Welding Tips and Tricks

Oscar (or anyone with this CK torch),
I just received my Swivel Head Torch for my HTP 221 and was wondering how tight the little round clamp for the swivel head needs to be? I twisted the swivel head and then tightened the clamp and twisted the swivel head and it feels the same and easy to swivel still. Is that clamp just for pressure and not to be over tightened as in the swivel head is locked in place?? I don't want to break it before I use it.
Thanks

electrode wrote:Oscar (or anyone with this CK torch),
I just received my Swivel Head Torch for my HTP 221 and was wondering how tight the little round clamp for the swivel head needs to be? I twisted the swivel head and then tightened the clamp and twisted the swivel head and it feels the same and easy to swivel still. Is that clamp just for pressure and not to be over tightened as in the swivel head is locked in place?? I don't want to break it before I use it.
Thanks

It doesn't need to be any tighter (O-rings make the gas seal), unless you're going to walk the cup. Then, you set the head left of where you want it, hold the knob, and tighten with the head instead. This locks it nicely. You will not hurt it unless you get really aggressive with it.

Steve

Otto Nobedder wrote:

electrode wrote:Oscar (or anyone with this CK torch),
I just received my Swivel Head Torch for my HTP 221 and was wondering how tight the little round clamp for the swivel head needs to be? I twisted the swivel head and then tightened the clamp and twisted the swivel head and it feels the same and easy to swivel still. Is that clamp just for pressure and not to be over tightened as in the swivel head is locked in place?? I don't want to break it before I use it.
Thanks

It doesn't need to be any tighter (O-rings make the gas seal), unless you're going to walk the cup. Then, you set the head left of where you want it, hold the knob, and tighten with the head instead. This locks it nicely. You will not hurt it unless you get really aggressive with it.

Steve

Thanks Steve. That's what I wanted to hear. I appreciate it.

I tighten up the button itself as much as I can with the swivel head about 15-20° away from where it needs to be. Then I hold the button, and tighten the swivel head just a smidge more and it ends up landing "in place'. For me, this ends up giving the swivel head sufficient "tightness" so that it ends up pretty solid.

Oscar wrote:I tighten up the button itself as much as I can with the swivel head about 15-20° away from where it needs to be. Then I hold the button, and tighten the swivel head just a smidge more and it ends up landing "in place'. For me, this ends up giving the swivel head sufficient "tightness" so that it ends up pretty solid.

Thanks for the followup Oscar. Now I won't have to worry about breaking it. So I have the finger button and the new torch but am involved in other projects currently, so I guess when it's about 120 degrees out in the shop I will finally get to hooking them up. I mainly use my SW250 but am ready to start learning the HTP 221 bells and whistles. It's new and I only fired it up once to make sure it worked. Now I am anxious to use it. Too many tools, not enough time...

electrode wrote:

Oscar wrote:I tighten up the button itself as much as I can with the swivel head about 15-20° away from where it needs to be. Then I hold the button, and tighten the swivel head just a smidge more and it ends up landing "in place'. For me, this ends up giving the swivel head sufficient "tightness" so that it ends up pretty solid.

Thanks for the followup Oscar. Now I won't have to worry about breaking it. So I have the finger button and the new torch but am involved in other projects currently, so I guess when it's about 120 degrees out in the shop I will finally get to hooking them up. I mainly use my SW250 but am ready to start learning the HTP 221 bells and whistles. It's new and I only fired it up once to make sure it worked. Now I am anxious to use it. Too many tools, not enough time...

I hear ya, same here. Hopefully now that I'm on vacation I can get back to a whole bunch of stuff that's on the back-burner, mainly for my race car.

Oscar wrote:

electrode wrote:

Oscar wrote:I tighten up the button itself as much as I can with the swivel head about 15-20° away from where it needs to be. Then I hold the button, and tighten the swivel head just a smidge more and it ends up landing "in place'. For me, this ends up giving the swivel head sufficient "tightness" so that it ends up pretty solid.

Thanks for the followup Oscar. Now I won't have to worry about breaking it. So I have the finger button and the new torch but am involved in other projects currently, so I guess when it's about 120 degrees out in the shop I will finally get to hooking them up. I mainly use my SW250 but am ready to start learning the HTP 221 bells and whistles. It's new and I only fired it up once to make sure it worked. Now I am anxious to use it. Too many tools, not enough time...

I hear ya, same here. Hopefully now that I'm on vacation I can get back to a whole bunch of stuff that's on the back-burner, mainly for my race car.

I am always working. Just not what I want to be working on. But eventually I get caught up and then I get to do what I have been yearning to do. But it's in the middle of summer when the shop feels like hell.