Pulse arc and fusion welders

Jewelry Discussion
41

Hello Orchid Members,

I have been following all the discussions and comments regarding
Pulse Arc welders, and I want to take just a minute or ten to add
some clarification and comments of my own. I hope to set a few things
straight in an effort to have complete transparency, and then I hope
to add a little more insight and education as well regarding the
different products.

To begin, I am an Orion/Sunstone employee. I’ve worked with the
company for 6 years. We are micro welding experts. We design,
engineer, and manufacture micro welding equipment - all done here in
the USA. Our equipment is used in a large variety of industries
(automotive, aerospace, batteries, medical devices, electronics,
drilling, etc.), and all around the world. We have half a dozen
welding technologies- including Pulse Arc welding.

Six years ago I was hired as a product manager for 3 of our product
lines- Orion being one of those, so I am very familiar with the
product. Soon after getting hired, I received a call from a jeweler
asking if our welders could be used to resize a ring and retip a
prong. I’ll admit that I had no clue at all what he was talking about
at first because I was immediately thinking of industrial engineering
applications involving rings and prongs.

After I realized we were talking jewelry, I said we could probably
do it.

We went to a pawn shop to buy some rings, and we successfully did
the welds.

For us, the jewelry market came looking for us, and we’re very glad
that you did. ABI ( http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep8170 ) was
obviously the first to develop and market a pulse arc welder to the
jewelry market. They were followed 18 years later by PUK
( http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep8171 ) who greatly improved upon
the ideas of ABI. The Orion was introduced to the jewelry market just
a few years later, but from a completely different background and
with a completely different design.

It’s been said, and I don’t deny, that our welders have more
options. It’s true. On the Orion 150i, users can adjust 27 different
buttons and sliders on the Advanced screen. Is this overkill for 95%
of our customers? YES.

But for those other 5% who need the abilities - those 5% who are
improving and even saving lives every day with the products they make
with the Orion welder - for them, those 27 different adjustments are
vital.

Luckily, for jewelers, we’ve simplified those 27 options into 1
power slider and 3 buttons. And I tell everyone that of those 3
buttons, you really only need to change 1 of them. Once the other 2
are set (length at maximum, and standard plus ignition) you’ll only
ever change the agitation option. Then, all that is left to change
and adjust is the power bar which has 1,500 options to choose from.
This is still overkill. BUT, it allows every single jeweler the
ability to find the exact energy settings that meet their own unique
and individual preference. With those 1,500 energy settings, users
have the ability to adjust the weld energy by 0.01 joules. To make
using an Orion even easier, in the middle of the screen there is a
visual and numeric representation of the spot size and penetration of
the weld that is based on the energy setting. Users who don’t know
the difference between 8 joules and 18 joules can simply look on the
screen and see the difference.

Once you know this, using the Orion is extremely simple- slide the
power bar based on weld spot size. More power for thicker pieces,
less power for thinner.

Is there a learning curve? Yes. There is a learning curve with Orion
as well as with any of the other welding technologies available, but
users who take an hour or two and play around can learn it quick.
Next question: Do you ever learn the Orion completely? No. I’m still
learning new things after 6 years of managing this product. But
that’s what makes it cool to use. Users who work with the machine
daily/weekly at the bench will continually develop their own
techniques and tricks by utilizing the versatility that the Orion
technology has to offer. With that thought in mind, at any point
before or after purchasing an Orion, we invite everyone to call us
with any question or concern they have from tech spec questions, to
setup, to specific recommendations based on any individual’s
specific application they are working on at that moment. I’ll put my
sales and tech support guys up against anyone. They’re the best, and
I haven’t yet heard otherwise.

So, what’s better? Orion? PUK? Laser? Here is my stance on the
different technologies used by jewelers, and anyone who has talked
with me at any show can attest to the fact that this is exactly how I
say it. I can’t generally say that any one product is ‘better’.
Instead I invite everyone to go try each product to see what best
fits the individual preferences that we each have. I know the Orion
very well. In addition to pulse-arc, we also sell lasers and I’m very
proficient using the laser. And we even own quite a few PUK welders
that users have traded in for credit towards a new Orion, so I’ve had
a chance to weld with the PUK as well. I can tell you my preferences,
but as a sales guy, I want you to buy based on YOUR preferences, not
mine. If anyone wants to hear more feedback, pros/cons, or opinions
that I have regarding any and all welding products, please contact me
via email, phone, Facebook, etc. And just as I mentioned before,
don’t buy based on the preference or opinion of others. Go to the
shows and try the machines for yourself. I’m confident in taking this
stance because I’ve seen that if a jeweler uses my Orion, and then
goes and tries a PUK, much more often than not, that jeweler comes
back for an Orion. I always tell jewelers to bring their own pieces
to the shows and to welding them with my Orion.Come take the welder
for a test drive. We have a busy travel calendar going to almost all
the shows- so call us to see if we’ll be at your show.

