Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm looking to pick up an air cooled tig torch to use with my Invertec and while a 17 torch seems like the best compromise, I've always avoided anything under 1/8 like the plague as far as practice material goes and I have a machine that maxes out at 275 amps and a lot more 3/16 and 1/4 laying around so I'd like to use it.

What I'm really not sure about however is how fast running 225-250 amps would cook a 17 I'd imagine if I only ran in for a couple minutes at a time and let it cool it wouldn't hurt it, but I'd hate to fire it up for a minute cranked up and found out my torch fused together, does anyone else have experience with this?

for a 275 amp machine i would look at a water cooled torch.
a 17 is 150 amps max by mem. i have a 26 torch running on 180 amps and i have to let that cool down on the larger jobs.
while you can push things past the limits for a short time, its real easy for that short time to become to long. no one likes to stop welding for things to cool down.

If you plan to run at 200+ amps normally, a #17 is a poor choice. A #26 would do it, but honestly, a water-cooled rig would be better. They’re smaller, handle higher heat ranges, and capable of full duty without needing to cool down.

When I’ve had to do thick ally and only have a #26, I keep a bucket of water nearby and dunk it periodically.

My 17 torch starts having problems at 140A. I've had back cap overheat and loosen from the brass threaded section and not be able to remove the tungsten until it cooled. So definitely no on using a 17 touch at 200A plus.

I've ran the same torch at 220A for 3 seconds the take a current measurement with no problem. Literally just enough time for the meter to settle though.

I won't be doing aluminum as my machine is DC only, so I'll probably only be running over 150 amps just for practice and for the hell of it. If I need to weld 1/4 for an actual purpose I'll plug my stinger in . But it sounds like it would overheat before I got done with a single pass if I cranked it up enough.

I could buy a lot of cold rolled for the price of a water cooled torch and cooler, but if I were to get another machine for aluminum in the future I might want a watercooled torch anyway.. hard to say, but I'll either go that route or just not push a 17 that high.

Skip over all the 17's and get a Heavy Hitter 350.