Welding Tips and Tricks

whats up guys, i am new to tig welding and my 17 air cooled torch has been getting pretty warm lately. After about 5-6 min i have to set it down for a few min. I also really like the idea of a small torch as i mostly do smaller types of material. Most ill prob do is .120 wall stainless. and .100 6061 aluminum. Soooo this brings me here. Ive been looking at a 20 series water cooled torch. Im not to familiar with how things fit to certain machines or if there are adapters. I have a Lincoln square wave 200 Tig machine. Do i have to buy a Lincoln 20 series torch? Or do i have other options? I prefer the super flexible hose.


Also Can i used an ever last w300 cooler with this setup? The lincoln versions seem to be almost double in price. Not sure if its worth the extra. Also Possibly a coolmate?

I use my machine mostly on 120v, unless i do something thick.

Thanks in advance!

You can usually mix and match parts. Just get some spec sheets about the cooler and the torch you plan on getting to make sure the dinse connector and the threaded fittings for the water lines match. I bought a CK water cooled torch from HTP that had a matching dinse connector for my thermal arc 186. Then I bought brass adapter fittings for the water lines from off eBay to fit it on to a homemade water cooler.

Call USAWELD, they'll set you up with everything you need in one package, just be sure to get a flex head torch.

sedanman wrote:Call USAWELD, they'll set you up with everything you need in one package, just be sure to get a flex head torch.

I jumped on there website and looked at there arctic chill cooler. doesn't look like a bad unit at all! Hopefully they have some black friday sales!

+1 on the flex head torch. CK FlexLoc is even better.

RamboBaby wrote:+1 on the flex head torch. CK FlexLoc is even better.

I am a big fan of the flex head, have you heard of any revvies on the artic chiller by chance

hypforlife32 wrote:

RamboBaby wrote:+1 on the flex head torch. CK FlexLoc is even better.

I am a big fan of the flex head, have you heard of any revvies on the artic chiller by chance

From memory Oscar has one - I'm sure he'd be happy to share his opinion.



Kym

MosquitoMoto wrote:

hypforlife32 wrote:

RamboBaby wrote:+1 on the flex head torch. CK FlexLoc is even better.

I am a big fan of the flex head, have you heard of any revvies on the artic chiller by chance

From memory Oscar has one - I'm sure he'd be happy to share his opinion.



Kym

I sent him a PM! thanks

The arctic chill cooler is so awesome, I bought a second one!




Had mine since I bought my HTP 221 during Nov 2013 black friday. Other than the weird fluid-darkening that sometimes happens due to the copper tubing and only using distilled water, never had any issues. Word to the wise: use tig coolant from the very beginning, right from the get go, so you don't have to deal with the possibility of getting that dingy looking water.

On second thought, I did have one issue, but it was totally my fault. I opened it up to blow the dust out with compressed air, and somehow forced one of the capacitors near the power input to short out and pop. Should have disconnected it . No big deal, I ordered 10 from China for $5, replaced the damaged one, and you couldn't ever tell that anything happened.

Hmmmm. Looks like HTP and Everlast might be the same company. These things rolled off of the same assembly line anyway. Mine is almost as noisy as an attic fan.....It's kinda obnoxious.
I had a problem with mine too. I forgot to plug it into the welder and fried my torch. They also didn't hook up the quick connects to the power switch before they shipped it to me.

...they are both also exactly the same form factor/layout as Metalmaster.

Somewhere there's a factory churning out exactly the same machine...and at the end of the line they get a red or green skin. Come to think of it I've seen yellow ones, too.



Kym

Using the RV coolant in a brand new Everlast W300 cooler like Rambo, I've still got nice green coolant. I go from heavy daily use to it not being used for a day or week and it's all good. Been like this for about 5 months now.

One thing about the #20 torch is it has small holes for the water to pass through. A really good idea to keep the life of your torch is to lay the entire cable and torch down below the water level for about 60 seconds or more each time you turn the system on. This will allow it to push out any air bubbles and ensure you have coolant always flowing through. After that you can raise the torch above the water line for as long as you want. This applies to all water cooled torches but the #20 is the smallest so it'll have issues sooner than anything else. Do this, and that torch just may outlive you.

As for noise, yeah this thing is loud but so is my welder. It's hard to say which is louder, it's more like which frequency and timing do you hear more. Just turn up the music and know you've got a "cool" unit

RamboBaby wrote:Hmmmm. Looks like HTP and Everlast might be the same company.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

However, both do outsource the production of their water cooler. The HTP arctic chill uses an Italian-made stainless steel pump, and the whole thing is assembled in China.

Does anyone know of someone who has one for sale by chance? Cant seem to find any black friday deals.

hypforlife32 wrote:Does anyone know of someone who has one for sale by chance? Cant seem to find any black friday deals.

I got my 2nd one as a used demo unit at a discounted price. Worth a shot to give them a call and ask. it was a little dirty inside, the clear hoses had started to turn brown, likely from just using plain water in it. But once I gave it a good flush and cleaning, then used tig coolant, it looked brand new.

I made one for my water cooled MiG Gun from a old Barnard Tig water cooler that I brought on Ebay and from parts of a refrigeration unit and it works fine. Would give Frankenstein a run for his money. Depends on one budget.