Tig Settings

[Ogier]

Greetings all,

First off, please let me say that this board is a great idea. Thanks to whoever thought of it.

While I am not not new to welding(having done stick, mig and O/A for years), I am brand new to tig. I just bought a Maxstar 200DX and am womdering about the settings for it.

I routinely weld 16ga stainless and cold-rolled mild steel. Sometimes, I also weld 10ga mild and 12ga stainless as well. It all depends on what the piece of armor I am working on calls for. Yes, I build museum quality reproduction medieval armor for a living.

The welder has not come in yet but I expect it here any day. At that time, I am planning on reading the manuals cover to cover. However, what settings would be a good starting place for these sizes and types of steel?

Also, is there a good online tutorial on welding with a tig?

You have my many thanks in advance.

[cope]

Miller sells a 3 pc set of slide rule calculators for Stick, Mig and Tig. It's cheap and well worth the money.

[HAWK]

Ogier,

Welcome to the forum! Congratulations on the Maxstar!

Use 1 amp of weld output for .001" of material thickness. This rule is an excellent starting point. 11 gauge material is approximately .125". Therefore, start at 125 amps. That may be hot, but it is a place to start. The key is to practice on some scrap before actually making the weld. The weld calculators cope mentioned are very helpful. Attached is a copy of a gauge to thousandths conversion chart cope recently posted. Let us know what else we can do to help you.

[HAWK]

Ogier,

I like you website. Very nice. Good luck with its construction! I am getting several runtime errors as I go from page to page deeper into the site. However, it all seems to function. If I turn off script debugging, it seems to be fine. No biggie. I did want you to be aware of it. Cool stuff!

[klsm54]

Here is the link to the Miller Calculators...Miller Weld Library

I have a set on my desk at all times and when I was on the road, there was always a set in my truck.

The welding process books are also great tools to have around.

[Ogier]

Greetings all,

Thanks for the swift responses. As for the runtime errors, this is interesting as there are no scripts running on the page with the notable exception of the sizes form.

Hawk: You might try cleaning your internet cache on your machine and see if that clears up the error. You can reach the cache cleanup by clicking "tools" then "Internet Options" then in the temporary internet files area, click on "clear files". If you haven't done this in a while, or like most folks, never, this may take a few minutes to clean out. You should not have to remove the cookies though.

Thanks for the links and pictures. I will probably use them all as they are all useful.

Thanks again

[HAWK]

Originally posted by Ogier
Greetings all,

Thanks for the swift responses. As for the runtime errors, this is interesting as there are no scripts running on the page with the notable exception of the sizes form.

Hawk: You might try cleaning your internet cache on your machine and see if that clears up the error. You can reach the cache cleanup by clicking "tools" then "Internet Options" then in the temporary internet files area, click on "clear files". If you haven't done this in a while, or like most folks, never, this may take a few minutes to clean out. You should not have to remove the cookies though.

Thanks for the links and pictures. I will probably use them all as they are all useful.

Thanks again

Ogier,

I clean everything 2x/week including %temp% and temp int files. Also numerous spy scans, virus scans, etc. Don't know. It may have something to do with Sun java. It has caused me some problems before. I don't keep anything cached more than 3 days. Just wiped out all yesterday morning.

[HAWK]

Ogier,

NOT A WELDING ISSUE, BUT...

I was in a rush earlier on the runtime errors and was not even thinking about how I have the options set in IE. Under security in advanced options I have it set to empty temp int files on browser close. I turned off script debugging and your site floats right along. As I mentioned earlier Sun java can be a real headache with my system configuration and have considered changing it. Occassionally it throws up script records that mimic viruses, but are not. I have run this past a couple of "professional" do it for a living gurus and they cannot pin point the problem either. What java version, etc. are you running. Also what is your host OS?

[Ogier]

Unfortunately, I am not the host for my website anymore. As for java, the only java-like stuff on my site is the parsing script on the sizes page and it is actually javascript.

I don't have an answer for you. Sorry.

Ogier

[HAWK]

Ogier,

Thanks for replying. Again welcome to the site and good luck with the Maxstar. You make some awesome stuff! I had one for about a year and really enjoyed it. I sold it and went with the Dynasty as my aluminum work load significantly increased.

[Ogier]

I seriously looked at the Dynasty but I couldn't justify the difference. The only Aluminum welding I need to do, I have someone who does it for me. I just isn't cost effective to get one piece of equipment over another for what amounts to 4 - 1/2" welds a few times a year.

Perhaps, if I get back into building boats again(not very likely) I will step up for the dynasty at that time. However, I will more likely go back to the mig for speed.

Thanks one and all for all the help so far. I am sure that as I get a chance to play with the new toy, I will have an endless array of questions.