BATTLE OF THE PERMANENT JEWELRY WELDERS | AMAZON VS ORION | Sarah Brithinee

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Thank you so much for watching today’s video! If you’re interested in starting a permanent jewelry business I’m sure the question of which welder to buy has crossed your mind multiple times. Today I’m comparing the Amazon unbranded welder to the Sunstone Orion mPulse welder. I share the pros and cons of each as well as my final thoughts.

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xoxo, Sarah

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WHAT I MENTIONED:

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Amazon welder:

Sunstone welder:

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WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:

Introducing the Essbe Permanent Jewelry Course:

Everything you need to start a permanent jewelry business:

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This video is in collaboration with Sunstone. All opinions are my own. I only work with brands that I truly love and use myself. Some links are affiliates which means I make a small commission on any purchase, you do not pay any more or any less when using a link.

#permanentjewelrywelder #permanentjewelry #permanentjewelrytips

[javieruriel]

i get the one from china, and i am using it with out the argon tank, most of my works are with gold and silver which i charge to my customers about 45 usd every work minimum, a little frustrated ate the beginning but let me tell you a big secret, clean the piece you're going to work with, normally i use my ultrasonic, youll get surprise with the results, use gold option and go up in power if you need it not time set time at the lowest. my machine already paid itself. no need to buy the expensive/

[mikegrok]

For the description of people getting burned on the other side of their arm. I can think of a few possibilities...
1) They were working on a metal table.
2) the chair was metal and they were on concrete or dirt
3) it was outside and the person was barefoot.

You can probably avoid those issues by:
don't use a metal table.
bring a rolled up rubber carpet to put the customer's chair on so that chair or bare feet, they don't accidentally ground themselves.

[johntaglia]

First off, great video. I've welded on & off for some 40-plus years. At times I may go 4 years without welding. My daughter is looking into this permanent jewelry business. For the people who have to buy the Amazon welder. You can buy an auto spark shield from wherever you buy your argon. Another option is to go to Harbor Freight & look at their welding helmets. Buy one of those & take the auto-darkening frame & attach it to your stylus stand. As far as not liking the feel of the stylus material, simply wrap it with something sew it tightly & cut off the remaining part. The clip is part of your ground. I guess I should be doing a YOUTUBE video on this. Remember, anything you buy from China is metric. Wherever you buy your argon they will have different size tubing or an auto supply store.

[wedjr]

First, the port from the cheap one has threads to tighten down an adapter with a wrench. So it looks like you’re missing a piece.
I hear a lot of concerns about missing the work piece and hitting your fingers. If you look at the fingers of someone fortunate enough to have a $40, 000.00 laser welder, even their fingers have tiny little spots where even they (using a dual vision magnifier and the benefit of a crosshatch- as if you’re a fighter jet bomber trying to hit a single building- there are always going to have innocent casualties. In this tiny case, your fingers are those casualties! It doesn’t hurt like burning yourself with a torch. Not even as much as having your big brother pinch you. Yes, you feel it. Yes, it stings a little but it’s not like getting a flu shot kind of pain. Ladies, , , , if you’re a jeweler, your hands will show that this is your profession. You get calluses just from holding pliers and other tools in very specific places on your hands. But you’re also not going to burn your store/house/studio down. And your aim will get better every time you use one of these welders.
The cheaper ones are probably fine so your paying for customer service and probably better made inner parts. Eventually, they will both break down and you’ll need to either fix it yourself (see YouTube videos) or send it back to the manufacturer for the more expensive ones. Hope this helps.
Oh, the little “U” shaped end of the cord is to be slid under the proper screw and tightened down well.

[the_artaholic_]

The reason your argon leaked with the Amazon bought is because that is not the tube the welder came with. It comes with a specific tube made for the machine that fits properly and no leaks.

[makingtolearn]

I use two pulse arc welders at my work- the Orion mPulse and a Lampert PUK. Also have a Sunstone laser welder. All of these machines were purchased retail. I've been a professional jeweler for 25+ years and using welding equipment in jewelery for over 16 years (basically millions of welds.)

The big advantage of the Orion welder is that if you have no prior experience with these types of machines, you're going to have a much better user experience right out of the gate. And yes you pay for that experience.

If you're a novice and you need technical support and maybe advice/instruction then the Orion is clearly the one to get.

Having said that, all of these machines require practice and patience in order to get good solid welds. And ALWAYS use argon shielding if you want quality welds.

The most important things are getting a proper grind on the electrode, cleanliness of the weld area, having a good ground connection, and proper orientation of the electrode to the weld surface.

[terriberry]

The cover on the alligator clip is a safety feature.

