Manual Wire Feeder for TIG Welding Thin Metal

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Apr 7, 2018, 12:42 AM
chy_farm

5 Attachment(s)

Manual Wire Feeder for TIG Welding Thin Metal

Things I mostly enjoy TIG welding are small engine parts like power pipes, carburetor attachments and etc. made from mostly 0.5mm thick steel sheet. The parent material of this thickness needs small wire, 0.6mm in diameter as far as my welding skill concern but this wire mostly come to us wraped on a round plastic reel so that they get curly or curved when released from the reel. This causes me trouble in trying to give the part some precision work, so I had to hold the wire as close as possible to the aiming melting pool with the other hand.

This manual wire feeder helps me a lot in this sort of precision works.
Attachment 23099

Attachment 23100

Attachment 23101

The only one mechanism came from a used disposable cigarette lighter, using the round file that makes small sparks to light the gas. Remove the lighting stone out but use the spring inside. Add a small plate, cut in a right shape to fit in, so as the spring pushes this plate upward to press the wire on to the round file above.
Attachment 23102

One tip for smoother movement is that you should better use a Teflon tube for the lead part between this reservoir box and the feeder. I tried another material but was not very good though.
Attachment 23103

Chy
Apr 7, 2018, 05:00 AM
Tuomas

That looks to be actually very handy. Using seems to be similar with feeding with bare hand. Good idea!
Apr 7, 2018, 05:18 AM
chy_farm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tuomas

That looks to be actually very handy. Using seems to be similar with feeding with bare hand. Good idea!

Thanks Tuomas, yep that is what I payed some amount of attention to it, lol. Feeding wire bare handed most often requires me to move my fingers, in my case I use thumb and index, from the left to the right. This movement somewhat gives the end of the filler wire some swinging motion around the melting pool. I do this right with bigger rods like 1.2mm rods or more but as far this small curly wire concern I need more stability to the motion.
In this aspect this tool helps me a lot since I can do fill the wire with my thumb pushing downward, which is less movement than the another way.
Chy
Apr 7, 2018, 07:32 AM
DIYer


Thanks chy_farm! We've added your TIG Wire Feeder to our Welding category,
as well as to your builder page: chy_farm's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-tig-wire-feeder-2"> <img src="/uploads/212527/homemade-tig-wire-feeder-2.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-tig-wire-feeder-2">TIG Wire Feeder</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/chy_farm">chy_farm</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/tig'>TIG</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
Apr 7, 2018, 07:55 AM
chy_farm

1 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIYer

Thanks chy_farm! We've added your TIG Wire Feeder to our Welding category,
as well as to your builder page: chy_farm's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Thank you for this add, glad you like this!
Attachment 23125
Apr 7, 2018, 04:08 PM
thehomeengineer

Very useful when wearing gloves, it can be difficult to feed the rod. Another item added to the list to have a go at.
Thank you for posting
The Home Engineer
Apr 7, 2018, 05:03 PM
chy_farm

Quote:

Originally Posted by thehomeengineer

Very useful when wearing gloves, it can be difficult to feed the rod. Another item added to the list to have a go at.
Thank you for posting
The Home Engineer

Good morning Thehomeengineer, glad you like this!
Chy
Apr 8, 2018, 12:41 PM
ibdennyak

Quote:

Originally Posted by chy_farm

Things I mostly enjoy TIG welding are small engine parts like power pipes, carburetor attachments and etc. made from mostly 0.5mm thick steel sheet. The parent material of this thickness needs small wire, 0.6mm in diameter as far as my welding skill concern but this wire mostly come to us wraped on a round plastic reel so that they get curly or curved when released from the reel. This causes me trouble in trying to give the part some precision work, so I had to hold the wire as close as possible to the aiming melting pool with the other hand.

This manual wire feeder helps me a lot in this sort of precision works.
Attachment 23099

Attachment 23100

Attachment 23101

The only one mechanism came from a used disposable cigarette lighter, using the round file that makes small sparks to light the gas. Remove the lighting stone out but use the spring inside. Add a small plate, cut in a right shape to fit in, so as the spring pushes this plate upward to press the wire on to the round file above.
Attachment 23102

One tip for smoother movement is that you should better use a Teflon tube for the lead part between this reservoir box and the feeder. I tried another material but was not very good though.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23103[ATTACH]

Chy

Thank you for.......helping me get my head screwed on straight. As I .......enter the senior stage of life, I find that my manual dexterity suffers. I was thinking of making a small wire feeder for TIG wire, but as usual I over complicated it with using a feeder from an old Mig machine with another foot pedal to advance the wire etc. Your idea got me back on track as far as the KISS principal. Even I can still move my thumb, so I don't need the *feel* as much. This is the perfect solution.

Denny
Apr 8, 2018, 12:50 PM
Jon

Quote:

Originally Posted by chy_farm

The only one mechanism came from a used disposable cigarette lighter

Clever, free, and we don't see this very often.
Apr 8, 2018, 01:00 PM
ibdennyak

Exactly Jon. Probably because of the tremendous advances in technology, I tend to over engineer sometimes. This is the perfect example of not needing space shuttle technology to solve a toilet paper holder problem.
Apr 8, 2018, 04:42 PM
chy_farm

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibdennyak

Thank you for.......helping me get my head screwed on straight. As I .......enter the senior stage of life, I find that my manual dexterity suffers. I was thinking of making a small wire feeder for TIG wire, but as usual I over complicated it with using a feeder from an old Mig machine with another foot pedal to advance the wire etc. Your idea got me back on track as far as the KISS principal. Even I can still move my thumb, so I don't need the *feel* as much. This is the perfect solution. Denny

Good morning Denny, glad to know it can be of some help to you. Seems you are at around my age Denny, I will be 64 this July. Let's enjoy some more welding!
Chy
Apr 8, 2018, 04:48 PM
ibdennyak

Quote:

Originally Posted by chy_farm

Good morning Denny, glad to know it can be of some help to you. Seems you are at around my age Denny, I will be 64 this July. Let's enjoy some more welding!
Chy

You are a mere youngster. I will be 69 July 1:headshake:
Apr 8, 2018, 04:51 PM
chy_farm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon

Clever, free, and we don't see this very often.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibdennyak

Exactly Jon. Probably because of the tremendous advances in technology, I tend to over engineer sometimes. This is the perfect example of not needing space shuttle technology to solve a toilet paper holder problem.

Good morning gents, thanks, for nice words!
This feeder and a 'Halogen Welding Light with Sensor' are a couple on my welding table, will post this Halogen Light later.
Chy
Apr 8, 2018, 04:54 PM
chy_farm

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibdennyak

You are a mere youngster. I will be 69 July 1:headshake:

Good to know this Denny, you are running before me. I should keep running after you!!
Chy