After plenty of years struggling to weld round objects and with time on my hands I had a google and have come up with this.

Total cost, I had an old chuck is around £25

Bearings £8
Shaft from scrap
Myford gears, lying around
240v >12v power supply £5
12v speed controller £5
12v low ratio motor £8
Off cut of steel sheet


Rotary welding table inside


Rotary welding table outside

I need to wrap the shaft with some braided earth lead so the bearings are not destroyed when running, the electrical bits are fully isolated from the case.

All I need now is something to weld, I have some throttle bodies to mate to a manifold so this may be my first use

Yeah that's very fancy, one of those tricky tasks made a lot easier. You could use a relay to trigger the motor from the welding torch trigger (assuming your MIG...) or use the foot controller for a sewing machine??

£25 pounds though, hmm you should write a book

Haha

Yes, may be many times more than expected..

I,m hoping to up my TIG game, next will be a fixture to move the torch in a straight line so I just have to feed wire in pulse mode.

quote:

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Originally posted by mark chandler



I need to wrap the shaft with some braided earth lead so the bearings are not destroyed when running, the electrical bits are fully isolated from the case.

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Interesting thought that, the shaft turns slowly, maybe 10rpm flat out although in use maybe 2rpm, the shaft is a bit of stainless I had laying around that machined up to a very smooth finish.

I have some phosphors bronze so could make a sprung loaded hinge and run this against the shaft.

Food for thought thank you.

[Edited on 6/4/20 by mark chandler]

Making something similar is just about on the very long to do wish list.

Have a look for a you tuber called This Old Tony. He built one recently and his vids are quite amusing

This old Tony is very good, it’s a hybrid of his although the motor despite the low gearing is not that powerful so I may upgrade to a stepper motor.

Just need a welding project now!