Today is Plasma Torch mod day. A Chinese plasma torch (Loto) was given to me and it actually works pretty good. It was time to buy some new ceramic nozzle cups, so off to Ebay. Well the new nozzles didn't fit the torch handle because the ID was 20mm and the flange shown in the picture was 21mm. So they hit the flange and wouldn't screw on.
So here is my young son's solution to the problem, just nip off the back of the nozzle until it fits.
Gotta have a talk with that boy.
Not only is it being lazy, it also affects the airflow.
So to fix it right, the flange has to be 1mm smaller. So how do you hang on to a plasma torch handle for machining?
I can't put it in the lathe because I didn't want to disassemble it, and the handle interfered with the chuck jaws anyway. Since it's injection molded, there is draft in everything except the area shown in the next picture. So this looks like a mill job.
So first grab a piece of scrap 3/8 aluminum off the shelf, and make some vice jaws out of it. I have soft jaws on the vice, and had already drilled & tapped 1/4-20 holes in them for another job. I knew the spacings in the x axis, so all I had to do was locate one hole with the pointy end of the edge finder, and then open the jaws to get the Y axis spacing I wanted to have clearance for the handle. Drill the holes and screw down the plate. Then pocket a 1.255 hole to fit the torch body. Then over to the bandsaw to cut it in half. Relocating was easy because I'm using flat head screws and the taper centers them up.
Then I leveled the top of the torch head in the X and Y axis by loosening the vice and moving the torch around until it's close enough. Yeah, I know, the bubble is off a bit, but it matches the mill. Not quite level.
Then find center of the brass with the Blake, because the brass part is not exactly in the center of the plastic.
And then spend about a minute doing the actual machining. It took about a half hour to set it up. This also allows me to square up the base with the brass, it was off a bit which caused a varying gap between the ceramic nozzle and the other nozzle thingus (technical term
) which caused a different air flow side to side.
And here it is, a nice fit now.
and no more breaking nozzles to get it to fit.