Jan
Member
- Messages
- 884
- Location
- Rotherham, South Yorks
Let's start with the background/back story:
A while back I bought a CT312 combo machine. Half stick welder, half tig welder and half plasma cutter.
I've done quick tests on the stick welder and plasma cutter with fairly impressive results for the claimed efficiency and cost. But ...
I couldn't test the tig function as the collet/collet body/back cap combo supplied wouldn't grip a tungsten. I wasn't going to fire it up with everything jiggling around inside by a couple of centimetres, arcing and setting the head on fire!
After a flurry of emails with the supplier in China, they have agreed to send me a new torch head. It could be an whole new unit as the info is vague on what's coming ... some time in the unknown future.
Anyhoo; I was digging through my box sets of things and came across a metric/Imperial/BSP tap & die set that can't recall purchasing. So I grabbed a matching pair of BSP ones and chased down the threads on both sides (head and collets), but even then the holders had a shoulder that stopped them going far enough into the head to mate correctly. 10 minutes on the lathe and those 3 holders now fit and work! Woo, if not also hoo. However ...
I have several other sets of consumables that work nicely, but only with one single collet. All the rest are either too long or too short. I can buy collets in singles or packs, but the only parameter the sellers quote is tungsten diameter. In theory I could lathe the longer ones down to an acceptable length, but maintaining the split is going to an absolute bu66er to keep straight and the correct width even with a miniature hacksaw.
Any and all hints, tips or cures would be most gratefully received, my chums and chumettes.
Ta very glad in advance
A while back I bought a CT312 combo machine. Half stick welder, half tig welder and half plasma cutter.
I've done quick tests on the stick welder and plasma cutter with fairly impressive results for the claimed efficiency and cost. But ...
I couldn't test the tig function as the collet/collet body/back cap combo supplied wouldn't grip a tungsten. I wasn't going to fire it up with everything jiggling around inside by a couple of centimetres, arcing and setting the head on fire!
After a flurry of emails with the supplier in China, they have agreed to send me a new torch head. It could be an whole new unit as the info is vague on what's coming ... some time in the unknown future.
Anyhoo; I was digging through my box sets of things and came across a metric/Imperial/BSP tap & die set that can't recall purchasing. So I grabbed a matching pair of BSP ones and chased down the threads on both sides (head and collets), but even then the holders had a shoulder that stopped them going far enough into the head to mate correctly. 10 minutes on the lathe and those 3 holders now fit and work! Woo, if not also hoo. However ...
I have several other sets of consumables that work nicely, but only with one single collet. All the rest are either too long or too short. I can buy collets in singles or packs, but the only parameter the sellers quote is tungsten diameter. In theory I could lathe the longer ones down to an acceptable length, but maintaining the split is going to an absolute bu66er to keep straight and the correct width even with a miniature hacksaw.
Any and all hints, tips or cures would be most gratefully received, my chums and chumettes.
Ta very glad in advance