Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey everyone, how are we all?

Ok so quick background story, then the questions. I bought this welder late last year. It is a weldmaster 200 amp ac/dc tig. Fantastic welder! I then taught myself to weld, including aluminium, and have just recently gone and got my 6G ticket, as well as others.

So attached below is a pic of the front of the welder. I have ticked the dials that i understand. However i am wanting to learn the pulse settings. Now i have done research, however can not find anything about my specific welder, and the info i did find was for others. Now as you can see, for ease i have put numbers on the dials i would like more info on.

When not on pulse, i have been using dial 1. as my amp setting, but when i switch it to pulse....well that's where i'm not sure where dial 1. comes into play. Also i believe dial 5. is for only when i am using the welder for ARC (stick) welding, am i correct?



My next question is. I am wanting to put a foot pedal on the welder. And also a longer lead, with a smaller torch head. So, is this possible? I have tried to find a foot pedal etc to fit mine, except none seem to have the same plug...any thoughts? I was thinking maybe a welder repair place could possibly take a foot pedal, and change the plug on it maybe? Anyway, pics below of the plugs. I should mention, my torch is the wp-26, if i'm not mistaken, and it has the switch and amp control on the torch, i find it very annoying to try control amps, whilst holding the torch steady, foot pedal would make life much easier.





Thank you in advance for your help guys. Sam.

Hey mate,

The key to sorting out your tig comes from looking at where the arrows pointing to the dials are coming from. On the picture, there is a stepped line. As you say, peak current is your amp control with no pulse. When on pulse it is the upper heat setting of the pulse. Basic current is the lowest current of the pulse. Pulse frequency is how many times a second the pulse happens and pulse duty is how long the welder is at top current. Look at the stepped line, and remeber it represents the weld time. with upslope, from zero to set amps, pulse current base current and pulse length time, how many times pulse happens, down slope, from set current to lower setting and then post gas flow time, which protects the work and elecrode while it hot.

Hope it helps.

Mick

Hi - I'll do my best not to ramble !

Knob 1 is the main current control as stated & is the maximum value when in pulse mode.

Knob 2 only active in pulse mode is the % of the setting from knob 1 used on the low side of the pulse - so if you set 100 amps main current knob 1 & 50% knob 2 you will get 50amps on the low side of the pulse.

Knob 3 should only be active in stick welding mode & can be called arc force or " dig " - it controls how aggressive the arc is - usually used low for a smooth arc on 7018 rods & higher for 6010 / 6011 - this however is not set in stone & is very much down to each welders style.

Knob 4 pulse frequency - seems obvious - how many pulses per second - generally used very low like 1-1/2 /second or less to assist in getting even ripples especially on aluminum and / or while aquiring a steady filler rod hand - or much higher rate to help focus the arc & limit heat input especially on stainless - Jodie has several good videos on this ( check out his rule of 33 ).

Knob 5 you seem to have not understood - it has no effect on arc welding - it is the amount of time in % the pulse remains on the low side of the pulse - so if set to 50% the pulse will alternate evenly with an equal time low / high - again - do a search on Jodies videos - he has several that make this clear & easy to follow.

The torch fitting is the larger Dinse connector - happily without integrated gas so there is plenty of choice - if you don't have a good local source check out Ebay ( Shop River / River Weld ) they have an abundance of well priced torches - you can opt for one where the power & gas are separate like yours with dinse straight on the end - or they keep a Dinse to threaded ( usually 3/8" BSP ) connector that allows any common integrated hose torch to be used - most torches are available with 12 or 25 feet cables - if you routinely use most of your sets power you either have to Dollar up & go water cooled ( which is real pricey & can create other issues ) or stick with the WP26 size air cooled - but make it less cumbersome by adding the stubby gas lense kit - this is hard to find & I don't think it's on Ebay ( UK anyway ) - if you can't find it " the other Tig guy " sells them from his website. ( another hint to Jodie - how about sourcing them for the store ? )

The foot pedal is quite easy in theory - it uses only 3 pins - so get a multi meter / Avo meter set to ohms & probe the plug on your hand amp control from the torch - you will find hopefully both ends of the resistor & the other pin will go from almost 0 ohms upto the value across the other two pins - now all you need to do is look through affordable pedals with the same resistance ( or very close ) I never heard of your machine - but if it is of Chinese origin they do prefer 10K as a value & these are easy to find - you may have to recycle your existing plug though if you can't find one the same - but it would be worth looking around - or if your going the Ebay root Email the supplpier with a picture of the plug - chances are they'll get you one - failing that some can be found in "Maplin" or " Radio Shack / Spares ".