One final invitation for current PUK owners/users. Come try an Orion
next time you’re at a show. In fact, come make only one weld and see
for yourself which product you like more. The more we all expose
ourselves to and experiment with the different products available,
the more accurately we’ll be able to have open discussions like
this.

This is a very long reply, and I apologize for that. But if you’re
still reading (thanks, mom), I hope that you’ve found this beneficial
in some way.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to contact us if you’d like to
further discuss things.

Best regards,
Dave Holloway
Product Line Manager
Orion Welders by
Sunstone Engineering

42

I have been following this discussion with interest. As background:
at thispoint I have been using the laser for nearly 10 years, but
have no experience yet on the pulse arc welder.

At the time I first looked into which to purchase, the PUK vs a
laser machine in the late 90’s, there was a lot the pulse arc could
not then do, which is why we chose the laser. It does now sound like
the developers have overcome many of the early weaknesses. One big
difference that I still see as important is that I can weld anywhere
that I can see, which allows me to do a fusion weld deep in a
recess, or even inside a hollow area. Aslong as I can see the
location in the microscope, I can weld it with thelaser beam, even
if I can not physically reach into that area. This is not a make or
break difference in itself, but it does point out that theseare
simply different tools that have different strengths and weaknesses.

I will have to look for an opportunity to sit down and work with a
pulse arc, but one thing I am certain that I will learn if I do
that, is that neither machine, the pulse arc or laser, will
completely eliminate the torch at the jeweler’s bench. At least not
the two technologies currently in use. Neither the pulse arc, nor
the laser can pull solder through a continuous joint. Neither can be
used to anneal. Both welding technologies tend to dimple the area
around the weld.

While the laser is as much a part of my workbench as every other
tool, and it gets hours of use a day, I still find many jobs where
the torch is the very best tool for doing the job correctly. As an
example, when doinga remount repair I usually will tack a setting
into place with the laser, make any minor adjustments, even
reposition it, and then I will usethe torch to assure that the
setting is fully soldered in place.

To me these are just tools, and the more techniques and tools one
can master, the more options one has to solve problems. As one of my
friends used to say: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every
job is a nail”.

43 
Ok, if I am understanding what I'm reading, Terry, you are not
just a happy customer sharing your joy at a tool, but you are using
this forum as a way to advertise the Orion machine, correct?

I hear that noel. What shocked me a little is that there is no torch
work, so ring joining is permanent and crowns are being welded in
unable to be taken out by unsoldering. We have a laser and I’ve
become like a sniper with that thing but I still use a torch for
things it should be used for.

I pity the person who tries to remove one of those crowns and ends
up melting part of the ring waiting for it to release. Especially
someone without a lot experience. Could be bad.

44

Just one more clarification for Noel, Sandy, and others.

Ok, if I am understanding what I'm reading, Terry, you are not just
a happy customer sharing your joy at a tool, but you are using this
forum as a way to advertise the Orion machine, correct

And

I will echo Noel. Mr, Reichert, If you are affiliated with the
Orion company in anyway you should come forward and clean about it.

Mr. Terry Reichert is not an Orion/Sunstone employee. He is a
jeweler with many years experience. He also is an Orion owner, user,
and evangelist.

His opinions and comments, therefore, are his and not the official
opinions of Orion. However, we at Orion greatly appreciate his
eagerness and willingness to share his experience and opion of the
Orion with other.

Weekly, if not daily, Terry sends us new pictures and accompany
success stories of the repair work he does using his Orion 150i.

As a note, many of these can be seen on our Facebook page.

Thanks,
Dave Holloway

45

It seems that some users have quite strong opinions about which
machines are best–the PUK or the Orion. I encountered strong
advocacy from both camps.

I think that what people were reacting to in Terry’s initial post –
I should say that I know what I was reacting to – was the idea I
heard that these tools would change things profoundly, replacing
standard technologies.

In my opinion, pulse arc machines will add to the technical, design
and conceptual conversation that is jewelry and metalsmithing, taking
its righful place along side torches, anvils, lasers and 3-d
printers.

