now let me get this straight, in the diagram br1 is the bridge rectifier, and where it lists "kbpc3510" right next to it, thats the # for the bridge rectier, right ? its not a seperate component of some sort ?

and vr2 is the foot pedal, which is basicly just a dimmer switch, but what did you use for vr1? another dimmer switch?

im going to be building one soon, except ill be using a car battery in place of T1 & BR1,

a friend of mine is paying for this project so i can build him a SS exhaust, and to repay me for all the ish ive done to his car, cause this is cheaper then paying the local import shop to have them scratch build one for him ($500 or more from them)

You bet that is the part number for the bridge rectifier. one single component.

VR2 is just the sliding pot out of a dimmer switch, you can't use the whole dimmer. VR1 is just a rotary 10K pot

^^^ cool

parts list so far:

10hp gas engine: free
alternator: free
tall bottle of sheilding gas, inc bottle: free
tig torch: possibly free
car battery: free
all wiring: have
dimmer switch: have

I went to school, But for some reason never got a handle on Electrial stuff.
Any one got a step by step with picks for us non electrial guys to follow like Leggo. Thought this would work good in my chevy 1 ton and at home.

Craig

the diagram is actualy pretty easy when you understand a few simple things

t1 and br1 are just doing the same job as a car battery, ... they are just there to give you 12v (in this case, slightly more, but thats ok, you can also substitute a car battery for those parts if you wish)

then you have vr1, which is basicly like the dimmer switch on the wall in your living room.... vr1 sets the MAX voltage to the feild coil in the Alt

vr2 is also the same idea as vr1, but it takes the juice from vr1 and knocks it down even farther, vr2 is your foot pedal control

but since vr1 and vr2 and handle the amount of power the field coil needs withou burning up, tip3055 and 2n5885(x2) are used to handle the load the feild coil needs,

youll see they have 3 posts each, notice each post is labeled with a letter in the diagram (c e and b) think of them as a garden hose with a valve in the middle. "c" is where the hose attaches to the house, "e" is the sprinkler on the end, and "b" is the valve

the more voltage thats input to "b", the more voltage that flows from "c'' to "e"

just buy your items, arrange them on a mounting plate any way that works, and use the diagram to start connecting one thing at a time, youll be fine,i promise

you got 'er nailed low roller

Problem is I'm a visual learner I have to see it touch it take it apart. Someone said to me once, think of electicy as flowing water negtive to postive. If its real simple I can do that if I can see the part. and have a Drawing showing where everthing goes. Like A CARB REBUILD KIT Drawing I'm good to go.

For example: a battery and a light two wires neg-Pos a complete circut Where I get confuse is when you but a lot of componts together I don't understand how the compont work together. It jus like some people have know clue how there computer works. I get computer but for the life of me Electrial is something else.

Craig

ill be honest ... i SUCK at electronics

i have a hard enough time wiring in an aftermarket fog light harness. im seriously one of those people who will stand there "helping" someone with wiring ... and when they say "ok i wired this into hre and that into there so when i throw that switch this will come on and blah blah blah.... sound good?"

ill just wipe the blank stare off my face and go "YEA! sounds good!"

but the wiring on this i can handle... but it took a while for it to click for me ..

Chevy guy Have you read the whole thread?

I describe it exactly how I learned it.. it took a long time for it to click in my head as well.

I just started hooking stuff up, and trying things.. it was a long process and I let the smoke out of a few things

Interesting project. I was planning on building this one... http://myweb.cableone.net/rschell/TIG.htm but your's looks like it might be less complicated.

Realize this is an older post but this looks to be the same John Mills... http://home.comcast.net/~johnmills847/

Thanks for the info Travis. I'm going to try making one some day.

I Have Just Become A Member And Had Seen Your Tig Welder And Would Like To Know If You Had Ever Made A Parts List And Plans Other Than The Schematic Already Posted Here. The Pic's Are Good But For People Like Myself That Have Not Worked With Electrical Drawings Much This Will Take Some Time To Do.i Think I Could Build This But It Would Be Easyer With A Parts List.
I Might Just Make One For My Home Use Or Find An Old Lawn Mower With A 11hp Or Larger Engine. Thanks For Taking The Time To Put This Out For Us To Try. I Can't Wait To Give This A Try. I'm Disabled And Need To Save As Much Money As I Can. Thanks Again Rippacj

This may help you out and cost more ha ha,

I have been into the DIY welder scene allot and with tig the smoother the supply the better,
A nice trick is get 3 alternators. Run them all off the same belt. Then rotate the stator slightly on each alternator. Then use an oscilloscope to read your output. You will have to tweak this but you can obtain very close to 100% ripple free output.

Hope that helps and props to you on doing this an alternator is a fantastic creation when it comes to home made welders.

correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you be able to creat an AC welder by simply eliminating the rectifier? of course you would need different parts to control the AC current, or does that even matter? And as far as the 3fac goes, alternators output three waves of power, one right after the other, directly after the 3rd wave follows the 1st again, so it just keeps cycling on and on, making it a smooth almost constant power output.