Can tig welding on frame ruin controller?

I need to tack a bracket on my frame and was wondering if I should remove my controller first. Back in my road racing days i recall you always removed the Yamaha TZ ignition boxes before welding on the frame or risk destroying the ignition from the high frequency generated by the tig welder. I'll remove my controller anyway but was just curious if anyone knows if this is just a wives tale and how it may affect the controller on an electric bike. Thanks in advance BF.

Let's see. You want to send a bunch of voltage through your frame that the controller is grounded to, you're wondering if if it will, what? Explode? This will be so much electricity that the TiG welder has a duty cycle tbecause it's more than the 240v/40a it can draw from the wall. . . .

Sounds like an interesting experiment. We'll all be waiting to see what happens if you leave it on. If you take it off, there's not going to be a fascinating story to tell. If that doesn't help you decide, I just don't know what will.

Hey, WoW...Thank you!..that was certainly helpful, I think.

If i was doing what your going to do,i would definately take the controller off the frame and put it somewhere safe. 8)

The electronics in the controller should be isolated from the case (not grounded), but I would still play it safe and remove the controller.

Not all tig welders use high frequency(HF), some use it to start the weld, others use lift start, some need it to keep the beam going and such when AC tig welding aluminum. There are purely DC Tig welders that use zero HF. Perhaps some tig welders that do AC can be ran purely in DC and use lift start to start the arc rather than HF. Aside from that, where you put the ground clamp can have a pretty massive impact on your question. The summary of this notion is so long as the controller isn't between the ground and arc it likely isn't going to see any power. No matter what, I like to keep my ground clamp nice and clean(contact points, wire brush) and clamp reasonably close to where I am welding. Some people have noted they felt some current flow through them in situations where they were between the ground clamp and the arc. If you were welding close to where the controller sits on the frame, I'd take it off not just because I'd be afraid power might actually flow through the controller, but because I'd not want to expose it to any excess heat (close is a relative term). Perhaps if you are using the controller as a prop in making sure things fit correctly when you weld you might be able to remove the controllers guts and just keep the casing in place.

I can't really make statements on knowing how HF will impact a controller or other devices, my imagination suggests that would be harmless to anything not powered on at the moment, but I am sure there are tons of things I don't understand.

should be safe from emissions since it is isolated electrically, but expect the welder to have an accident and weld the controller to the frame by mistake.

dnmun said:

should be safe from emissions since it is isolated electrically, but expect the welder to have an accident and weld the controller to the frame by mistake.

Click to expand...

Some welders also ride e-bikes. *waves hands*

If it was my bike, I would remove any sensitive electronics from the frame before welding on it.

Clamp the clean contact ground to the piece that you are going weld to the frame.