On 17 May 2006 13:35:13 -0700, mlcorson wrote:
Iggie:
You are brilliant man. I wish I knew what you are talking about.

I am definitely not brilliant, I had some good guidance, that's all.

Sounds like you'll be able to do any kind of welding or cutting
process you'll ever need. Is this the Cybertig you bought for $9.99?


yes

How much $$ do you have in this little project? Reminds me of the
"rock soup" story my grandmother used to tell me, where the main
ingredients of the soup were free. A rock and water...all you had to
do was add everything in order to make it taste like something. Good
job! -Mike


You got me started on this...

It's kind of like rock soup, even though I got the welder for $9.99
and the controller for free. I also have to admit that I bought more
things than I needed for this project. I thought I needed them, bought
them, and then did not need them. And that is not even considering the
value of my time.

All in all, the price of parts that are installed in the welder, right
now, is probably about $100-150. Also I bought a plasma torch for
$52. Converting the SCR control is not a cheap project, although it
could be much much worse. I am sure that more costs will pile up as I
need to use time delay relays, etc for TIG control circuit. (I have
some TDRs already, and a lot of 50 cent 4pdt relays, etc, but I know
that more and more cost will add).

The value of stuff that I spent to get the IGBT inverter (not yet in
the welder), is much, much more. I am guessing that I sunk about $500
in that IGBT project, if I count burned up parts and parts that I
bought and did not use, etc.

A lot of doodads are even hard to count, like quick connect terminals,
wire, etc. I used some stuff that I had, also. Some tools that I
bought,such as angle air drill, partially should be costed against the
welder project, but will hopefully used for other things later.

As far as the value of time spent, I would be better off buying a very
expensive TIG welder, a brand new plasma cutter, etc, and doing some
side consulting gigs. But I am somehow very drawn to this welder
project and cannot stop.

The approach of a person who only cares about making as much money as
possible, in my situation, is to never touch any tools (including
welders), hire handymen to do everything, buy only brand new stuff,
and work with computers all the time and never go into my garage
except to get in and out of my truck. But I cannot do that, life would
be too boring.

i