Airco Foot Pedal Restoration

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Ever since I bought my Airco I had found that the heat control with the foot pedal was a little odd sometimes and I also didn't feel as though it was as precise as it should be. I unplugged the foot pedal from the machine and took the top off the pedal and ohmed out the potentiometer and found that it had a spot near the middle of it's rotation where the ohms jumped into the 100k range and the ohms were also slightly erratic during the full rotation. I went ahead and ordered a 2W, 25KOhm, Honeywell Clarostat as that was what was in it already and these are the pictures I took during the repair. Sorry I didn't get any before pictures. These were taken on my cell phone. I got a couple before pictures on my digicam but I can't find the USB cable for it. Enjoy...Bottom case painted...Top case painted...Plug internals before I removed the old cable...Assembled plug after installing the new cable. I couldn't find a 6-conductor cable with the proper gauge wires inside, so I bought a 50' light-duty extension cord and cut it in half and ran 2, 3-conductor cables from the pedal to the plug. Worked out great.The pedal never had feet on it, so I installed these four rubber feet on the bottom to keep it from sliding around on the floor.Last edited by blasphemy000; 08-20-2012 at 12:23 PM.Brad GeorgeCurrent Equipment:AIRCO Heliwelder IV 300Amp Model - Total Awesomeness!Old 120v Hobart Handler MIGVarious grinders, cutting tools, hammers, clamps, ect..."I'm an amateur welder with lots left to learn..."
Reply:More pictures...Almost finished pedal with new cord...I used spray adhesive to attach a piece of black, 220-grit sand paper to the top of the pedal to keep my foot from sliding off...A few beads I ran after the pedal repair. I'm still learning my aluminum, but I was able to put down 5 beads, back-to-back without any cooling period in between beads, without melting through the back of this piece of 1/8" plate. I was unable to do that before repairing the pedal because the amperage was difficult to control accurately due to the bad potentiometer.Brad GeorgeCurrent Equipment:AIRCO Heliwelder IV 300Amp Model - Total Awesomeness!Old 120v Hobart Handler MIGVarious grinders, cutting tools, hammers, clamps, ect..."I'm an amateur welder with lots left to learn..."
Reply:Nice pedal. Beads look awful cold.
Reply:Originally Posted by HertzNice pedal. Beads look awful cold.
Reply:Nice repair job on the pedal.  I've used multi-strand sprinkler wire in past for projects like this.  It's cheap, readily available and is quite tough since it's designed for direct burial in the ground.  Usually 18ga is the biggest they carry.Miller Dynasty 200 DXBuildPro TMA52238 (38" x 22")Miller MP-10 & Jackson Nexgen EQC20 Ton Press & Swag HD Press Brake
Reply:Originally Posted by dhemNice repair job on the pedal.  I've used multi-strand sprinkler wire in past for projects like this.  It's cheap, readily available and is quite tough since it's designed for direct burial in the ground.  Usually 18ga is the biggest they carry.
Reply:looks good to me, they sell self adhesive grip tape in a roll at the hardware store, or for skateboard decks pretty readily not that the sandpaper probably wont work fine.
Reply:Yeah I know about the traction tape, but all I could find close to me was really large packages of the stuff and other than my foot pedal I had no use for it to necessitate buying 20ish feet of the stuff.Brad GeorgeCurrent Equipment:AIRCO Heliwelder IV 300Amp Model - Total Awesomeness!Old 120v Hobart Handler MIGVarious grinders, cutting tools, hammers, clamps, ect..."I'm an amateur welder with lots left to learn..."