The air cooled and water cool tig torches use is determined by the welding amps not the input voltage. I think about 150 amps it the border line for an air cooled torch. When you are going to weld thicker metal the amps will be higher and there for a water cooled torch is needed. If you are going to buy a Primeweld 325 buy a cooler from the start. My tig has a cooler and is used when ever I weld with it, I don't switch to a air cooled torch at all. I'm a hobby type not commercial/paid welder.

 

I have the Vulcan Pro-Tig myself and I'm very happy with the machine but one thing I did before I even used it the first time was, I canned the stock air cooled torch, added an Everlast water cooler and a CK Worldwide Series 17 flex head water cooled torch with Superflex leads. If you are going to TIG aluminum, a water cooled torch is not an option but a necessity and that even applies to Tigging other materials like mild steel as well.

An air cooled torch will heat up to an uncomfortable level pretty quick, especially when welding aluminum whereas a water cooled torch will never get uncomfortable to use and the stock Vulcan torch is ungainly anyway.

Again, quite pleased with the Vulcan and being an IGBT machine, it's frugal with electricity usage as well. Of course I also canned the crappy gas regulator and replaced it with a ball type flow gage.

I have a good friend who is a Nuclear certified TIG welder and he tried out the Pro-Tig and was amazed at how stable the arc was and how easy it was to initiate it and he also liked the solid state digital user interface and it's a fan on demand machine as well plus it 'remembers' you last settings and reverts to those on start up.

I had a Lincoln Square Wave (and cooler) on it with a Weldcraft water cooled torch and I sold it and replaced it with the Pro-Tig.

What really sold me on the Pro Tig was the fact that I could purchase it locally (any HF store) and I did purchase the extended warranty which increased the warranty to 4 years (the higher end welding machines at HF are all warranted for one year), not the usual 90 days that applies to all the other HF stuff, except of course their higher end hand tools like Icon which are lifetime warranty.

The HF warranty is replacement only and they do just that as I had an issue with one of their Titanium plasma cutters, took it back and they gave me a new one, no questions asked. Very seamless.

I looked at other machines as well but I'm always hesitant to buy online simply because if there is an issue, you have to deal with a service center or repair it yourself and I don't want to go down that road, especially when I can take it back to any HF outlet with the warranty papers with me and get a NEW replacement machine on the spot, no hassles and no dealing with some service center or sending a machine back and waiting for some distant seller to repair it. The local HF outlet is 15 minutes from here.

In summation, it's a very capable machine with lots of user adjustable parameters but it really needs a torch upgrade as well as a real flowmeter and the logical choice for me was the CK series 17 flex head water cooled torch with Superflex leads and the Everlast water cooler along with a couple gallons of compatible coolant.

I like the Everlast cooler a lot. It actually has a vane type pump and a huge coolant tank and it fits quite nicely along side the TIG machine on my Vulcan roll around welding cabinet which is also a top shelf cabinet and will accommodate 2 bottles at a crack in it's bottle cradle.

I have the cooler plus the TIG machine plus a Titanium 65 amp plasma cutter all sitting together on the top of the cabinet and there is ample room inside the cabinet to store everything required and then some. All ball bearing drawer slides and it's actually lockable and uses a round cylinder lock instead of the conventional key.

HF has come a very long way in both quality as well as fit and finish and IMO, you cannot beat their warranty on their Vulcan and Titanium machines.

Bought the Torch and the coolant from Weldfabulous and the cooler direct from Everlast.

 

That is the machine capability. The torch will have its own ratings. All depends on what amp you are running. An air cooled torch rated for 130amp, if you are running 80amp you could weld quite steady before the handle got to hot for your hand. Running at its max you would be doing short welds with breaks, because your handle would be too hot to hold for very long. 90% of my stainless welding is at 80-90 amp. Most actual on time welds less than 60sec. (1" pipe) then can be half hour or more before next weld ready. I have to do all my own cutting and fit up. Torch is rated for 200amp. Have run near 200 amp on 1" solid bar. Handle gets too hot to hold for any where near duty cycle. Just have to let it cool off then continue. Hardy need a water cooled for a random now and then heavy weld. If you are doing high amp production work than that when you justify a water cooled. You need to know what you are doing with it.

 

Right, i guess i didn't explain well, i was asking if the primeweld amps are limited by the input voltage. I dont plan to use 220v. If im running 110v what is the 325x max amps? If its below 150amps then theres no point in water cooling then right? If i cant get the 325 amps because im running 110v, is there any point to picking a primeweld over a vulcan protig 205?

 

Like Jack Ryan said, you will probably get about 120 amps off 110 volts. And a low rated torch will be fine. That goes for both the Primeweld325 and the Vulcan205. If it was me I would buy the PrimeWeld325 and weld with the torch they give you. As an aircooled(from your argon tank) it will get hot. Then there are a host of options to you including water cooled system. No matter what dual voltage tigger I have I opt for the TecTorch Rocker torch system with TecTorch medium stubby gas lens system for 17 style torch. The Rocker power cable is rated at 225 amps. It still gets hot but it is not the torch itself, but the power cable that builds up the heat. Also a 12' power cable builds less heat in the copper lines than the longer one. Then that heat makes it's way to the torch head heating up the torch. I like the gas lens setup because it tends to pull the heat out and disperse over the puddle.

 

It seems to be rated at 120A for 120V and 325A for 240V - both at 40%.

I didn't see a rating for the TIG torch but it would be much less than the machine's 325A @ 40%

This is from the manual Model TIG325X


Jack

 

I guess I need to add that I never run any machine I own on 110, always 220-1 or 220-3 as the case may be but I've read that the Pro-Tig is quite capable on 110. Keep in mind it is an IGBT machine so it's 100% solid state and no large transformer so no power loss associated with a transformer machine.

The Pro Tig comes with bot a 220-1 cable as well as a 110-1 cable but remember, the 110 circuit must be fused (breakers) for a minimum 30 amps (I believe).

if anyone wants or needs the stock Vulcan torch and accessories, I have it and a pretty complete set of lenses and collets in the drawer, never used. Got the gas regulator as well.

 

Start with a quality water cooled from the get go. A torch half the size with run twice the amps at nearly full duty cycle.

No sense in looking at anything bigger then the 225 if your not going to spring for cooler and water cooled torch.

Possibly if you were just dipping your toes in a little and testing the welding water first or just lack of funds to make the investment right away I get that as well but otherwise you would want water cooled.

A 120 volt line to feed that machine and not trip breaker will also need to be dedicated(so you can use 30 amp overcurrent to feed it) so at that point you surely install a 240 volt and not a 120 volt line.

A 15 or even a 20 amp circuit MAY be limited to possibly even less than was mentioned so far in this thread.