Welding Tips and Tricks

Good afternoon fellas. I hope you all had a good weekend, can't believe that tomorrow will be monday already!

I stayed up late last night TIG welding, and waiting for the torch to cool down, and welding some more, and waiting some more. Starting to think that it might be time to start looking at water cooler options. I'm running a Dynasty 200DX, so it shouldn't require a huge one. Have read many reviews and the pros and cons of different coolers.

My biggest question is, which one is the quietest (well, and high quality too)? I usually listen to spoken word podcasts as I am welding and have done quite a few things in my shop to make this possible - built a sound isolation room for the air compressor, put a speaker in all four corners, etc

Thank you for your thoughts, just don't want to spend a bunch of money to hear a noisy fan and pump droning on.

Thanks,
Pete

Easy. Run water extension lines to the cooler and put the cooler 100' away from you in another room, or outside in the shade. No pump/fan noise what so ever

Our two newer Millers at work (syncrowave 250DXs) have stand-alone coolers that slide into the DX's cabinet. They are almost soundless, and one circulates through a 75' lead. They came from Miller, as part of the machine package.

Steve S

Our Dynasty came with the Miller Coolmate 3, I think. The syncrowave I use has a Bernard. The Coolmate is quieter I think but the Dynasty is quieter at idle than the syncrowave, but is noisy as hell on AC, depending on frequency setting. The Coolmate is much more sensitive to water quality and keeping the additive fresh. The Bernard could pretty much care less of the water quality, or whether it has the coolant added at all. The plastic tank of the Coolmate promotes algae growth if the additive gets too diluted, the Stainless tank of the older Bernards we have don't seem to get any at all regardless of what's in them.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

Now just to get some money saved up… It's so much easier to save if there is a goal in mind!

Leaning toward a 2 gallon Dynaflux at this point, looks like around $500 will get it purchased. Throw in a torch and connection kit and the total should be do-able in a month or so.

Again, thanks for your thoughts, I'll keep you posted.

-- Pete