CK Industries Torches

[Adam McLaughlin]

Hi Everyone

Got a friend of mine whom views the CK Industries torches as the second coming of Jesus.

He loves the water cooled editions with the flexible neck on them. Welds a lot of food grade stainless steel.

What do you guys think? I'd like to get a couple of water cooled torches for use on food grade SS as well as Aluminum projects that I do at the house. I won't weld anything for four months and then do nothing but weld material for 3-5 days straight on end.

Let me know what your experiences are....
I would prefer to have 1 - 2 excellent tools rather than 4-5 ' ehhhh ' tools.

Adam

 

[t100]

they are decent and they make a lot of specialty torches.

Mr. Tig likes them:

tigdepot.com

 

[Wes917]

I like them, I have to use them with my water cooler for some reason the weldcraft would trip the flow alarm even though the flow was good. I like the weldcraft handle better as its shorter and honestly I was just used to them from using them at work for 8 hours a day. I've gotten used to the ck and their well made. Definitely get a flex head they are the cats meow.

 

[mike13u]

CK or Weldcraft are the two big outfits. If you have a water cooler you cant go wrong with a #20 (small sized torch typically rated to around 250amp) from either outfit. It would just come down to personal preference (Ford/Chevy debate). If you have only air-cooled tig, the small torch is a #9 and usually rated to around 150 amps I believe.
If you want something a bit fancier, you can look at the flex-heads as Wes917 mentions above. They are nice, but tend not to last as long as a standard torch. Definitely overkill for a hobby guy though. Also, a lot of pros are raving about a torch from Tec Torch called the i-Head that has a flex head and interchangeable heads for ultimate flexibility in dealing with accessing joints in difficult-to-weld areas. Again, probably overkill for a garage guy though.
I have been using a Weld Craft WP-20 (#20 small water cooled torch) for the last two years and it has been great.
A little additional info: Both Miller Electric and Weld Craft are wholly owned subsidiaries of Illinois Tool Works. Last November they announced that they were consolidating Weld Craft into the Miller Electric brand

 

[dr_clyde]

CK makes some good stuff. I personally like Weldcraft, and my welding dealer likes WeldTec. All three are excellent brands. I have about 5 TIG torches, and switch them around depending on what i'm doing and the amperage requirements. I want to say, 3 of them are weldcraft, one WeldTec and a CK. I think.

Truth be told, I weld a bunch of parts for a local airplane manufacturer with a Radnor cheapie torch. Its what his machine has, and it works fine. I'm the only one that uses it, so it doesn't get abused or anything.

Go to the welding supply and find one that's comfortable and use that.

 

[theknurl]

WeldCraft WP-20 for the last 38 years

also a flexible WP-25 for welding inside intakes and heads.....don't use it very often