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Tips/Techniques plasma cutter trick

Tips/Techniques
grease monkey

grease monkey

if ain't broke, you're not trying hard enough!
hey guys, I have an older Miller plasma cutter, I'm sure I'm not the only guy to experience this, but the torch cable when cold, is crazy stiff, to point that over time, the casing starting cracking right at the torch head, so I call my rep and he's like, you better sit down, $1600 and thats only if they can get it! What?? time to put my fab hat on, I came up with a pretty slick hack where I modified torch base cable entry hole, to accept a tig welded bung to allow me to insert a kellems grip that would snag the cable nice a firm, used a little high voltage sealing tap and topped it off with super 99 electrical tape and bam! cheap fix to a costly possibility. if anyone is interested, I can post a couple pics of finished product which should clarify things!
 
ok, first pic is a close up of assembly, top item is the torch for my plasma in current state, items in the middle show the major components used in their as purchased form, note the top item, near the cable entry end of the torch, you should be able to see the cable entry Kellem's grip with a box connector attached, which has the 3/4" pipe threaded end cut down to 1/4" in length, this threads into a custom hub I welded up, (3/4" pipe coupling) which is also cut short to save space, welded to the torch side of that short coupling section are 2 tabs, 180 degree's apart that slide into slots I cut into torch cable entry end right at the clam shell seam, simply filed the reliefs into the sides to the torch body to accept the new custom hub, these tabs on the hub have holes drilled into them that match the torch body bolts. once tight, it provides a much better strain relief to cable, instead of rigid torch to flex cable transition, that cracks easily because torch cable couldn't handle the flex right at the torch, this way the cable assembly is offered a bunch more support entering the torch to prevent further fatiguing and breaking of the cable assembly, which extended the life on this cable big time. before sliding the wire through kellems, I wrapped the whole assembly with 2 rounds of high voltage rubber tape, then covered that with 2 or 3 rounds of 3M super 88 good quality electrical tape, being mindful of the bulk diameter, so that it would all fit through opening in box connector in kellems assembly. the torch set for my plasma cutter is almost 2G, so anyway I could prevent this cable from failing is a good thing. so far, this repair is 6 yrs old!! the last item in the pic is a bigger strain relief/kellems grip that actually has a grommet in it that tightens up against cable for more support, which I didn't use to save my cable assembly as there are air lines that pass through it and would get crushed by the cable grip, which I did not want. hope this helps! second pic is a view of the overall end result of my repair. (1st pic shows an aluminum coupling, I used steel obviously for the necessity of being welded to for the tabs. I was after strength, not light weight, all I could find for the shot was an aluminum one, so this will do for the pic. )
 

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Cables, like people, come in a big variety of sizes and some are so BIG they are almost scary - no offence Mr @Susquatch
Cable restraints are sometime a necessity.
Here is a souvenir (desk paper weight) of the power cable that suppled Dakota Star, the 65 cu yd dragline at the Glenharold mine (6 megawatts required to run the 9,000,000 pound walking dragline):
IMG_3332.jpeg
I learned about cable restraints when watching the dragline crew move the power cable. They NEVER just put a rope around it to drag it. They used a piece of 5/8” rope in a crisscross pattern over about a 2 foot length to grip the cable. It would look a little like @grease monkey ’s pic above.
Here’s the restraints I have on my welder power and air lines
:IMG_3327.jpegand a close up:
IMG_3328.jpegAs an example (to better illustrate the simple rope restraint) I hung a 12 pound weight onto the vacuum hose:
IMG_3329.jpeg
IMG_3330.jpeg
I used this same setup when pulling on the 1” PVC pipe to pull out my stuck in sediment submersible well pump (115 ft deep)
 
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Further to the stuck pump comment above. It was very stuck in sediment. I think that contributed to overheating and pump failure. Yes the pump had a piece of rope tied to the pump lifting eye when originally installed. But - using the Kubota FEL, I was pulling as hard as I dared without breaking the rope. So i pulled on the rope and PVC line together (using the restraint knot). Still no luck. So, with continuous uplift pressure via the FEL, I used a piece of 1/2” copper water pipe (lengthened with 1/2” PEX) as a blow pipe. The copper pipe had a cap and a few 1/8” radial drill holes (to restrict flow and maintain pressure). I used compressed air to probe and poke around the pump. After 10 minutes the pump sprung free.
 
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