welding positioners

[wireguy]

Has anybody built there own rotary welding positioners or is there an inexpensive one out there somewhere?

[MAC702]

What are you rotating? How big is it? Are we talking a car rotisserie, or something that turns pipe while you keep welding? I've used cheap HF engine stands for some projects...

[wireguy]

Sorry I should have elaborated ---- smaller stuff , pipe, tubes I would like to have a 6 to 8 inch platen or a 6 inch chuck with variable speed control. I have looked around and they are proud of them. Sort of got an idea in my head about making one .

[Scott T]

I have small one almost finished. It started life as a cheap drill press, I took the head off it and mounted a pully and a 80 to 1 gearbox to the underside of the table. I have to mount a motor but have not decided which motor to use. I have a variable speed sewing machine motor that I might try or I might use a variable speed drill motor?. I don't have any pics on my computer but if you are interested I could take a few tomorrow night. Scott

[cruizer]

Use a Baldor 90 volt dc drive unit with 80:1 gear box coupled with a Baldor 240D penta drive running off 120Vac, alone or with a foot pedal.

It's somple ,effective, reliable and cheap.

[arcalaska]

If you want real cheap, just use two pieces of pipe, one that one will slide fairly snug into another, but not so tight that it won't roll inside it. Cut a circle out of a piece of say 1/4 " plate, it has to be a larger diameter than the flanges you plan to bolt or tack to it. Weld the smaller pipe to the center of the plate, drill a hole in the larger dia pipe and weld a nut over it so you can control drag and or lock it with a bolt and Tee handle. Weld the larger pipe to the underside of your fab table so that it is out of the way, then you can slide your roll out wheel into it when you want to use it, and store it elsewhere when not in use. You can cut four slots from near the center towards the outer edge for bolting different sized flanges to it, or you can tack fittings and pipe to it for roll out. You can also weld handles that extend from the back side of the plate for better control when rolling it. For rolling out elbows tack a piece of angle iron to it to support the fitting, it just needs to be shorter that the over length of the elbow.

[GRINDER]

arcalaska,
Good idea, simple, cheap and functional.
The positioners are expensive, the ones I looked at on MSC Industrials web site were between $900 to $1200.

You really have to need one for that kind of $.

Anyway, great advice.

Miles-of-Smiles
GRINDER