[timmwhite]

Your argon leak is at the bottle valve. When opening that valve, turn it all the way open - otherwise the valve 'open' seat doesn't have anything against it and is leaking past. Consider that valve as 2 positions (fully open & fully closed.)

[dysheika]

Hey! Where do you get your jewelry for the permanent bracelets and anklets? Like what vendor or wholesale do you use?

[Book-Mark]

Honesty is the most valuable aspect of a review. Thanks. I would go with the Orion mPulse for many reasons. Just have to scrimp and save.

[christinaaudet-joncich]

The Amazon one comes with other tips and sizes it seems you did not go through the box. And you seemed to be very one sided. And not alot of knowledge of what Welding is and the concept. People that are getting burned are from people not knowing what they are doing. You can't just jump into this type of Welding and not understand what your doing or how things work. The Amazon one is just fine especially if you know what your doing.

[Alex-keht]

That is completely normal for ground cable, most arc systems don’t have the covering on them at all.
tweezers and the neutral, hence blue.
And yes! It’s a regulator for argon gas.

Umm should people who don’t understand the basics of an electrical circuit be doing welding anyway?

[andreajenkins]

I started my PJ business in November and I use the Amazon welder. I am curious what settings you used when you made this video. I use the Ortho lowest setting. But I would like another opinion. Thanks so much for this video! So helpful!

[celsiusswatt]

I have "Amazon" version and although it somewhat works, it is defective by design. It does not control arc current well. What it is inside is a 42V 130000mfd capacitor bank discharging through 0.1 Ohm resistor through stylus. There is no choke (inductor) and there is no smooth current rise or regulation. As the result, the arc spot is uncontrolled while the stylus moves, and the current is larger than optimum for the used electrode diameter. It creates burns on materials that easily evaporate or meld (like bronze). The duration of the pulse is controlled in steps of 3ms up to 30ms. I did modify it to make it work better, but certainly it is not correct design of arc control.

[karser]

Hi do you micro-laser-weld small jobs? I am looking for someone to do a micro repair, will supply the details if you indeed do this. The metal composition in question is brass with nickel finish so not precious metal. Thanks

[XXMARIAAXX]

Where do I buy your gold or silver from?? Thinking to maybe start this as a business, and also since is gold filled doesn’t it tarnish in less than a year?

[spaghetti.bolognese.]

I have thw amazon welder from and have not received instructions for use. I wanted to ask what settings I need for my jewelry:

Sterling Silver 925
Gold filled 14K
Metal (black)
thank you for your help!

[christinaaudet-joncich]

The alligator clip that's actually normal for a welder. The other parts are extra for what you need.

[mysafename]

Open up the machine and look inside and see if the connection is loose on the backside of where the hose connects most of the time they wobble round and shipping and they get loose tighten it up and it should be fine if that does not work you can change the front end of the connector to a shark bite. It grabs much tighter.

The grounding issue was simple. Just pulled the rubber cover off and solder the bottom connection

[geekinthegarden]

Nice comparison video. I'm tempted to get one of the Amazon welders - can't afford the Orion. There also seems to be other options such as the Sparkle but these need you to trigger the foot pedal to trigger and I like the automatic trigger on these.

I hope you don't mind but I've a couple of ideas after watching your video and have a couple of questions.

To use that horse shoe connector at the end of the tweezers you unscrew the ground terminal (where you plug the connector of the alligator clip) slightly, put that in the gap then tighten up so you can have 2 different grounding tools connected at the same time - even though it appears to have 2 ground connectors so in theory you could have the alligator clip, the tweezers, and possibly do a DIY connection to pliers and possibly a smaller, fine alligator clip for fine jump rings all connected so you don't have to keep unplugging and plugging in the ground when working on a piece.

The Argon leak seems to be a big flaw - if it wasn't just limited to a fault on yours, have you figured that out? Was the hiss more from the back than the front or visa versa? I'm asking because it looks as if the Argon is passed through to the handset through the thick cable and therefore through the 3 pinned connector.

I'm wondering if there was an o ring missing from that that might have caused the leak.

I'm not sure but the supplied pressure gauge, from what I can make out on photos on Amazon and Ali Express, seems to have 2 different sized push tube connectors (4mm & 6mm?). Do you know if this is the case?

This would make sense to me because the regulators I've seen for refillable Argon tanks use a 6mm tube and have their own pressure gauge whilst for disposable tanks they all seem to use 4mm tubing and not all of them have gauges, so this would add the gauge and do the format conversion if this is the case.

I'm not planning to do permanent jewellery but that person who had burns - does it explain where they had actually connected the ground connector, could it have been user error (e.g. connected electrode to back of the bracelet rather than next to the weld)?

For the 1mm electrode - did it come with other collets as it looks like you may have to swap out the collet to be able to use the thicker electrodes.