ok, got my ancient dialarc on ebay. still have no idea if the tig
functions work entirely, some, or not at all. seller told me (when I
picked it up) "welder wasn't tigging right, took it in to have it
repaired, they fixed it, and it hasn't worked right since"

when I first got it home, I tried the welder (on AC and DC). it welded
horribly, output didn't seem adjustable, and also seemed WAY
underpowered. removed all the welders outer sheetmetal, cleaned it up
inside, and while 'detailing' the interior found a wire disconnected at
the rheostat. pushed the female end back onto its male spade@the
rheostat. -assumed- (hoped) the wire disconnected at the rheostat was
why. tested it again (AC and DC only) with the wire back ON and got
VASTLY improved results.

anyway, bubba here has no TIG gas bottle, and, to be frank-like, doesn't
want to spring for one just for "TIG functions" test purposes. need to
find out:

- if the footpedal functions seem workable, and

- if the gas and water flow solenoids (and their related circuits and
hoses and such) seem workable, and

- if the HF spark-gap point setup is functioning, and

- if the TIG gas regulator and flowmeter seems workable

what I'm thinking is I can hook the tig torch water to the garden hose,
and feed compressed air into the gas solenoid, plug in the footpedal,
flick both switches to 'remote', flick the HF 'on' and see if the spark
will jump a gap (torch to workpiece). the .008 HF contacts have already
been cleaned and correctly gapped, of course. NO welding whatsoever will
be attempted (while using 'air substituting for argon')

questions: once the garden hose water flow is on (open to the welder),
does the water flow 'full time' when the garden hose valve is open, or
only when the tig has an ARC going? or when?

and re the (tig cooler pump) electrical outlet in the welder face near
the water solenoid: I assume it's live, uhh, when? ALL the time,
whenever the welder main switch is on? or just when the main switch is
on and both front toggle switches are set to 'remote'? or, does anybody
know?

I think I can test, with the procedure above, wether I have good water
flow through the torch, and wether the HF spark will jump the (tungsten
to workpiece) gap. I assume if it does, the points are 'sparking away'
and are also "good to go". maybe the air flow to the gas regulator will
show if the regulator is also workable, and the tiny white flowmeter
ball will go up slightly when I turn the regulator knob...

still not at all clear if I can test the 'footpedal functions' at all
using the tests above...

is this test a doable idea? I realize "it's a bit on the screwy side"
but we can address that later :-)

thanks for ideas and insights, guys :-)

toolie

dialarc "looked like this" on day one:
http://machines.freehostia.com/diala...ng/index3.html