Getto water cooler

[addjunkie]

Opinions are like noses everyone has one.

One thing to consider time is valuable, it takes longer to build / test a gehtto set ups than it does to build a proper one, each to their own I guess.

Mine works a treat I generally have cooked fingers from the heat of weld radiated long before my w20 gets warm.

 

[SBK]

Been there and done that too,only to have the thing pack up whilst doing a job.
Have bought one now as I dont have the time to mess around making equipment.
Ok for hobbyists but not when you earn your crust with your equipment.

 

[SBK]

Cheers Brad

 

[brockenhammer]

Been there and done that too,only to have the thing pack up whilst doing a job.
Have bought one now as I dont have the time to mess around making equipment.
Ok for hobbyists but not when you earn your crust with your equipment.

That thing looks great!
Kai

 

[Rustwelder]

BigOz: Right on the money. But you should have made it up to the 4 minute mark in the video where they go on with more relevant tests.

Brad: It is okay to try be funny. But not to belittle people. Ok?

After the 4 minute mark in the video they weld 23:53 minutes with a temperature increase of the water in the bucket of 5.2 C.
That is 437 kJ cooled. Or a cooling power of 300 W. At 1 liter/minute this is temp increase of just over 4 C of the return water from the torch.

It works because the cooled welding energy results in fairly modest temp increase of the buffer water.
The drawback is the limited amount of buffer water, so it may happen that one need to take a really long break
to let the water cool down. Or to replace it with cooler water.

 

[Richard.]

Maths aside here because they are not really relevant.
The reason why is because torch manufacturers state the torch much be provided with a given pressure and produce a sufficient flow rate in order to maintain this torch’s life.
I think it’s fair to say each to there own take the risk if you want but i personally would stick to what the manufacturer states. My torch needs 50-60psi 1.5-2lpm on the return and use the proper coolant. Why on earth would I want to deviate away from that and risk my torch
To save a few quid.
Each to there own.

 

[BigOz]

I meant to finish the video last night, couldn't risk watching it all at work yesterday. Was the second weld at a lower welding current to result in the lower power figure?

 

[Rustwelder]

Two long periods of aluminium beads on a plate. They did say something in the end of the first test that the top water maybe was warmer. I think they were not happy with the readings, but never elaborated on that.
The beads on aluminium, I got to think that over time the current was reduced. Otherwise the metal should melt.
But even with the result you show there is a 10 deg C temp increase of the cooling water.

 

[SBK]

That thing looks great!
Kai

Cheers Kai

 

[BigOz]

Two long periods of aluminium beads on a plate. They did say something in the end of the first test that the top water maybe was warmer. I think they were not happy with the readings, but never elaborated on that.
The beads on aluminium, I got to think that over time the current was reduced. Otherwise the metal should melt.
But even with the result you show there is a 10 deg C temp increase of the cooling water.

I think he was worried about the IR emissivity of water which is actually quite good ~ 0.92-0.96 if I remember right (1.0 would be perfect "black body" emissivity). Non-contact IR thermometers have trouble where the emissivity is low e.g. polished metal surfaces where the emissivity is ~ 0.03 to 0.10.