Pretty cool time to be a maker.

46

Paul,

the auto darkening feature in the magnifier light has stopped
working.

We do have a few shelves full of used PUK equipment that people have
traded in- including a few of the auto-darkening lenses and magnifier
lights.

If you’re interested in seeing if we have the specific component you
need, please contact Orion Welders. I know it might be weird to buy
your PUK replacement from Orion, but if we can, we’re happy to help.

Thanks,
David Holloway

47

I just bought an Orion 100c and I am happy with this entry level
(still very pricey) pulse arc welder. It does everything that I want
it to do. It has been very easy to use and the standard settings have
been very good starting points. A little manual reading, watching the
various videos on the Orion web site and a little practice and I
successfully welded a couple of titanium rings. Made the mistake of
using 0.093in sheet for the first ring and almost broke my hand
trying to bend it around the mandrel! I was also able to resize a
silver ring and weld a bunch of silver jump rings quickly (really
like the easy cleanup and not having to pickle). I am a retired
engineer and an advanced silversmith hobbyist and all my fairly
simple rings/pendants/engravings are consumed by the females in my
family, so take this review for what its worth. I am in awe some of
the jewelry and artistic work I have seen on this forum " keep up the
good work Hans Meevis.

Scott

48 
the auto darkening feature in the magnifier light has stopped
working.

I had a problem with my PUK, it wouldn’t retract after the arc was
struck. I went on to a forum and got the answer, a connection had
broken in a plug, I took it apart and soldered the connection. I
think Lampert supplied the info but it was some years ago. Hamish

49 
I have tried 3 regulators....

Try the PUK regulator. It’s $160, but works dramatically better than
the two I purchased from Harbor Freight prior to that one.

Jeff

50

Hi Gang,

To follow along with what Jeff said: “What he said”.

When I first got my PUK, I tried to cheap out by using my own lab
grade argon regulator. This was a for-real Harris scientific reg,
not some paragon of exquisite quality from Harbor Fright. Still
didn’t control worth beans down that low. PUKS (and Orions too, I
imagine) like low gas flow. One liter/min is what’s recommended. I
ended up chewing through a lot of gas before I finally gave in and
bought one of the PUK regulators.

They’re great regs, and work really well at very low flow rates.

It should tell you something that I already had a good argon reg,
and ended up going out and buying theirs.

FWIW,
Brian

51

Greetings to all Happy Welders.

Could one of the learned scribes point me in the direction of a
"blanking shield gizmo" that I can stick on the front of or inside
(better) of my Optovisor.

Most of my work can be done with the magnifying lamp on a PUCK and I
can see that if the shield was on my head band things would be
quicker.

Secondly, as I also do clock repair and restoration work, could
someone give me a bit of feed back on replacing or building up new
leaves in clock pinions with say steel binding wire.

Thirdly, 9 ct. yellow gold can be a “dog” to weld some times, could
that be due to the fact that many casters add brass, containing
Zinc, to give the metal a richer colour.

Best wishes. John S.

52

Andy,

I have tried 3 regulators....

I will preface this by saying I have not used the make welder in
question, but have worked with MIG and TIG welders of several
different brands and my comments are based on them.

Generally there are 2 devices controlling the argon flow. You have
the regulator on the tank that allows you to adjust the output
pressure which in an indirect way controls the amount of argon that
acts has a shield gas. Secondly there is a solenoid valve which
allows or blocks the gas flow within the unit. I have seen where the
solenoid either sticks open or more often does not seal completely
which allows the gas to leak out between welds.

To test this we generally (on a TIG or MIG) just take a cup of water
and immerse the tip of the welding gas nozzle about a 1/4 inch and
check for bubbles. Then the next thing to check is the tubing between
the regulator and the solenoid for pinholes or cracks. We would
generally remove the hose from the solenoid, block the end with a
bolt and immerse the tubing in a pail of water ← note all this is
predicated on that your welder has a solenoid and I don’t know but
AssUMe that it does.

Hope this helps
Kay

53 
I have tried 3 regulators....

Wow.

Lampert make a specific regulator for their PUK.

A few changes with PUK in the wind, and I spoke to the gent that has
the Orion in the other store, I will have access to the machine to
experiment with.

I will tell you how long it takes me to get up to speed with it.

Regards Charles A.

