An update on my new Syncrowave 250

So far, so good. I think the old footpedal on the Gold Star must have been getting really clunky, as I sure seem to have a lot more control with the new one. The old one wouldn't let me "feather" it when turning off to avoid the crater.

I like the digital amp meter as it lets me try different settings and actually return to one, instead of "I think the pointer on the knob was about here between these two marks".

I haven't done any aluminum yet, but all of this 5/16-3/4" steel I've been doing seems to be going well.

What also helped a lot was ordering some 2.0 diopter magnifiers and putting them in my helmet. I wasn't having much luck craning my head back so I could look through the lower part of my bifocal lenses. Now I can just look straight through and see even better than before, which is a big help for not laying down a bead right next to the joint. That's one of the better under $10 investments I've made.

I don't think the person who got the old welder has had a chance to dig into it yet, but when he does I'll report what he finds.

I think I'm going to start watching eBay for a different water cooler. This old one works OK (pump and motor on a big aluminum tank of water) but it sure is noisy, which means that my sweetie has to resort to wearing hearing protectors upstairs in the house.

cheers,
Michael

Hi,

I just bought a one-year old Synchrowave 200. I kept the old water circulator that I had on the Lincoln 250/250 TIG/Stick machine that I traded in. It only has one moving part and no fan. With 8 gallons of water/ethylene glycol mix in a 15 gallon tank, I've yet to notice a rise in the water temperature. It isn't noisy at all either since the motor is the only moving part. I wonder where the noise on your unit is coming from?

Admittedly, the modern radiator coolers are smaller and lighter but they have a lot more moving parts and they are costly.

You say you can weld 3/4 steel? Wow!

The probably 30+ year old pump is pretty quiet with no water being pumped through it. Once it gets some water and starts to build some pressure it gets noisy. I took it apart and it looks to be in pretty good shape internally. It pumps fine, just loudly.

I was welding a 3/4" plate across the end of an 8" x 5/16" wall pipe with a fillet so it isn't like doing a single pass to weld two 3/4" plates together. I may never need to do anything that thick again when this project is over.

cheers,
Michael

What brand pump? Vane type? Could it be cavitating because of a blocked inlet or screen? Does the water run freely through the torch and back to the sump or is there a valve in the line?

Mudflap said:

What brand pump? Vane type? Could it be cavitating because of a blocked inlet or screen? Does the water run freely through the torch and back to the sump or is there a valve in the line?

Click to expand...

Very good point. It could be cavitation which is usually quite noisy.

Another issue about which I was recently informed by my dealer is that of ionization. He says that if you use car coolant and tap water, you can get deposits inside of the tiny passages within the liquid cooled torch head.

This could cause a restriction due to deposits which could be partially dead heading the pump.

The only solution (pun intended) so I was told is to use distilled water and welding grade water-white ethylene glycol. Unfortunately, it's about $20 a gallon in pre-mix so I have to think twice about buying much more.

IIRC it is an Oberdorfer. It is a bronze-body gear pump and probably is considered a "pedestal pump" based on the photos in the MSC catalog. I took it apart, cleaned it out, and generally just scraped/stoned anything that looked like it might benefit from doing that. It was just as noisy after doing that as it was before. Other than the noise it seems to work fine.

The electric motor by itself is pretty quiet. The motor driving the empty pump is pretty quiet. As soon as the water gets into the pump, things are noisy.

There's a brand new torch and lines on the new welder, and there's a good 3/16-1/4" stream of water that returns to the holding tank from the torch.

The water flow isn't controlled by a valve. When the welder is switched on the pump comes on as it is plugged into one of the 110v accessory receptacles on the welder. I've learned it is safer to do it that way than to try and remember to switch on the pump.

cheers,
Michael

I've got a syncrowave 250 DX that is about 6 years old, and my cooling fan/pump runs constantly, the welder is tall and a bit skinner than the new model syncrowave 250's. At work we have a brand new syncrowave 250 that is short and fat, and the cooling system only runs when the machine needs it, which is great. Anybody know how to retrofit that circuitry or cooling system onto mine?

You can install a kit to turn the fan on/off via a thermostat but not much you can do with the cooling. They stopped production on the model of synchrowave with the built in water cooler.