Good luck getting better used to your set - it looks quite nice.

Mick's spot-on on the pulse controls, so I'll tackle the remote questions.

Torch and foot remotes have the same components... an on/off switch, two wires (the machine connector on the right), and a potentiometer, same device as a volume knob on a radio, three wires (connector on left).

A welding supply may be able to find a pedal with that plug setup for you, but you'll need to know the resistance of the potentiometer to be sure the pedal works right and doesn't pose a risk to your machine. If it's 1000 ohm, like lincoln and miller, it's an easy hookup. If you have an ohmmeter and some electrical experience, you can use the leads for the torch switch you have to hook up a pedal, or you can find new connectors from cardinal electronics or similar. I can talk you through it, or a local electronics shop can do the work for you.

Steve S

Top stuff guys, you made it seem simple. Sorry about knob 5. I got my numbers confused. I did mean knob 3. for stick welding.

Just to confirm, because there was two different bits of info there, is pulse duty the amount of time it is at high amps or low amps?

I might check out that ebay shop. I want to try and find a good local place too though, the welding shop i go to now, the guy seems to think you can't change the leads etc....seems incorrect to me.

I'll be playing around on these pulse settings today, so i'll put up some pics if i get time.

Once again, thank you. Sam.

Pulse duty is usually the percentage of pulse time at "peak" vs. "background" (or "basic", in your machine's labelling).

Steve S

Bit delayed, but i had i bit of a play around with the pulse settings. What can i say, i'm in love! It is really simple, allows you to control the weld a lot better, and i reckon it made the weld "prettier". I would how ever, use a test piece to refine the settings before starting on the "project". Anyway, below are a couple sample welds i did. Was also playing around with the clean width area too. Cheers, Sam.

Hey, Sam,

There's not a thing I can see wrong with those welds. Time under the hood will help you make it more "even", but I see no flaws.

Well done!

Steve S

I think the welds came out pretty good too. Have you tried pulsing with the pedal manually? Not a true pulse but what we call "revving" the pedal. Just like revving the engine in your car. It helps, especially in those hard positions where you have to make torch corrections on the fly.

Na i haven't mate. Don't have a foot pedal at this stage. Although was talking to a welder repair place today to see if they can change connections on one to suit my welder, and also make a custom torch and lead for me. So hopefully will have that soon

Ok so have done a little search, and i hope i don't get roasted if this is already covered. But my question is. When using TIG DCEN, more heat is in the work piece. And when using STICK DCEN, more heat is in the electrode. So am i right?

And if not, or if so, can someone explain in "dumb mans terms" aka simply, why they are different.

Thanks in advance guys.

edit: i should also add, i burnt through two arc rods. They were general purpose 6013 rods. One rod was on dcen and the other on dcep. Both running same machine settings. And the steel was 2-3mm i think.

The DCEN rod burnt very nicely, no bow throughs.

The DCEP rod blew through very easy. So this is also something that re assures me that my above statement is correct.

It's been covered, but never to my complete satisfaction.

Here's what I understand (?)

With the non-consumable electrode (TIG), all the logic about "flow of electrons" for DCEN makes sense for putting the heat into the metal. The filler is introduced at the puddle.

With stick-rod, where the electrode is consumed to be deposited, DCEP puts the heat in the rod to melt the end of it and drip the molten metal in the pool (think globular transfer MIG). In other word, melting the electrode is the goal, and melting the base metal is the (desired) side-effect.

They way it was explained to me (and I'm not sure I buy it), the heat required to melt a stick-rod DCEP (much) is carried to the base metal by the droplets of steel, and adds significantly to the heat in the base in addition to the heat from the arc itself. This is how you get enough heat in the base metal to achieve good fusion. With DCEN on a stick, you are moving much cooler droplets to the weld at a slower rate.

Your mileage may vary.

Steve S

hmmm that does make sense. I know it's just one of those things that is hard to wrap your head around why it is opposite, and you just have to accept the fact that it's just how it is. But i'm one of those people that when they were a kid, they pulled their remote control cars apart to see how it works, when i got older, i stripped down car motors etc etc, i just have to know how things work!! haha