Question on Tig welder

I think You're confusing copper used to Sink power with copper used to pass power

In a motor or speaker the copper has to absorb the heat of the power being fed to it times whatever the efficiency of the motor or speaker might be Say a 2 HP motor is 80% efficient 2 HP is 1500 watts 80 percent of that is 1200. The remaining 300 is made into heat in the motor and has to be absorbed and or vented away. the arc at the end is the load where all the heat goes in a welder

IF you look at a welder from the welding cables to the arc its extremely efficient at passing power through the copper to the arc so the cabled have almost NO heating loss within them and essentially all the power goes to the arc. The welder is less efficient getting power form the mains to the welding cable connections but youre just looking at the torch cables so we will ignore the welding machine for now

I could put a DMM onto the tig torch to add numbers to this but the thing to remember is that the current is only being passed through it and not used in the welding cables

Brent Ottawa Canada

should be water. not gas.

Thanks Brent, that makes sense.

Dan

Good points, Phil. I lurk here a lot and had already put only distilled water in the coolmate. I installed a Shurflow pump yesterday, 12 v, 60 psi. Temporarily, I hooked it up to a battery charger with a 6 amp output, even though the pump is rated 7 amps. The pump is putting out well over a quart per minute at the output, but the holes in the torch appear to 1/16th inch in diameter at best. Is this an underrated torch?

The darned thing started clicking on and off, so, suspecting a restriction, I followed the coolant path starting from the output side of the pump clear through to the other end.... no restriction. hmmm.

I looked the pump over, found the pressure adjustment, which was apparently set down around 40 psi. I cranked it up and now it runs better, although it still pauses every once in a while, perhaps for a second, maybe two.

I'm gonna try checking the pressure next, then possibly get more current to the pump. Any other suggestions?

Dan

I think you'll find that your charger has a self-resetting circuit breaker in it. If you aren't familiar with that, think of a turn signal flasher . The current heats an element and trips a bimetal contact . So yeah, a bigger charger is the answer. If you want to risk blowing the charger you can change the breaker. Auto parts stores have them, as do RV places. Brian