[Wobulate]

I would like to pose a question to the experienced/professional TIG welder's out their.

Has anyone tried pumping ambient air through a water cooled TIG torch instead of water or liquid coolant?
Just think, if this was possible you could eliminate the coolant pump/tank, and thereby reduce the maintenance on the welding system.

Some experimentation would be required to monitor the air temperature exiting the out-flow tube.

I really believe that this could work.

Wob

[Otto Nobedder]

This could be a great idea for a water-cooled flex-head torch. I burn through a lot of these.

An air-cooled flex-head will get hot enough to anneal the copper in the head.

A water-cooled torch never gets that hot, so the copper "work hardens" when you flex it, and fails. (Anyone with an air-cooled flex-head knows not to bend it until it's hot.)

I'll give this some thought, as I might be able to experiment with it. I have a source of dry nitrogen that could serve as a coolant. I suppose the flow would have to be matched to the amperage, to allow the head to get hot enough to anneal.

Steve

[Wobulate]

Steve,

I do not have a WC torch to test my hypothesis, I am running a #17 (150A) on a Lincoln Precision 225 (transformer/rectifier).

A small fan with an output necked down to the water input hose of the torch is all you would need.
The neck could be a long narrow funnel made-up with your choice of material.

If we eliminate the water cooler and coolant we could save $500 to $1,000 in equipment cost, and of course welding system maintenance cost. The fan and neck could be sold as an aftermarket component group for low cost, and still make a profit.

Wob

[Otto Nobedder]

Wobulate, I'm not so sure. I use a water-cooled flex head at work every day, rated at 250A. It's smaller than my personal 150A dry rig, and will fit into tighter places. I suspect the airflow required to equal the cooling capacity at 100% duty cycle would be excessive. On the other hand, compressed air as a cooling source would not be "dry". I guess the next time a water-cooled flex head torch dies on me, (I biult a little "bypass" so I can finish my job before I change the torch), I'll give it a try. I suspect the next water-cooled torch in my shop will die in the next six weeks.

Steve

[Wobulate]

Steve,

Compressed air would most likely be the way to go, maybe 30 PSI (need to compute the CFH), using a filter similar to the one all plasma cutter users should be using. This would include a water seperator of course.

I will wait for your test results

Bruce

[racingparts]

i guess you are using a lot of amps to burn those torches, right?

[Otto Nobedder]

The vast majority of our welding is 75A or less. It's the amount of extreme flexing that kill our torches