Superiorwelding wrote:I decided to try something at home first and thought I would share the pictures and part #'s. This has already been mentioned, I think, but all I did was move the orifice down to the back of my MM 252.
Hi, Jonathan.
I'm not familiar with the orifice part that you moved. Seems like it would limit flow to a max rate - does it serve another purpose?
I like the balloon test - that should be very telling, though I'm surprised you didn't see a bigger difference. Just from the sound, it seems like significantly more gas would be flowing, but it's hard to argue with results.
Harris makes a unit that mounts right in line at the wire feeder called Gas Guard Model 301-80-IGGRF-032 for around $120US. and if you want to go with a regular flowmeter type the Smith H2231 is even cheaper yet at about $60US.
You are correct on the orifice limiting flow or psi to a certain max. The orifice is the outlet of your standard regulators. There were a few things I left out accidently in the first post. Some of this has been covered already but I will repeat anyway. First I was using approx. 4' of hose from tank to machine. The huge gas savings will be in the 25' hoses or larger hose i.d. hoses in general. The longer hoses will obviously hold more volume than the short hose I was using. This is the reason I think I didn't notice much difference in the balloon size. Because the hose was so short and I was only moving the orifice to the back of the machine, you still have basically the same volume coming out when the trigger is pushed. The only real advantage in moving the orifice, or even adding a flow meter, to the back of the machine is it will limit the initial rush when the solenoid it opened. Hence if you have a 25' hose, it is just limiting the volume, CFH or psi that is allowed to enter the machine and with that volume or psi drop comes your gas savings. And yes it is still technically psi. I have a digital pressure gauge I thought of setting up that measures to .00 psi to see what it actually is. Maybe when I get bored someday I will hook it up. Also since orifice or flow meter will only allow a certain amount of flow it will take longer for that 25' hose to drop in pressure and settle at what ever flow you are set up for. If you leave the regulator as is, you have that build up in the line, that when the solenoid is opened, will just rush out at what ever speed the smallest component has.
Another thing I added, and the reason I just threw this together with the barb fittings, is a very small i.d. hose. Again this will limit the volume in the hose thus in theory reducing my gas consumption. If nothing else, if your hoses leak, moving to a smaller i.d. hose will reduce the amount of gas that leaks out.
There is a draw back to purchasing all these components to try and save a puff of gas. Again already been mentioned but as a hobbyist, It may take a very long time to regain your purchase price back. I estimate gas savings on my DC-600's with 25' gas line to be no more than 30%, so for that application it is worth spending some money to save a buck down the road.
My final conclusion so far is I believe the cheapest avenue to save on your gas waste is to simply move this orifice, if you have that type of regulator, to the back of the machine. I spent around $20 for the setup pictured.
Hope this makes sense and I didn't confuse anyone.
-Jonathan
