My PM256

Just got my PM 256 and finally got around to building a cart. I used a Home Depot cheap $50 job cart as a base. Ill get pics tomarrow. I need to build a water cooler for the torch and I imagine Ill get pics of that going up as well.

A couple questions. I fired it up tonight and ran a couple lines with some 6011 set at 120amps. Went through 2 sticks in about 10 min, and the fan on the machien never came on?? I kind of thought it would come on immedeatley and just stay on?? Is the fan on this machien thermaly controlled? It was about 40 deg-F in my shop so Im sure that was helping to keep things cool, but still, no fan??

Checking out my TIG torch I noticed that the hose with the quick coupler attached to it, does not feed through to the end of the torch. If I blow into the quick coupler hose, air comes out of one of the other hoses?? Shouldnt the hose with the quick coupler attached to it feed the business end of the torch? Why would it loop back? Seems to me like the two hoses without the quick couplers attached are for coolant supply, and they should loop back to eachother. Does anyone understand my explination? I think my torch end may be hooked up incorrecty....

Albersondh,


The fan should come on when you turn the unit on. You will need to call tech support for assistance, most likely a wire came loose in shipping.

On the torch, the quick connect goes on the hose with the sticker "Ar". Remove the hose clamp and re-clamp it on that hose.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by everlastsupport

Albersondh,


The fan should come on when you turn the unit on. You will need to call tech support for assistance, most likely a wire came loose in shipping.

On the torch, the quick connect goes on the hose with the sticker "Ar". Remove the hose clamp and re-clamp it on that hose.

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Called tech support, left a message, still waiting on a reply. In the mean time I fixed the fan issue. The fan was not assembled correctly. Funny it has a "passed" inspection sticker on it.... The armature was bound up between the armature bearing housing ends. I realigned everything (tightened the bolts evenly) and it works fine now.

As for the torch, I cant remove/re-use the clamp. It is a one time use crimped on clamp. So I would have to cut it off and use a worm style hose clamp. However if I did this and simply moved the location of the fitting to the correct hose to supply gas to the torch end, the torch hoses would be configured incorrectly. The hose that attaches to the electrode lead should be the gas feed, if I swap the fitting around, it would become a collant feed with one of the loose hoses becoming the gas feed.... I will need to take the torch end apart and move the hoses around in the end for everything to be configured correctly. Pictures will follow.

Don't do a thing to the torch...Please! The torch itself is plumbed correctly. The fitting has been installed on the wrong line. That's all. We have had a few cases where the fitting was installed on the wrong line and a couple of customers were able to reuse the line, but a 25 cent worm type hose clamp makes a more than adequate fix. Usually there is a spare in the box. There is very little pressure on that area so about any type clamp will work. The reason being, is that there is no dead heading of pressure on that side of the unit. The argon flows freely any time the solenoid opens.

The gas line on an air cooled torch is the power cable line, as it helps keep the internal cable cool. The same line on a water cooled torch becomes the return path for the water from the torch head. This is the way most all of the water cooled torches work regardless of brand. The larger power cable line is the return path for the water, and the other smaller braided line is the pressure side (inlet water line) for the torch.

The remaining shiny, pvc line is the argon line.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by performance

Don't do a thing to the torch...Please! The torch itself is plumbed correctly. The fitting has been installed on the wrong line. That's all. We have had a few cases where the fitting was installed on the wrong line and a couple of customers were able to reuse the line, but a 25 cent worm type hose clamp makes a more than adequate fix. Usually there is a spare in the box. There is very little pressure on that area so about any type clamp will work. The reason being, is that there is no dead heading of pressure on that side of the unit. The argon flows freely any time the solenoid opens.

The gas line on an air cooled torch is the power cable line, as it helps keep the internal cable cool. The same line on a water cooled torch becomes the return path for the water from the torch head. This is the way most all of the water cooled torches work regardless of brand. The larger power cable line is the return path for the water, and the other smaller braided line is the pressure side (inlet water line) for the torch.

The remaining shiny, pvc line is the argon line.

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Ok Im working on the cooler at the moment so Ill get some hose pics posted up. It just seems to me like the hose that is integrated into the torch cable, should be the gas feed. But if Im understand you correctly your telling me this is not the case. Pics will help clear it up please stand by.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by albersondh

Ok Im working on the cooler at the moment so Ill get some hose pics posted up. It just seems to me like the hose that is integrated into the torch cable, should be the gas feed. But if Im understand you correctly your telling me this is not the case. Pics will help clear it up please stand by.

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It sounds like the gas male npt is on the water out line from the dinse connector. You need to get a small hose clamp and move it to the hose with the "Ar" sticker.

I just used a strong zip tie to replace the clamp when I moved the male connector from the water return line the the AR line.

Holy #### my pictures are huge!!! Guess I need to re-size next time....

You can post the pictures as an attachment on our forum. The are auto sized and open in a separate window. I deleted the pictures because they are too large and innapropriately sized. Just use the manage attachments button below the text editing box.