Greetings all,
I finally got all the pieces to get the welder up and running today. I built a 30' extension cord for it to run on 110/220/220-3phase and installed a wall plug in my shop for 220. I don't have 3-phase there.
After hooking everything up, I started up the welder and tried to weld a piece of .125x1.00 angle iron. After melting the tungsten into a blob, I reversed the cables on the welder and re-ground the tungsten as best I could as it is shown in the books.
The first tungsten melted again(it was the smallest) so I reground it and put it away and grabbed the middle sized one out of the pack that came with the torch kit.
I set the welder for 125amps and gave it a try. Wow is that neat. Not only was the weld easy to lay down, but there was absolutely no cleanup afterwards and I had about a 95% penetration.
I cut the angle apart and did the weld a couple more times(in different areas) to really get a feel for the tig.
The pre and post feed on the gas and waiting for the welder to ramp up to full power took a little getting used to but all was good.
After this, I have some 1.25"x.125" angle iron that I needed to weld to some 2"x.092" round tubing. This is where I found something interesting. I tried the 125amps and blew through the round stock. Then I tried 95amps and it wouldn't penetrate properly. I then set it to 100amps and all is well. I have a weld that is looking like a stack of very small dimes with no cratering.
Now for my question: Is the tungsten supposed to get red hot and slowly melt away? By slowly, I mean that I lost about .010" or so during the course of about 16-2" welds off the tungsten.
Am I using the wrong tungsten for this amperage? Also, why is the arc going off at an angle from the tunsten instead of straight off the tip?
I think I am very close to where I need to be on this project and probably only need some minor tweaking either on the welder itself, tunsten size or grinding type.
Thanks again
I finally got all the pieces to get the welder up and running today. I built a 30' extension cord for it to run on 110/220/220-3phase and installed a wall plug in my shop for 220. I don't have 3-phase there.
After hooking everything up, I started up the welder and tried to weld a piece of .125x1.00 angle iron. After melting the tungsten into a blob, I reversed the cables on the welder and re-ground the tungsten as best I could as it is shown in the books.
The first tungsten melted again(it was the smallest) so I reground it and put it away and grabbed the middle sized one out of the pack that came with the torch kit.
I set the welder for 125amps and gave it a try. Wow is that neat. Not only was the weld easy to lay down, but there was absolutely no cleanup afterwards and I had about a 95% penetration.
I cut the angle apart and did the weld a couple more times(in different areas) to really get a feel for the tig.
The pre and post feed on the gas and waiting for the welder to ramp up to full power took a little getting used to but all was good.
After this, I have some 1.25"x.125" angle iron that I needed to weld to some 2"x.092" round tubing. This is where I found something interesting. I tried the 125amps and blew through the round stock. Then I tried 95amps and it wouldn't penetrate properly. I then set it to 100amps and all is well. I have a weld that is looking like a stack of very small dimes with no cratering.
Now for my question: Is the tungsten supposed to get red hot and slowly melt away? By slowly, I mean that I lost about .010" or so during the course of about 16-2" welds off the tungsten.
Am I using the wrong tungsten for this amperage? Also, why is the arc going off at an angle from the tunsten instead of straight off the tip?
I think I am very close to where I need to be on this project and probably only need some minor tweaking either on the welder itself, tunsten size or grinding type.
Thanks again
Comment