 4" in dia.

 

[iron man]

here is the interior guts of the unit the drive roller is hardened drill rod with the right size groove cut for the wire,, here you can see the amount of off set I needed for the drive roller. The pinch roller is a small bearing and the housing for it is ABS plastic the motor is also isolated from the frame so there is no arcing in case contact is lost at the tip. To the right of the photo is a spring loaded paddle to provide a brake so the spool of wire does not unwind itself. The spring was made from an old bandsaw blade tough crap to work with but good spring reaction.

 

[iron man]

Here is the pinch roller assembly in place ready to go. With this little gun I can weld steel, stainless steel, aluminum, silicon bronze, and magnesium. All of the red parts are lexan plastic to isolate them from the voltage. I painted the lexan because all I had on hand was white I thought red would look better.

 

[iron man]

Here is the gas nozzle it is made from a 5/8 copper water pipe I made an attachment on my lathe to roll the end. the insulator is teflon the gas chamber has a finned aluminum shell for cooling the inside is brass, the push button is a micro switch and the handle is a part of a flashlight reshaped with a heavy duty heat shrink over the top. Well thats it I have to play with it some more all the cables detach off the back side behind where the handle is makes it nice when you want to put it away. Thanks for lookin Ray

 

[jpfabricator]

Pretty slick I M! Please keep us updated on how it welds.

Jake Parker

PS: Where could one find the drive motor you used?

 

[iron man]

Pretty slick I M! Please keep us updated on how it welds.

Jake Parker

PS: Where could one find the drive motor you used?

This motor is very similar to the one I have there are some sold under the airco name back when airco was using them the motor was over $400. the shaft on this one is 5/16 mine is 1/4 other than that its about the same motor super amount of torque all steel gears all ball bearing. I also used one of these to power my milling machine feed. If you look around you can sometimes buy them for about $15 used.. Ray

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRW-GLOBE-D...547?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3c9e45c20b

 

[iron man]

I think this one would work also. http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRW-GLOBE-M...682?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3c9db6f7e2

 

[RandyM]

WOW! Very Cool! Well done. Thank you for sharing.

 

[outsider347]

This motor is very similar to the one I have there are some sold under the airco name back when airco was using them the motor was over $400. the shaft on this one is 5/16 mine is 1/4 other than that its about the same motor super amount of torque all steel gears all ball bearing. I also used one of these to power my milling machine feed. If you look around you can sometimes buy them for about $15 used.. Ray

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRW-GLOBE-D...547?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3c9e45c20b

I need to build a PF for my mill and wondering what else I need ( electrics wise) to do the build
tks
ed

 

[iron man]

I used this type of motor on my GO727 mill you will need this and a 24 volt transformer rectified to DC.

http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=444

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/11921-grizzly-G0727-Mill-home-built-power-feed

Or instead of a transformer one of these puts out a clean DC.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-24-Volt...132?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b8fd9174

http://www.skycraftsurplus.com/electromedicalpowersupply24vac333a.aspx