Welding Tips and Tricks

i was doing some practice welds on 304 stainless tonight, it had been raining all day. my kit is still in cardboard boxes but when i was opening them they were, well sort of damp and floppy so the humididy was high. i have a large ck pyrex gas lense (about an inch in diameter) and had good results the other day, tonight it was a struggle to get a nice gold bead.
do you have to factor in humidity when welding?
i tried all sorts of flow rates and currents but found pulse worked the best, straight dc welding was pretty black - i tried 60->120 amps.
3.2mm 304 120amp 3/4 second pulse no filler rod 10 second post flow 1.5 seconds pre pure Ag holding torch upright gave a straw nice shinney ripple pattern
any ideas how to tweek these numbers?
cheers
carl

Hey Carl,

Can't say I've had that problem before but didn't do much stainless welding when I lived in a higher humidity area (Florida). Out here in Arizona it's not really a problem. One thing I could say is if you haven't seen this video Jody did about a Gas Dryer, you might want to take a look and possibly try it out if this problem continues. Here's the link...

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/wel ... dryer.html

Also, I have that Large Gas Saver lens and mine seems to have it's good days and bad. It's to the point where I only use it if I'm plugging a hole or welding Titanium. Other than that a standard #8 Gas Lens works for everything I do (on DC). Plus, the cups are a lot cheaper to replace, ha ha!!