|
|
I was planning on doing a lot of MIG welding on a project only to realize the seat is damaged on my only flat seal CO2 regulator. It is a cheapo Made in Italy one that came with the welder.What really sucks is that the nipple with the tank fitting has a special thread on the regulator side - the nipple is coaxial with the adjusting spring so the seat actually lives inside this nipple.The seat itself is a tiny piece of clearish stiff rubbery material. Guessing a .180 OD, .050 ID, .100 height with a 45 degree seat. It has chunks missing and gouges too. It probably cost 6.5 cents to make and is a trivial replacement - just slides over the guide pin and that is it.Its possible there might be a kit on eBay but there is no manufacturer marking on the regulator which is typical.I have 5 other flow meters and none have the "flat face" with compliant washer style that my tank has.I could plumb an Argon flow meter/regulator to the output of this little Italian job (using it as an adapter itself) or I could take the Italian nipple and see if I could put some NPT threads on it (but there isn't a lot of length.I was also thinking if I could flow a reasonably even coat of gel superglue (maybe even form it with the release agent from the thread repair kit) and see if I can get the seat to seal.This is messing up the weekend which was going to be all welding...Any ideas would be greatly appreciated,ThanksTom
Reply:I cast a new one using the flexible super glue and it works perfectly. I doubled the seat area so the compressive stress should be under twice an 800 psi CO2 tank pressure. Might considering turning one out of UHMW. |
|