54

Orchid users,

Cool and interesting dialog and such passion, love the posts, but I
still stand on my premises that when you see what can be done with
this technology at the level My Company is at and actually see this
for yourself you will become a believer too. I wish you all could
come and watch us work andthen you would understand. At first we had
were totally mesmerized by thisbut now its our new normal and like I
said we use no torch at all. How about if I start a blog and let you
see acual work that we do everyday so you can get a feel of what I am
talking about and keep everthing postitive to benefit all of us.
Also, some of our work is on Orions facebook because we want to
share this so others can learn and develop new techniques so We can
learn from them. We are just touching the surface of this new
technology.

Terry R. Reichert
Pro Ice Jewelers.

55 
If you're interested in seeing if we have the specific component
you need, please contact Orion Welders. I know it might be weird to
buy your PUK replacement from Orion, but if we can, we're happy to
help.

Personally I don’t see this as weird at all, I see it as great
customer service.

What’s going to happen where I work is that the Orion and the PUK
will be placed side by side, and the customer will make the choice.
This means that I do have to know the Orion front to back (it’s okay
I’m good with technology), so that I can demonstrate both machines as
equally as possible.

Customer service is what my business is about.

Regards Charles A.

56

I pity the person who tries to remove one of those crowns and ends up
melting part of the ring waiting for it to release. Especially
someone without a lot experience. Could be bad. After using the
laser for @10 years I have both backed off on what I see as “laser
jobs” (somewhat, a lot?) and I have had to service jewelry that I had
fully laser weldedsettings into in the past. In the first case, I
learned that for installing crowns in a ring, the laser is often best
for doing a semi permanent tack weld, that I can adjust, and then I
use the torch to solder the setting in place in the more traditional
manner. Often these tack welds I doby adding a little extra metal to
make the tack, in an area where the extra tack elded metal will
actually be removed during the finishing process, leaving the
setting held only by the solder to facilitate later service, if
required.

Servicing jewelry that has had settings welded in place, instead of
soldering them requires that the old settings be sawed, ground or
filed out, if the original setting has been worn out or damaged
beyond repair. This is no big deal, and is really nothing new.

Sometimes even a setting that has been soldered into position using
the traditional method can not safely be removed with a torch. This
is nothing new. Such setting replacements have been best addressed
by cutting or grinding them out to avoid overheating the piece of
jewelry.

The laser, and I would assume the Pulse arc welder, are simply tools
with their own special assets and limitations, to use along side the
more traditional tools I was trained on, and continue to use every
day.

57

Stuller sells the line of Orion Units. If you need We
are hereto answer the questions or fax or email to help
you in the process of making the right call between the PUK and
Orion.

Andy “The Tool Guy” Kroungold

58

You can use a PUK to weld jump rings around a plastic chicken neck!
And repair a piece with amber in it!!! Ahhhhhhh! How do I learn
and where do I learn! And when can I learn! Jeez, I live in the
sticks recreating the wheel… On my own is the learning curve too
large to purchase this equipmente? I’m a one woman operation working
full time in my home studio absolutely swamped with work of all
kinds… Repairs, custom fab, my own line for galleries, etc. How
can I learn to use a PUK welder? Or Orian? Is it realistic for me to
validate owning onee? Any opinions welcomed. I’m all ears. Thanks! :slight_smile:
joy kruse

WildPrairieSilver.com

59

Hi John,

I don’t know of PUK ever made an optivisor mounted welding shield.
If they did, you’re golden.

If not, do NOT try to modify an auto-darkening welding shield to
do the same job: they’re not fast enough.

I tried that, and it took exactly one shot for me to realize just
what a remarkably bad idea I’d just had.

The PUK shields are actually standard welding shields, but with the
triggering done by a wired signal from the PUK. The welder trips the
shield a few milliseconds before the welder fires, so the shield
is already at full dark before the welder flashes. Auto-darkening
shields in their normal mode rely on the flash from the arc to tell
their electronics to go dark. It takes somewhere around 20
milliseconds of flash for them to trip. At arm’s length, with a
normal welder, that’sOK. At less than 6", looking through a
magnifying glass? Not so much.

If you really want to do an optivisor mounted shield, you might want
to talk to the Orion people and see if you can get one of the PUK2
magnifying glass shields from their trade-in stash, and try to
frankenstein the wired shield out of one of those units.

Just please don’t try to use a normal auto darkening welding shield.
Trust me.

Regards,
Brian

60

Terry why don’t you make a video of the workings in your shop with
the Orion And show people what you are trying to convey about your
favorite tool. And post it on orchid. “A picture is worth a thousand
words” Regards, Hratch