TonyWilk
2-Pint Welder
- Messages
- 114
Hi,
Well, my precision hand-crafted-by-experts chinese TIG lead lasted all of 5 mins... It's got WP-17 written on the handle and a piddly thin cable running down some rubbery tube - which melted in no time when I turned the juice up. (probably should've stuck to a 15 secs every 2 hours duty cycle
)
If anyone's interested... I've beefed it up a bit:
First pic. shows the dismantled torch and the gas/power connector. The copper lead is only about 3.8mm dia. - guess it's only 10mm2 or less. First thing is to cut off the cable connections leaving just a hose connection.
2nd pic. shown some nice new Radaflex double-insulated 25mm2 cable crimped to a lug with 8mm hole which fits nicely around the gas connection (not soldered on yet). Other end is now separate gas and Dinse for power. The crappy handle tube needed a bit of cutting too.
3rd pic. shows torch partly assembled. There's two lots of heatshrink on the power connection already and another two pieces ready to go on.
last pic. is the completed torch.
Was it worth the effort?
Well, it works again - but I'd probably have been better off (a) not buying it in the first place and (b) putting the 22 quid for cable & connectors towards a decent torch.
Yours,
Tony Wilk
Well, my precision hand-crafted-by-experts chinese TIG lead lasted all of 5 mins... It's got WP-17 written on the handle and a piddly thin cable running down some rubbery tube - which melted in no time when I turned the juice up. (probably should've stuck to a 15 secs every 2 hours duty cycle
)If anyone's interested... I've beefed it up a bit:
First pic. shows the dismantled torch and the gas/power connector. The copper lead is only about 3.8mm dia. - guess it's only 10mm2 or less. First thing is to cut off the cable connections leaving just a hose connection.
2nd pic. shown some nice new Radaflex double-insulated 25mm2 cable crimped to a lug with 8mm hole which fits nicely around the gas connection (not soldered on yet). Other end is now separate gas and Dinse for power. The crappy handle tube needed a bit of cutting too.
3rd pic. shows torch partly assembled. There's two lots of heatshrink on the power connection already and another two pieces ready to go on.
last pic. is the completed torch.
Was it worth the effort?
Well, it works again - but I'd probably have been better off (a) not buying it in the first place and (b) putting the 22 quid for cable & connectors towards a decent torch.
Yours,
Tony Wilk
