Welding Tips and Tricks

exnailpounder wrote:Tig aluminum long liners.

Oscar wrote:Can you TIG weld at 200A+, AC with 65%EN and still have ambient temperature water exit the entire cooler after being cooled? All the compactness and savings don't mean squat until you do heavy AC TIG. other than that, good job.

exnailpounder wrote:Some of you guys must be serious Tig aluminum long liners to need a cooler. Most guys with consumer grade welders hit duty cycle long before they overheat a torch. Most fab shops have factory built coolers for those occasional long welds and unless you're welding filler rods together, a 3' filler rod doesn't go very far on thick aluminum and most , me included, non-pro tig welders, can't feed rod worth a damn. Nice cooler though.

LtBadd wrote:Interesting build, would not a computer power supply work as well? Also what diameter is the PVC pipe, looks like maybe 3"?

Oscar wrote:is it maintaining 40-50psi on the return line?

exnailpounder wrote:Some of you guys must be serious Tig aluminum long liners to need a cooler. Most guys with consumer grade welders hit duty cycle long before they overheat a torch. Most fab shops have factory built coolers for those occasional long welds and unless you're welding filler rods together, a 3' filler rod doesn't go very far on thick aluminum and most , me included, non-pro tig welders, can't feed rod worth a damn. Nice cooler though.

Sandow wrote:

Oscar wrote:is it maintaining 40-50psi on the return line?

No, it is 55 from the pump but after the restriction in the torch head it is much lower. Don't really have a way of putting a gauge on the return side. Why do you ask?

-Sandow

Otto Nobedder wrote:And restricting the flow looks like this:
I was welding aluminum overhead from a creeper, when I pinched the supply line with a creeper wheel. In seconds, 300A did this to the return/power line.

Steve S

LtBadd wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:And restricting the flow looks like this:
I was welding aluminum overhead from a creeper, when I pinched the supply line with a creeper wheel. In seconds, 300A did this to the return/power line.

Steve S

I think I've seen that before...hope you didn't get burned by the hot coolant

Otto Nobedder wrote:

LtBadd wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:And restricting the flow looks like this:
I was welding aluminum overhead from a creeper, when I pinched the supply line with a creeper wheel. In seconds, 300A did this to the return/power line.

Steve S

I think I've seen that before...hope you didn't get burned by the hot coolant

Yeah, I've put that one up before. I was wearing PPE appropriate for "meteors" from overhead aluminum, so, no, I was not burned.

Steve S

MinnesotaDave wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:Some of you guys must be serious Tig aluminum long liners to need a cooler. Most guys with consumer grade welders hit duty cycle long before they overheat a torch. Most fab shops have factory built coolers for those occasional long welds and unless you're welding filler rods together, a 3' filler rod doesn't go very far on thick aluminum and most , me included, non-pro tig welders, can't feed rod worth a damn. Nice cooler though.

Not trying to pick on you, feeding rod is the first thing I taught my son when teaching him to tig aluminum.

Otherwise the feeding hand gets too close very quickly.

I put off getting a cooler for too long actually (ended up making one).
My AC tig welding was frequently 200-230 amps and I cooked several wp-26 torches.
Series 17 torches don't stand a chance.

I tend to batch items whenever possible - tack them all, then get in my groove welding them out.

Fortunately I have a welder that has no issues with duty cycle

exnailpounder wrote:she would shit a purple twinkie.

RamboBaby wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:she would shit a purple twinkie.

Haha!

MosquitoMoto wrote:

RamboBaby wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:she would shit a purple twinkie.

Haha!

Yes, I'm gonna adopt that one, too.

Best one I've heard since I was speaking recently with a rather lovely but very direct Producer about an educational film project she'd been offered that she wasn't interested in taking on.

"I told them I'd rather shit in my hands and clap."






Kym

exnailpounder wrote: No sweat bro. I wish I could feed rod well but when I do it's shaky. The point of my comment was that in most home welding environments, a cooler isn't necessary unless you are contract welding fuel cells or something like that for a supplier and then you want long beads but in the real world, most garage bandits aren't doing that kind of work. I really do admire the tinkerers that build this kind of stuff. I think tig welding is worse than owning guns sometimes...gotta pay for training you will never use and have all the latest toys and then one day you look at what you have spent and shake your head. If my wife only knew just what I have in holsters, she would shit a purple twinkie.