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flowmeter plumbing - will this work?

I get tired of asking these "will this work" questions but where I live I'd have to drive 40 miles to ask this question of a knowledgeable local source. Anyway, I have a surplus regulator which I've used for some time on a CO2 tank (plumbed in via an adapter) but which has a connector which threads correctly to e.g. an argon tank. It is a pressure regulator, though, not a flowmeter, and I want to use this in GMAW. So I got an Airco flowmeter, removed it's weird POL-like connector, bushed down the 1/4NPT to 1/8NPTF and put a 2½" 1/8" nipple, and just threaded that into the flowmeter:

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I have never seen a flowmeter cobbled onto the end of a regulator like this. I'm almost 100% ignorant in this area. Will this work correctly for me? There are two knobs, one sets the pressure on the regulator, the other on the flowmeter must be a needle valve, right? So I'd set the regulator to 30 psi on the gauge and then adjust the knob on the flowmeter to get my desired cubic feet per hour of argon?

Grant Erwin Kirkland, Washington

Reply to
Grant Erwin
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Why it looks just like my scabbed together TIG flowmeter, except I have a tee between the regulator and flowmeter with a valve and hose barb on the branch that I use for clean compressed air instead of air-in-a-can. It'll work just fine.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

You're flow meter is after the regulator, right? I think that should work.

Be careful what you put in line before the regulator. Standard fittings aren't designed for 2200 psi.

Reply to
Dave Lyon

The only problem is knowing what pressure to set the regulator. You need to know what pressure the flow meter is calibrated for.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

Reply to
engineman1

It's an Airco flowmeter, it's printed right on the scale, calibrated at 30 psig. I should have written that earlier, my bad.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

STOP!!! For GOD'S sake, don't put it under pressure...it will rent a hole in the fabric of the Universe and obliterate EVERYTHING!!! You must destroy this vile device at once!!!

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Maybe I should send it off to someone in Ohio?

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

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