Welding Tips and Tricks

My machine allows me to select the percentage of starting voltage. I can not find any information on how to best use this feature. I weld mostly small stuff around 1/8 or less most of the time. Anyone with experience in this, sharing that info would be really appreciated. Suggestions are what I seek.

Zondfive wrote:My machine allows me to select the percentage of starting voltage. I can not find any information on how to best use this feature. I weld mostly small stuff around 1/8 or less most of the time. Anyone with experience in this, sharing that info would be really appreciated. Suggestions are what I seek.

If you are new to tig welding then my suggestion is not to worry about the bells and whistles on your machine and practice straight up tig. You will find that you won't use the majority of specialty settings in every day welding. Once in awhile you have something special come along and you MIGHT need to use a feature you wouldn't normally use. The rule of thumb is 1 amp for every 1/1000th thickness of metal. The rule works pretty good until you get over 125 amps and then you have to read your puddle to determine what amps are appropriate. Rely on your technique rather than bells and whistles. TIG has been around a long time and long before all of these modern features and the world still turns.

Turn it off. I remember someone mentioning that some machines come with 35% start current as a default setting, which can give you a world of trouble. Especially if it's buried in the menu on a f****** touch screen machine.

As exnailpounder said, less is more.