Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello folks, need your expertise with setting up my TIG torch. I have a Miller Diamond back model 17 torch which came with my Syncrowave. I have been using it for years with the std. collet bodies, collest and alumina cups, by std. I mean the non-gas lens version. I bought a bunch of gas lens parts: both the small stubby version and non-stubby version. The stubby version gas lens and alumina make for a nice compact torch. With a short tungsten electrode and a short back cap, the torch just feels much more manageble. The difference in the overall size of the alumina cups between the subby gas lens etup and the std size gas lens setup is large. I can only imagine how large the alumina cup is on the large version of the gas lens.

Is there any advantage of using the std. size gas lens collet body, collet and alumina cup over the stubby version? Since the opening in the alumina cup is tha same on both styles, I can't see any reason not to use the stubby setup all the time.

My plan is to use the stubby gas lens setup for all applications unless I suspect there will be molten metal spitting from dirty contaminated metal parts or cast metal parts which could accumulate on the gas lens collet.

Advice, comments? Thanks folks.

Jim

Jim,
The only shortcoming that I can find with a stubby gas lens is that it lowers the max amps of your torch by about 20 amps, making your 17 series a 130 amp torch instead of a 150 amp. If you're not welding near it's max then I would say just leave it on for everything. I know I do. You can easily switch to a standard collet body if you need to weld some heavy stuff.

Len

Thanks Len. That makes sense, the shorter cup length would allow more heat to be conducted into the torch head thus lowering the maximum allowable amperage and/or loweing the duty cycle.

Jim

So as a follow on question, does a standard gas lens lower the amp rating of your torch vs a standard collet body?

I'm using a PTA-17v torch on my lift start TIG and have been using nothing but a gas lens for a while, but because of the way I hold the torch way up around the head of the torch I find it gets really hot really quick and use a thick MIG glove for anything above 70 AMPs or so on my torch hand because wearing a TIG glove is uncomfortable.

Thanks,

Bill

Bill,
I've never seen it stated anywhere that a regular gas lens lowers your amp rating like I'd mentioned earlier about a stubby.

As to your torch getting hot, a gas cooled torch gets hot near the head, at least any one I've ever used. At the amps you stated it shouldn't be getting hot very far back the handle though, make sure your gas lens is tight into the handle. If it's loose it causes the resistence to go up and therefore the heat. I've be using a tig finger unfolded and slid up the handle on my scratch start rig at work when I have to weld at max amps. Works good.

Len

Thanks Len. I actually hold my torch sort of around the head of the torch. I have sort of a funky way of holding a pencil, and when I started playing with TIG, everything I read said to hold the torch like a pencil, so I did.

Now... for a project I finally finished, I had to bump up my AMPs to pretty much max out my little machine and realized that I needed to try holding it farther back. I plan to mostly weld 16 gauge or thinner and will probably use my weird way of holding the torch just because it is comfortable for me, but when doing the odd project with thicker stuff, move my hand back a bit...

Bill

Bill,
They make a straight torch (ironicly called a pencil torch), maybe you could use one of these if it's condusive to your holding style. We all do things a little diffrerent, not always wrong, just different. There's more than one way to skin a mule.

Len

Interesting torch, but I think that the standard torch shape is fine, I just tend to wrap my fingers around the back cap which puts my middle finger under the torch body near the head and thus the cup. It's the middle finger that gets hot when the amps are up. The MIG glove seems to give me the insulation that I need and doesn't really affect my control, but if one of you guys saw me with my black BSX TIG glove on my left and a big ole thick HF MIG glove on the torch hand you would probably think I'm nuts.

Thanks,

Bill

Bill,

I think all welders are a little "nuts". That's what makes us interesting.

My wife once asked me why I like so much the kind of work I do. I told her, "Normal people bore me."

Steve S

We have a saying at my house "wacky's good". But remember what they say about too much of a good thing. Then you end up with a house full of cats and look like my sister-in-law, Yikes.

Len