Gas Flow possibly.

[CRB]

I gave up a week or so ago after fitting a new bottle because nothing was going right, proper stomping off angry.

So today I started from scratch and found that somehow the wire was not in the groove and thus was not feeding properly Pulled a few feet of wire off and set the tension with the bit I cut off, lovely. I then decided to check the gas flow, for no other reason than I thought I should.

This is where it gets interesting. The regulator was set to where my 'pre-accident by breaking the other one' was set around 10lpm to give 6lpm at the nozzle. I have a peashooter flow guage.

The pea shot up and then steadfastly returned to rest each time I pressed the trigger, so I turn the regulator up....and up.....and up until it is reading around 20lpm at which point I have a reading of 6-7lpm on the peashooter.

Lovely welding ensued.

?Is it unusual to have a regulator reading so far out? It is a new bottle so I will keep an eye on it, but the same regulator was on the previous bottle for a while.

 

[Richard.]

No. Something is not right. Even 10-6 is a big gap. My reg is less than 1lpm out from the pea shooter. Reg could be shot or a blockage in the line but it's not right.

 

[the snooper]

if you have turned up the regulator that far, are you sure the gas isn't nearly empty

 

[CRB]

Brand new regulator and new bottle last month with only two hours at most use.

The original regulator was from WeldEquip but my replacement was a Cromwell one, recommended by a local fabricator who I asked for help.

 

[Richard.]

Then there must be a blockage somewhere mate. Your ramping up seriously high flows to get a pi$$y little trickle at the torch. Either reg is shot or there is a block. Can't think of any other reason.

 

[the snooper]

Brand new regulator and new bottle last month with only two hours at most use.

The original regulator was from WeldEquip but my replacement was a Cromwell one, recommended by a local fabricator who I asked for help.

it has been known to get a bottle that has leaked, can you use someone else's regulator or try another cylinder on the regulator

 

[Richard.]

it has been known to get a bottle that has leaked, can you use someone else's regulator or try another cylinder on the regulator

Would the pressure clock not tell you it was full or empty?????

 

[Wendelspanswick]

My crappy Rtech reg will show zero while the flow meter gives 6-8lpm.

 

[Richard.]

If the pressure clock on his new reg is faulty and he has a leaky bottle then he's having a bad day. I don't think the bottle is empty as I'd assume he'd see that on the reg pressure indicator.

 

[Richard.]

My crappy Rtech reg will show zero while the flow meter gives 6-8lpm.

Buy a decent one. Why people buy top class welding equipment and expensive gas then link them together with cheap sh#t regs is beyond me.

 

[the snooper]

If the pressure clock on his new reg is faulty and he has a leaky bottle then he's having a bad day. I don't think the bottle is empty as I'd assume he'd see that on the reg pressure indicator.

yeah true a very bad day

 

[Richard.]

Does not really matter. So long as it does a good job and is looked after. I buy good ones simply because gas flow is more important than any welding machine to produce a quality weld.

 

[CRB]

Thank you for all the ideas.

I will undo everything and make sure all is clean.

Regarding 'buy a not $h1t regulator' Not even entertaining that kind of talk, thank you. It was about 35GBP, same as the one I broke, and it meets the same standards, so there cannot be that much of a difference.

The flowtube ones look to be a good idea, but not at the minute.

 

[Richard.]

Wasn't referring to your reg crb The Rtech reg with 0 readout was what I was pointing out. If it's like that then it wants chucking. Your case sounds more like a blocked line torch etc.

 

[mike 109444]

Did you look at the needle on the gauge when pulling the trigger? I have a twin gauge set up on my bottle and added a flow type (ball in tube type) gauge to the output of that. Before adding the flow gauge i always found I would set the flow to the gauge (which as stated above is a pressure gauge) and would see it drop when trigger pulled. Reason it is showing the pressure at that gauge but when you pull the trigger that pressure drops as it is being released. So I would always set it a bit higher then check by pulling trigger as to the flow when running. Now I just use the flow (ball type) gauge and again pull trigger, ball rises up then settles at the output flow.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Wasn't referring to your reg crb The Rtech reg with 0 readout was what I was pointing out. If it's like that then it wants chucking. Your case sounds more like a blocked line torch etc.

It's a crap regulator but it does the job, I just ignore the dial.
It's not difficult to do, open reg high, set flow gauge on peashooter, reduce flow from reg till peashooter drops and then open back up the reg a 1/5 of a turn.
That way the peashooter is always receiving slightly more pressure than it needs to give me my required flow.