Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and had a question for someone that knows more about this stuff than I do. I grew up on a Lincoln tombstone welder where you switched the polarity from dc positive to dc negative via a lever to perform scratch start tig. I'm looking for a new welder and noticed the Lincoln tig 200 can do AC/DC tig and DC Stick. Would it be possible to have the welder in DC Stick mode, switch the leads, and use a tig power block with a valve tig torch. The reason I ask, is I want to practice tig welding pipe and don't want to use the pedal or a switch on the tig torch. I just prefer scratch start for pipe welding. Thanks for your help and happy welding to you all.

I thought I saw specs that indicated the SW200 didn’t support Lift Arc or Scratch Start for TIG? If not, you can use a momentary switch (TIG button) on the torch for HF starts. This eliminates the pedal.

I may be mistaken about the lack of LA/SS TIG...

yeah mine only has high freq start in tig mode. i cant see why it wouldnt work in stick mode if you had a torch with gas line and valve on the torch tho.

Yea, that's what I was thinking. I watched a youtube video "How to turn a stick welder into a tig welder" last night and the guy said that you could turn any DC welder into a scratch start rig. He was using a AC/DC Everlast. I like the price range of the SW 200 and want to also do aluminum so it seems like a really good fit for my needs.

You can and I have run the sw off of stick mode with scratch start rig. However it limits you to 100 amps on 115 v in stick mode. Enough for SS but not carbon pipe work.

Thanks Poland! That’s what I needed. Off to buy a new welder! Thanks for all the replies!

I'm going to add that I have the squarwave and love it. I think you would not be disappointed with a east west thumb control. I use it for everything but anodized aluminum and once you get your heat where you want it you can take your thumb off and it will stay there until you change it unlike the foot pedal. I would think this is much handier than scratch start. You could even set the amps where you want then and run it up to the max then weld. Just my 2 cents worth.

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Warrenh wrote:I'm going to add that I have the squarwave and love it. I think you would not be disappointed with a east west thumb control. I use it for everything but anodized aluminum and once you get your heat where you want it you can take your thumb off and it will stay there until you change it unlike the foot pedal. I would think this is much handier than scratch start. You could even set the amps where you want then and run it up to the max then weld. Just my 2 cents worth.

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What controller is that Warrenh? I wanted to get a Tig button from 6061.com but I just saw the square wave 200 isn’t on his list of machines that it’s available for. Bummer.

Mine came from arc zone. It's their brand. Simple thumb control. Rotates side to side. I use it on top and a momentary on off on bottom. You just have to switch the cables at the machine. 7 pin Lincoln connector. I use the momentary for anodized and the east/west for everything else.

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I can assure you that the TIG button from 6061 works with the Square Wave 200. I have one and have not used my foot pedal since I got it. Only problem is that it is a little cobbled/homemade. Consider the battery pack instead of the power cord. I haven’t used the battery pack but might get one.

Great tool

Bill

discap wrote:I can assure you that the TIG button from 6061 works with the Square Wave 200. I have one and have not used my foot pedal since I got it. Only problem is that it is a little cobbled/homemade. Consider the battery pack instead of the power cord. I haven’t used the battery pack but might get one.

Great tool

Bill

Oh, ok. It has the same plug as the older Lincoln machines?

Sorry I didn’t respond sooner for some reason I cannot log in on my computer. It logs me off as soon as I log on. Responding from my phone so excuse the typos.

Best I can tell it is the same but lug as my old Square wave 175 but I didn’t use it on that machine. I contacted the 6061 site and confirmed with them which one to get.

At this point I cannot envision a job where I would go to the trouble of reconnecting the foot pedal. I just finished a job where I was welding 1”x2” structural steel into a decorative fence. I had to do the layout on the floor to keep everything in alignment. All welding took place on my knees. What a pain and no way to use the pedal.

Another recent project on the opposite end of the spectrum. Welding 0.055” aluminum angle after forming for a helicopter door. Also done with the button.

I had the log out problem too - I had assumed it was due to the computer I was given is too old now but all that was wrong was on the address bar where it starts http/ you have to add an s so it starts https/ then it works OK - think they must have changed something probably because everyone seems obsessed with using those stupid new things where you have to keep stroking the screen.