Yeh unfortunately nothing in this project is available off the shelf otherwise I would have used off the shelf parts obvs, everything is custom. You simply can't buy actuators with the required speed and accuracy so you have to build them, similarly you can't buy the current former you have to make it.
It can weld steel but it depends what you want to weld it to. What you struggle with is welding two materials with vastly different melting temps as you will vaporise one before it fuses with the other.
The stepper motor is a high quality unit designed to operate a feeder in a PNP machine, I have had it customised by the motor manufacturer to work in my weld head, I don't use it as a stepper at all rather as part of a highly precise very high speed closed loop actuator that I have developed specifically for this project. The motor is a good form factor for placing on the weld head and it isn't hugely expensive. The other CNC parts are just some small moving brass parts, electrode holder and the nozzle that acts as an argon chamber during the arc. All the other components are 3d printed in ASA (PLA also seems to work which is remarkable given the arc energy burst). 3d printing works for these parts as they contain internal gas channels that wouldn't be possible to fabricate on a mill.
Once I get the next set of boards in my hands for final validation I will work out costs for a kit. Will probably be $300-$500 depending on options and i'll put up a signup list.
My plan at the moment is the software running on the hardware with the very hard won algos i've developed both for electrode and arc control will remain closed source. However there will be an open api if people want to build their own tools to communicate with it over uart or usb.
