The folks at Linemaster Switch Corporation in Connecticut sent him a wireless foot pedal. No wires! But it’s not from Miller. This is an aftermarket company that is making wireless foot pedals that fit both Miller and Lincoln welders.
On the Linemaster Web site they show that the foot pedal will work with other Miller machines, but they don’t indicate that this old Miller Syncrowave 200 will work. Kevin tested it, though, and it works great.
All you get in the box is two pieces. One is the foot pedal. You remove four screws and pull the base off and put three AA batteries to power it. The other item in the box is the transmitter, which goes on the front of the machine.
Kevin ron shows how the transmitter just screws into where the foot pedal will normally go. And that’s it!
Most viewers know that Kevin usually prefers using a finger control, especially when he’s standing and welding. On rare occasions, he’ll get out a foot pedal, especially if he’s welding something really thin.
And that’s what he is working with now: 3″ copper pipe that is 0.043, which is right around 18 gauge. Yes, really, really thin. Rather than try to guess and rely on the finger control, he decided to try out this new foot pedal for his old Miller welder.
Kevin grabs his safety equipment. He has a test piece of copper pipe clamped into a jig so he can get to the area he wants to weld with, and has his ground clamp on the jig. He’s running an 1/8″ E3 tungsten with a gas lens at 112 amps on the TIG welder with straight argon welding gas. He’s also using some “fancy, high tech” welding wire that he found in his electrical wire basket – it’s just some Romex with the cover stripped off.
Next Kevin makes some sparks, TIG welding the copper joint. The foot pedal makes it really easy and quick to back off the puddle and get on it again. He finishes welding, then waits for the post-flow to back off. And that’s it!
This pedal is a lot easier to use – with corded foot pedals, Kevin is always getting the cords wrapped around his feet or stool legs. So the cordless pedal is a great addition.
What does it cost? About $400.
He’s going to keep practicing until he is ready to put this new copper sculpture together, so you have time to go out to Linemaster.com and say, “What about us AHP AlphaTIG users?” Maybe it will convince them to make pedals for other manufacturers’ welders.
Kevin is going back to work – well, after getting his wardrobe straight ….