Welding Tips and Tricks

Last Night I had turned my Boombox and Dynasty on to warm up, didn't want to turn on my Coolmate cause I didn't want to have to listen to it run while I prepped the aluminum part to weld. Put my gloves and hood on and proceeded to weld about a 8" bead on aprx. 3/16" thick part, I did notice that my tungsten looked overheated after the weld and the torch a CK 230 Flex felt warmer than usual, then I noticed that it was to quiet in my shop, forgot to turn on my darn cooler!! Should I be checking anything out on it?? I turned the cooler on after words and did a couple of test beads and everything seems to still work fine??
Thanks in advance

Pete

Doubtful you hurt anything, other than cooking your tungsten a bit. Remove it and polish it up with ScotchBrite. You essentially ran "air-cooled" versus water-cooled. No big deal.

Your good, I run my Dynasty at 200 amps and its air cooled.

Doubt you hurt anything, torch just gets hotter.

Don't make it a habit. You can easily toast the torch lead and the torch. In your case, you should be ok.

On the upside your torch lines were probably still full of fluid. So even if it wasn't flowing it was probably still dissipating some heat.

Thanks guys! The older I get the more forgetful I get! lol

my newest dumb this is to let the cable from the foot peddle under the edge
of the pedal so when i try to tack i get half pedal, thus no tack.
this has happened a few times doing aluminum also. everyone knows
how that turns out....
craig

Based on the first sentences I thought it was gonna be that your tig welder messed with your speaker. I was running some aluminum off of a diversion 180 the other day and my teacher yells at me and says look what you did. About half way through the CNC program he was running it just shut off and seized up due to me welding. I guess AC tig will do stuff like that. Or when I am in the booth next to someone welding on aluminum my helemet won't shut off in X-mode since that crap goes through every nook and cranny

Here's what happens to a water-cooled return/power lead when you accidentally pinch the flow at 310 Amps... Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:Here's what happens to a water-cooled return/power lead when you accidentally pinch the flow at 310 Amps...

GEDC1030.JPG

Steve S

Bet that didn't take long...

as long as your power lead or torch is not leaking, you are fine as frog hair.

been there, done that, got the hat.

LtBadd wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:Here's what happens to a water-cooled return/power lead when you accidentally pinch the flow at 310 Amps...

GEDC1030.JPG

Steve S

Bet that didn't take long...

Seconds. It did not smell good, either.

Steve S

Looks like that got hot in a hurry Otto! Luckily my machine was set for about half of that!

Pete

3 sec at 200A AC without water was enuogh to melt the water hose. Power hose made it so it was just to cut off an inch and it was fit for fight again

All I know is that I wouldn't want to to anything to ruin a water cooled torch. I learned on a 17 and then went to a water cooled for a few months at a local tech school (not a ton of hours but enough). I came back now and burn my hand everyday running from 120-180 amps almost non-stop. I have to stop after a half an hour so I don't burn my hands all the time.

Farmwelding wrote:All I know is that I wouldn't want to to anything to ruin a water cooled torch. I learned on a 17 and then went to a water cooled for a few months at a local tech school (not a ton of hours but enough). I came back now and burn my hand everyday running from 120-180 amps almost non-stop. I have to stop after a half an hour so I don't burn my hands all the time.

Yah, I hear ya! When I bought my first Tig welder I bought a air cooled torch to save on $ and they do get hot!!

motox wrote:my newest dumb this is to let the cable from the foot peddle under the edge
of the pedal so when i try to tack i get half pedal, thus no tack.
this has happened a few times doing aluminum also. everyone knows
how that turns out....
craig

Craig, 1 word buddy WIRELESS...lol I love my wireless pedal as I find myself trapping the damn cord at times on the wired pedal we have on the main shop welders as I move it around the table. Getting it under a stool leg is popular for me too...lol

Rick_H wrote:

motox wrote:my newest dumb this is to let the cable from the foot peddle under the edge
of the pedal so when i try to tack i get half pedal, thus no tack.
this has happened a few times doing aluminum also. everyone knows
how that turns out....
craig

Craig, 1 word buddy WIRELESS...lol I love my wireless pedal as I find myself trapping the damn cord at times on the wired pedal we have on the main shop welders as I move it around the table. Getting it under a stool leg is popular for me too...lol

Unless your machine has no way to change foot pedals with that style connection and only accepts Ethernet cable ends and doesn't allow you to easily replace torches or stick weld (Miller diversion 180 he says while coughing)

pgk wrote:Looks like that got hot in a hurry Otto! Luckily my machine was set for about half of that!

Pete

Pete, I should have mentioned it was AC welding, so tons of heat in the torch, lead, and coolant already. The steam looked like smoke (and there was smoke from the burned hose), and someone ran up and killed the disconnect at my power outlet PDQ. I was doing a long 1/2" aluminum 4G from a creeper, and rolled a wheel over the supply line, and "poof", all gone.

Steve S

I was doing 1/4 or 3/16" 3003 diamond plate once, blasting my welder for hooooooours. Had to keep on stopping because the torch got too hot. Ended up grabbing a bucket of cold water and I would dip the torch it in, worked just about once

Olivero wrote:I was doing 1/4 or 3/16" 3003 diamond plate once, blasting my welder for hooooooours. Had to keep on stopping because the torch got too hot. Ended up grabbing a bucket of cold water and I would dip the torch it in, worked just about once

Must be kind of hard on those alumina cups, I'd think...

Steve S

Yeah, didn't work out too well, contaminated the living hell out of my hoses too. Split the taperered part of the cup right in half.

Otto Nobedder wrote:

pgk wrote:Looks like that got hot in a hurry Otto! Luckily my machine was set for about half of that!

Pete

Pete, I should have mentioned it was AC welding, so tons of heat in the torch, lead, and coolant already. The steam looked like smoke (and there was smoke from the burned hose), and someone ran up and killed the disconnect at my power outlet PDQ. I was doing a long 1/2" aluminum 4G from a creeper, and rolled a wheel over the supply line, and "poof", all gone.

Steve S

Steve,
That had to be quite the surprise!