Water temp gauge on a welding machine - finally get why guys swear by them

I was working a repair job on a pier piling down in San Diego last week and borrowed another diver's welding setup. His machine had a water temp gauge on it and I thought it was overkill until we hit 92 degrees on the third pass. That thing kept me from cooking my stinger before I even noticed the heat buildup. Has anyone else found a cheap accessory they ignored for years that actually saved their gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

davis.gavin2d ago

Borrowed a rig once with a fuel pressure gauge. Saved my bacon when a hose started failing mid weld.

brookep271d ago

That fuel pressure gauge story reminds me of something similar. I had a regulator on an old oxy-acetylene setup that I thought was just basic junk until the diaphragm started going. The needle started bouncing around on the high pressure side and I caught it before anything bad happened. I never paid attention to those gauges before, figured they were just there to look official or something. Now I check it every time before I light the torch. It is honestly one of those things where you don't realize how much you lean on it until it starts acting funny. Saved me a headache for sure.