more cooler

I have a job coming up that involves tig welding some 1/4 al. plate so I couldn't wait any longer for the cooler. Fortunately Duncan has stock of them right now.

I saw an earlier thread where a customer was unhappy with the length of the water tubes that come with the torch. As it is, the water hose stub on the dinse is way too short to reach the cooler connection, even if the cooler sits alongside the welder.
I think someone poked a little fun at the customer for complaining because this is such an easy fix. The only fix I can see is to scab a piece onto the hose. Easy enough, but a little untidy.

The customer was right on this one, the line should be left extra long. I suspect someone at the factory or at Everlast has figured this out too because the optional 25' WP 20 torch I ordered has a plenty of length left on the dinse hose whereas the WP 18 that came with the welder has the short stub on the dinse, as though the maker thought the setup was for a gas-through -dinse like the aircooled torches are.

Small thing maybe, but the closer to plug and play that things are, the better I think. Especially when the only requirement to make it work is to cut off a little longer piece of hose at the factory. I suspect it is probably not all that easy to communicate little nuances like this to the supplier.

One question for Mark or Mike or anyone else who knows the answer:

Should the cooled water from the outlet be connected to the dinse or to the water tube which runs up to the torch?
I thought the dinse made sense but then I rethought that. Perhaps the coolest water should find its way to the torch head first(where the greatest heat is) via the tube then flow back down cooling the cable? Or does it matter?

One other item I'll need to do is to permanently mark the tube which connects to the argon output on the machine. It would be easy enough in the heat of battle to accidentally connect the water tube up to argon and the argon line to water, they look identical and have the same couplers. The result might not be good!

Glen

The dinse is always the return line, no point in preheating the water at the dinse and then sending it to the torch.

The whole issue is even more easily resolved than that. There is another way of looking at it. The protective cover is too long and it is easily split or removed and PRESTO!, the lines are long enough to reach.

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Originally Posted by performance

The whole issue is even more easily resolved than that. There is another way of looking at it. The protective cover is too long and it is easily split or removed and PRESTO!, the lines are long enough to reach.

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I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I did figure that out on my own pretty quickly.:D

. The line that is too short is the line from the dinse, cutting the protective cover on the torch lines doesn't help that.

Geezer, using the dinse as return line makes sense to me as well, although I imagine things would work OK either way.

On the electrical sde of things, I'm not sure that using the same power source for cooler and the welder is ideal. My Buddy has a 300 AMP Tig setup that way. He has melted his torch twice now when the breaker supplying the welder kicked out. This was at a time when he was welding at full amps on some thick aluminum. The water flow to the torch stops immediately, the water boils out and the torch melts. I'm thinking it might be better to get the cooler on it's own independant power supply.

Glen

Glen

Are you saying that the residual heat left in the torch after the breaker trips... boils out all the water and the torch still melts?

You can get a fused torch that blows when water is not present

Why not install a breaker large enough to handle the current draw? Or is the wiring to small to be able to handle a larger breaker?

I've seen the fuses for water cooled TIG torches. My point was that the premise is the welder and the cooler are on the same circuit, then the breaker trips. I find it surprising that there would be enough residual heat left in the whole (thermodynamic) system to boil off enough water to cause any damage to anything after all of the ablative protection the water provided as been consumed.

The issue is melting the torch. The torch shouldn't melt if there is water in the line when the welding breaker trips. The heat source is eliminated the second the breaker pops, and there is enough water to prevent meltdown of the torch. If there is a circulation problem to begin with I could see a possible issue, but not one that normally would happen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by parkour

Are you saying that the residual heat left in the torch after the breaker trips... boils out all the water and the torch still melts?

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That has happened to him twice now. Both times welding at 300 amps.

Glen

Wow, that's incredible.

I'm not sure this would happen with our machines. They are lower in power therefore would not produce as much heat at the torch.
His welder is an old Hobart Cybertig. He has it on a 60 amp breaker , which is as large as he can go (60 amp supply to his little shop)
Those old transformer machines suck a lot of power and it will kick the 60 amp breaker when welding at full amps.

I have my old P+H 400 amp on a 90 amp supply, haven't ever blown that, but then I rarely weld above 300 amps with it.

Glen