Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello, tried searching and couldn’t come up with much. The thought came back up to possibly add a watercooler to my syncrowave 210. Most of the time i’m welding less than 100 amps but here and there I have an aluminum project or some thicker metal to weld and smoke my torch. Just curious if it would be worth my time to add a cooler and new torch setup to my machine. Looking for opinions. I use my machine almost daily between 1-4 hours depending on the day. There are a couple miller coolmate 4’s used online for half the price of new. So to the nitty gritty, will that cooler work for me? And what torch would you recommend? I’d like to get the most out of my machine so anything that can handle 200amps would be nice. I’m currently running a wp17 flex head that’s only rated for 150amps so 75% of the time that’s fine but the other 25% it’s not enough. I’d also like to stick with a flex head torch as well. Thanks for any input.

I have a 200amp ac/dc tig machine that came with a WP-17 torch. I got a water cooler for a price I couldn't refuse and then I bought a CK-20 flex head torch with with a super flex hose. It's definitely a noisier setup now, but the torch never gets warm and I run it at 200amps for 1/4" aluminum.

I also like that the CK-20 is smaller than the WP-17. Here's picture of the CK-20 and WP-17. I've heard that once you go water cooled you'll never go back... I know I won't.

Good luck,
Dave

Graveyard wrote:There are a couple miller coolmate 4’s used online for half the price of new. So to the nitty gritty, will that cooler work for me?

Yes, it would work, just as a Chevy 454 would work for a Weedeater. You don't need anything near that capacity to run a Sync 210, though.

And the duty cycle of that machine is low enough that it's debatable whether you need a cooler (or a bigger torch) at all.

The CK-20 is a nice torch, and if you get the CK superflex hose option you'll be glad you did. The Coolmate 4 is over kill but if you can get it for a good price then go for it.

Lightning wrote:

Graveyard wrote:There are a couple miller coolmate 4’s used online for half the price of new. So to the nitty gritty, will that cooler work for me?

Yes, it would work, just as a Chevy 454 would work for a Weedeater. You don't need anything near that capacity to run a Sync 210, though.

And the duty cycle of that machine is low enough that it's debatable whether you need a cooler (or a bigger torch) at all.

I don’t plan on getting crazy with over running the duty cycle, I don’t really think I need it but I think it would be beneficial for the cases where I know I’m going to be running a lot of amps even for short periods. Plus the price point is pretty good $400 for a coolmate 4 that looks brand new and a water cooled 17 torch and lines to go with. Hard to pass up. Thoughts?

My only thought is that the "Watercooled 17 torch" sounds an awful lot like an 18 torch, and they're usually rated in the 350A range, which is up where I think the CoolMate 4 is intended to run as well.

Nothing particularly saying you couldn't pair a 20 torch to it, for the 200-250A capacity and reduced physical size, though.

The $400 price tag is not bad either, if it works and is within your budget that you want to spend on a cooler setup!

I dunno...for welding aluminum, the Sync 210 looks like it maxes out at 184A AC. The Coolmate 4 handles 600A. Seems to me you would be spending more than you need.

I don't know where Miller gets off with their naming conventions lately. The Sync 210 actually has less balls than the old Sync 180.

Lightning wrote:I dunno...for welding aluminum, the Sync 210 looks like it maxes out at 184A AC. The Coolmate 4 handles 600A. Seems to me you would be spending more than you need.

I don't know where Miller gets off with their naming conventions lately. The Sync 210 actually has less balls than the old Sync 180.

I do believe the OP wrote that he could get the CM 4 at a great price, if so it would future proof for a possible machine upgrade, should that happen. We don't know the price so...just guessing on the good deal part

I decided to save my money and just upgrade my whole setup so I can weld thicker material, I love my syncrowave but I just want to be able to handle larger jobs.