tig welder broken water lines

By SWP

Date 03-10-2010 14:46

As I understand it, you want the power cable to be the return line so that the heated water has the shortest route back into the chiller tank. If you have the other water line (non-power cable) connected as the return, it can see to too much heat. Also look at the pressure setting on the pump.

By moontan002 (*)

Date 03-12-2010 03:49

thanx for reply and yes i should say supply line not return line. owner manuel says pump pressure is factory set and mods. will void warranty. these machines are both less than 3 yrs old.i asked vendor to ask lincoln reps for ideas, they basically said they had never heard of such a problem, i e-mailed lincoln twice with no response. the 375 will break another line within the next 2 weeks it is already starting to balloon just was hoping someone else was having same problems and knew of the fix. thanx again for response.

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 03-12-2010 17:20

Hi moontan002!

First off, "WELDCOME TO THE WORLD'S GREATEST WELDING FORUM!!! :) :) :)"

You need to read the Lincoln "Under Cooler Cart" operation manual, especially the maintenance and troubleshooting sections... If you weren't aware of the yearly required maintenance on the pump, you may have a pump inlet strainer screen that's full of debris if it wasn't periodically checked for any built up debris on an annual basis as recommended in the IM 723-A operation manual for the Under Cooler Cart... Here's the link to the .pdf manual:

http://content.lincolnelectric.com//pdfs/products/navigator/im/IM723.pdf

If your pump inlet filter is clogged, then you may only have partial flow of coolant through the hoses and they're ballooning up in size due to overheating because of this...
If you have not done any of the required periodic maintenance as written in the IM723-A operation manual in the maintenance section, then you're probably more than due to take a detailed look at the pump and heat exchanger as wellas replacing the collant completely which is also required on a yearly basis too.

If you haven't done any type of yearly required maintenance, you could be told by the Lincoln reps that your under cooler cart warranty is voided because of neglect... So I would strongly recommend that you carefully read the above posted operation manual for the under cooler cart, and start looking at the pump, pump strainer, pump inlet filter, pump oil level, completely replace the coolant, follow all of the steps written in the manual and see if the condition disappears!!! ;) If it doesn't, at the very least, make sure that the pump has new oil in it, the filters and strainers have been cleaned to be free of debris, the fittings behind the screens are free of any built up debris and the coolant is fresh and replaced completely along with the addition of the bacterial growth preventive additive before any Lincoln rep has a chance to take a look at your 2 machines - CAPECHE???

So at the very least, read the manual in this post and do the required maintenance to see if you can correct the problem and if it does correct it, then from now on follow the required maintenance activities from the manual and adhere to them religiously in order to prevent this from happening again! ;)

Respectfully,
Henry

By moontan002 (*)

Date 03-17-2010 03:24

thanx for response, was there months ago. like i said was hoping some one else had simmilar problems and knew the fix.

By Metarinka (****)

Date 03-18-2010 17:14

never heard of that problem.

have you tried just swapping out the line material for something more heavy duty? like steel braided lines? might not fix the cause but it will fix the symptoms.

off the top of my head the torch should be running aorund 50 PSI, normal lines shouldn't be bursting at 50 psi. either your cooler is getting restricted and running at higher PSI, or your lines are low quality and popping off below that.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 03-18-2010 17:21 Edited 03-18-2010 17:25

I've seen similar water cooled Tig torch failures when water or green anti-freeze was used as the coolant liquid.

Any corrosion in this system will cause blockage as the coolant tries to go through the top of the torch. The clearence space (tollerance Henry) inside that torch head is very small and even a little bit of floating debris can cause a clog in the system.

The clog may not necessarily increase pressure beyond the hose rating... But what it will do is cause a heat buildup in the power cable and the surrounding fluid. Soon enough that hot cable/fluid will soften the the hose enough to make it baloon up.
If the system is not clean.. This will happen to new torch after new torch.

The Fancy Miller glycol is a good bit more spendy than basic anti-freeze or water but it does have special corrosion resistence as well as better than normal ability to stay deionized.

Edit: Moral of the story.
It's important to keep in mind that feeling pressure in the hose/cable may NOT be a sure indicator that there is actually coolant flow.

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 03-19-2010 00:56

With some torches You get a choice between thermoplastic and rubber hoses. Rubber will probably tolerate the overheating better, but as others have mentioned, You need to address the overheating.

By moontan002 (*)

Date 03-19-2010 05:13

thank you all for ideas, will try cleaning whole system, changing coolant, and stronger line. thanks again.