Steel Tube/Pipe Roller Welding Holder....Anyone have one?

[large_time]

So, I have a few projects that have 6" pipe that is going to be capped and I want a flawless weld on the end.

I thought about making this with metal wheels and having my welder ground to it.....

Would love to automate it... Figured I would ask if you guys had any ideas or had one drawn up.

I plan on using steel wheels for at least 1 side so the ground can work and I dont have to use the pipe to ground it out.

I reall like the top picture.... Seems very simple and useful... I will go and see what steel wheels I can get today and then design this around them....

Should be a fun project! Any ideas you guys have would be very appreciated.

[Larry83301]

We used the unit in the third picture, works great, especially when you have several welds to make. I would think twice about grounding thru the wheels as the bearing surface will arc and get rougher as you use it. Just my 2 cents.

Larry

[jrsmotorsports]

would like to see what you guys come up with.
some use lathe 3 jaw chucks, thats what i was wanting to build, but it woul dbe more for tailing arms etc

[Cbrbarnes]

Just an idea for automation. I wanted to automate my bead roller and pipe bender. I had an old 110v harbor freight ceiling winch and modified it to couple to one or the other(1 motor,2 devices) with an 18mm socket. I turned the hand controls into foot controls and have everything done except a variac to adjust speed. With the cost of the angle iron, socket and a few bolts I might have $15(winch was given to me) in the whole thing. Just an idea.

[Rister]

as far as the grounding is concerned, i have used an old piece of welding lead and stripped it, leaving about 6 inches of insulation on the ends and crimped on a ring terminal. you can bolt that to a piece of metal or bolt a piece of metal to each end and place your ground on it. just hang your new ground loop off the end or you can place it in the middle or wherever.

[large_time]

Just an idea for automation. I wanted to automate my bead roller and pipe bender. I had an old 110v harbor freight ceiling winch and modified it to couple to one or the other(1 motor,2 devices) with an 18mm socket. I turned the hand controls into foot controls and have everything done except a variac to adjust speed. With the cost of the angle iron, socket and a few bolts I might have $15(winch was given to me) in the whole thing. Just an idea.

Nice...

I have been swamped with custom work lately... this is my side project... I found a guy on youtube that made one that had a servo that turned on when the attached optic saw the arc start... so nice.

[coyote577]

Harbor freight has a rotating magnetic ground that works for welding caps on pipes

[large_time]

Harbor freight has a rotating magnetic ground that works for welding caps on pipes

Awesome! I will have to get one...

I ended up splitting an old welding Dinse cable and wrapped it around the pipe... worked good and didn't bind at all....look closely at the picture and you can see a tiny piece of it that got fused to the pipe as it was arcing... Funny

Ended up welding 4 rotating casters from HF to a piece of plate steel and it worked freaking awesome!

Thanks for the tips!

This is my "Little" project...

[large_time]

Here is a shot of the wheeled contraption.