did'nt think miller would still do transformer tig, then a guy i know has just purchased one, was suprised at the sheer size of the piece of plant when i came over to check it out, i thought it looked a bit big for an inverter. lovely machine... i dont think miller still do transformer mig funny enough, correct me if i,m wrong though.
the water circulates up and down the tourch to keep it cool, maybe the anti freeze is just so the water dont freeze and burst pipes and pumps and whatever. i have a water cooled mig, i wonder should i put antifreeze in it, will start a new tread i think.
Yeah, I think water is enough to do the job thermally. Plus its free... But if it gets cold, like mine, you'll want some ethylene glycol in there or something.
To be fair, if yours has no radiator it might not matter - it only split on the solid pipes (copper), the flexi hoses that form part of the water circuit were all fine - they have a bit more 'give' I guess. My other water cooled tigs have no radiator, just hoses between tank and torch, and I'd be less inclined to bother putting ant-freeze in them.
i think their might be something mixed in the water of my mig, has that dirty look. dont use the water cooler feature much anyway, was just wondering!!
I don't think the anti-freeze is used for any difference in themal conductivity or latent heat I think it's about corrosion/depostion of crap; Your not going to get much heat transfer when your wires have a layer of marble on them. The tank on mine has a label saying use anti freeze and distilled water[I use dehumidifier water].
In our shop its ten degrees colder than it is outside so when its 0 degrees F outside it -10 in the shop we has to put coolant in our saw, air compressor and the syncrowave. But the machine does say to use anti-freeze so it must be good for something else.
You only have to see the telly advert for kalgon[?] to see what I mean about the crap from water. If your in guildford watch out, we moved into a brand new house[guildford park avenue] and within a year the water heater element had gone, it had furred up and burnt out.
When I bought my welder the water tank was full, two of us were putting it in a van and rather than take the water tank off we emptied it!
question? how loud is your water pump mine has always been really noisy, you can't hear the compressor when the pump is on! I have never take it apart as it looks like you have to drag it out of the tank by the wire. It's not broken so I have left it alone, well every few years I decide to take it apartI get as far as getting the easy to get off parts off and then decide to leave well alone;-)
its hard water in south east england. and you dont want burst pumps in your welder, the pump in mine sits over the transformer. i'd say its a good bit colder in washington than it is over here.
The pump on mine sits outside the base of the tank, so is easily accessed - there is just an outlet pipe at the bottom of the tank which goes straight in to the pump sitting next to it. I have a couple of dialarcs too which have pumps mounted in the lid of the tank - also very easy to get to.
The pump is very noisy, I took it apart a couple of times, but didn't really see anything, I guess its just old, so I'll keep running it until it goes bang. It kind of squeeks in a rhythmic cycle if you see what I mean?!
I'm down in Hampshire where its very hard water too. Maybe a bit of 'calgon' or whatever its called??? I should probably use distilled water I guess.
So where are we? Tap water + 'water wetter' + anti-freeze + calgon...