Tig Foot Control

[jack of all MON]

Dear all this is my first posting so be gentle with me!
I am trying to build a foot pedal for a migatronic Pi 250 water cooled unit, I have nearly all the info I need except I don't know if the micro sw should activate at the beginning of the foot travel or at the fully pressed end. Any ideas are most welcome

[Jake SS]

At the start
Cheers

[Paul Seaman]

I am assuming that the micro switch your referring to is the one that initiates the arc. If that is the case the switch should activate at the beginning on the chance you only need part amperage and the rest is amperage control through the pedals stroke.

Welcome aboard,
Paul

[toybuilder]

When the pedal is off the micro switch should be pressed, but you have to use the normally closed contacts on the switch. That way when the pedal is in the off position it is holding the switch contacts open. It's kind of confusing, but that is the way it works. Here are a few pics of the pedal I built for my Maxstar. Good luck with your project.

[toybuilder]

Did I mention that I love my MaxStar 150!

Few more pics:

[welderdude402]

One question on the idea of building one's own foot pedal. would the volume potentiometer out of an older analog stereo work for the current control on the pedal?

[toybuilder]

One question on the idea of building one's own foot pedal. would the volume potentiometer out of an older analog stereo work for the current control on the pedal?

It certainly depends on which welder, and what the specs on that potentiometer are. Many of the transformer welders pass a portion of the welding current through the remote control, I doubt that a volume control would work there. It might work on some of the inverter welders though. Be careful what you hook up to your $$$welder, especially if it's still under warranty!

When I built my pedal I did a lot of research. I just happen to stumble across the exact value of potentiometer used in the factory pedal for my welder. It so happens that all the info I needed was found in various Miller owner's manuals.