stupid question time...

Today, I had a welding job (at work of all places) that required more welding between breaks than I'm currently used to doing and my regulator kept frosting over to the point where I'd have to stop, light up a cig and run a heat gun on the regulator for a bit to regain gas flow for the next series of welds.

it was rather humid (drizzle/misting outside) and temp in the shop was about 50 *F

Now, keep in mind, I used to do a lot more welding at a stretch in the past (different shop) and rarely would I run into a frosted regulator, granted, i was running C10 and straight CO2 then, and now I'm running C25

Anyone got any ideas about the wherefores and possible fixes?

-- Big Ben the "not that I minded the cig break tho'...." Slug

Reply to
Big Ben
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Hang a trouble light on the reg. The heat from the bulb is usually enough.... and stop smoking :'))

Randy

Reply to
Randy Zimmerman

How about lagging the reg to stop it losing heat?

Reply to
Phil

I'd think that would have the opposite of the intended effect. The regulator gets cold because the gas needs energy to expand, and is taking it from the surrounding air. If you lag it, it can't absorb as much heat and will just freeze faster. Providing more heat (like in the trouble light suggestion) is the right answer. Just like some of the guys running big forge burners on propane sometimes need to put their propane tanks in a water bath to keep them from freezing up...

Another option might be to run 2 tanks tee'd together to get the flow rate (so that each regulator would need only half the heat from the air to expand the gas), but not everyone has 2 tanks available to do that... --Glenn Lyford

Reply to
glyford

Yup, seen that done in a few places, sometimes with a box over the top.

Reply to
mb

Buy a CO2 Heater!

Reply to
Potblak

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