Welding Tips and Tricks

Good evening all.

To start out I have a Thermal Arc 186.
It stick welds great tig not so good.

When welding I get a fine shower of Sparks and the tungsten burns and all crappy looking.

Pic is of the tungsten after 15 seconds or so of welding.
Machine settings are 1 sec pre flow 30 amps hot start 100 amps max 10 sec post flow. HF on. Machine is on DC. Torch is hooked to the - and the ground to the+.

Red band tungsten ground to about 60 degrees. I started a arc and ran at full pedal for 15 sec.

Sparkling tungsten is a gas flow issue.

Thayne78 wrote:...the tungsten burns and all crappy looking.... Machine is on DC.

First, welcome to the forum!

If that dark stripe is your weld then yes, it looks like a gas coverage issue. What is your flow rate? Pure argon?

Also, I have to ask, just to get the question out of the way: is that very shiny steel? Or is it aluminum?

Artie F. Emm wrote:
If that dark stripe is your weld then yes, it looks like a gas coverage issue.
Also, I have to ask, just to get the question out of the way: is that very shiny steel? Or is it aluminum?

His description indicates that is a picture of the tungsten. It looks like it's on a piece of paper towel. I've never seen a tungsten look like that.

I can barely make out what appears to be a slightly iridescent ball on the end, which I've seen before when I had a leak that was sucking air into the shield gas flow.

Without a clear view of the tungsten, this is purely guessing and speculation on my part.

As others have stated, check your system for leaks and confirm you're using 100% argon

Looks like you hooked up to an O2 bottle rather than argon.

MarkL wrote: His description indicates...

Geez. My bad, totally missed it.

Sorry for the lack of information.

The picture is of the tungsten on a paper towel.

It was taken with a cellphone and the picture is good on the phone but sucks on the forum. Sorry about that.

The metal is steel that I have ground to a shine.

On a different forum they asked for my location to see if anyone else was close.

I'm in Grafton ND. If anyone is near and wants to help shout out.

Tomorrow I hope to get a chance to remove the covers on the machine and check for a gas leak.

I tried maxing out the regulator and got about 32 seconds before the tungsten went to he!!

Lots of Sparks and arc that went all over.

Please confirm you are DCEN too

If the increased time before the issue occurs is a result of increasing the regulator pressure I would assume it t be a gas blockage - a simple pea-shooter gauge will confirm this or by ear - if that is the cause start with no hose on the regulator & confirm good flow - then check hose for kinks to machine - then remove torch & confirm flow from solonoid valve - then check torch without consumables fitted - then check consumables - some manufacturers tolerances will not work together or it could be as simple as bad a collet .

Are you still using the factory supplied torch? Or an aftermarket one? Not that an aftermarket one is a bad thing. But I could see where the little hose on the factory one, that goes from the gas fitting on the front of the machine to the torch/machine dinse connection, might leak.

Thayne78 wrote:.....It was taken with a cellphone and the picture is good on the phone but sucks on the forum. Sorry about that..

Many cameras (phones) have 'macro' setting, which is used for very close focus. You likely know this already, but just thought I would toss it out there......

We figured it out.

A bad bottle of argon.
What I'm convinced that it's 75/25 that is miss labeled.

I got a new bottle today it works.

Just because I could I swapped my MIG welders 75/25 tank on and it caused the exact same problem.
Thanks for all your help
Thayne

Mojo88 wrote:

Thayne78 wrote:.....It was taken with a cellphone and the picture is good on the phone but sucks on the forum. Sorry about that..

Many cameras (phones) have 'macro' setting, which is used for very close focus. You likely know this already, but just thought I would toss it out there......

I never thought that the camera on my phone was so good.

It's a cellphone.

I searched the web and got a few pointers and cool. There are adjustments I never thought possible.
Thanks
Thayne78.