Welding Tips and Tricks

Have been using a new inverter welder and have been having difficulty getting it to strike up. Am using 6013 1.6 ml rods on mild steel with neg earth but striking an ark is problematical in as much as I need a high amperage to initiate a start but it then blows the rod clean out of the holding torch. Any ideas?

Welcome to the forum,when you say blows the rod clean out of the electrode holder, do you mean its melts rapidly, or glows red and melts, 1.6mm rod is a small rod and wont take a lot of amperage to run it, got any photo's...the box should emntion amperage settings.

If it’s real small diameter rod then it’s possible that your stinger just doesn’t hold it tight enough.

don astill wrote:Have been using a new inverter welder and have been having difficulty getting it to strike up. Am using 6013 1.6 ml rods on mild steel with neg earth but striking an ark is problematical in as much as I need a high amperage to initiate a start but it then blows the rod clean out of the holding torch. Any ideas?

Thanks for reply. When I say blows rod out of torch I really mean just that, it literally blows the rod out and destroys the top 1 inch of the rod, at the torch end. The rod has no time to heat up or glow red hot just flys across the workshop!. Incidently, I have four of these type of welders/ inverters that are set up in various modes, ie, one is in Tig, one is in Mig and one is in Arc, this one is for use on site and is the only one to give me this problem

When I say that the rod flys out of the torch, I mean that it really does fly. The top 1inch of the rod at the torch end is melted away! The rod has no time to heat up, go red or fry the flux. Incidently, this is one of four of these inverters that I am using and is the only one to exhibit this behaviour, The others are set up for TIG, MIG and ARC use in the workshop, this one was for use on site due to its ease of transport, light weight and it can be used at heights. I think this may be faulty and will get returned to maker.

what amperage and what machine?

i'm taking a wild stab in the dark that the amps is insanely high and it blows near the torch because that end is not covered in flux.

does it have VRD?
sometimes the VRD is really slow to turn on the voltage and you can have real trouble starting.

Too much amperage, does the electrode wobble in holder even though it properly clamped? small rods are tricky to run, I remember running small stuff back in the day and it was difficult, keep turning the amperage down until it starts to stick to the job (bit of off cut) then slowly turn up the amperage until you can run it, remembering a small rod makes a small bead if run correctly. hope this helps.