Story of the little discarded beat up Vee block

[NeiljohnUK]

The swagelok welder is a great bit of kit once set up correctly. I have made several gas panels that were used on very expensive gases so the amount of joints was limited. There are limitations but overall I was very impressed with the welder.

The Swagelok welder is good, not the very best but pretty close, as long as the operator follows their training. The M200 (we have 2) however can be damaged by poor welding ground connections (a long gone lazy weld operator not cam locking the head to the fixture blew ours twice) and one of our contract specialists has had to return his for major rework due to the main CPU board failing. He's copied my jig for the micro weld head as the bearing area and clamping force the head can deliver is insufficient except with very short lengths of tube/fittings, and often the job forces you to use a micro head as there's no space for the bigger type.

Most of the gas systems I work on are fully welded, the safety implications of what we handle excludes any other form of joint apart from locked VCR in extracted containment, with co-axial welded lines for the most hazardous.