Welding Tips and Tricks

I have been practicing welding .065" 2" mild steel pipe.

I get better results with the pulse on... set at 1 PPS, but I have no idea what to set the P.du ie.. "peak welding time" or % of time I am at max Amps when pulsing

I also have no idea how to set the background Amps ie.. I lo or low amps expressed in % of peak Amps

Any sugestions on eathier of these settings?

Also I weld this .065" steel tube with 60 Amps set as a max (like the instructions suggest) and end up at about 80% pedal ie.. 45-50 amps BUT,

when I pulse this same material I turn the max amps from 60 up to around 100 Amps , does this sound resonable?

Or should I try upping the max amps from 60 Amps to a different amount of Peak amps when switching to pulsing with 1PPS?

Are you down with JODYS rule of 33? That is 33 pps 33% on time, 33% background current not sure if that's right, others will clarify, put rule of 33 in the page search engine. (note. Do not google rule 33. That is something else entirely)

I will give it a shot. But right now I newbie like me likes to run 1 PPS as it helps me time the dipping of the rod

Jody has videos on it. Also put on some AC/DC music on. That gives a good beat to time dipping rod.

That worked very good! I think the next biggest change is my skills

The music of the 33 rule? And lots of practice really does help.

The rule of 33 I'm sure is great if you have a machine that will do high speed pulse ( but many imports don't go over epileptic 10 PPS sadly ) & need to control heat on thin material - I do think slow ( like 1PPS or less ) helps newbies keep pace with the filler & is good so as not to overheat root passes - I get a number of newbies visit me as they know I've used Tig on & off for some years & have bought the cheapest machine from Ebay but can't weld like Jodie ! ( & they always think it's the machine !! ) with Chinese machines the controls are often not marked or not very accurate but with slow only pulse I have mostly started them with pulse at 0.7 > 1 PPS set max amps to 1amp per thou plus 50% - background amps half of that - on time start at 40% then adjust to suit heat input ( only adjust 1 parameter at a time or you can confuse yourself ! )- not saying this works for everyone / situation but is a fair starting point. hope this helps & good luck - you will most likely come up with your own favorite with time / experience.

weldin mike 27 wrote:The music of the 33 rule? And lots of practice really does help.

I was Listening to Corrosion of Conformity on Pandora! Lol

Sounds pretty bassy. Just don't use power drumming. You'll use too much filler. 10 lbs already..... Sh#t.

noddybrian wrote:The rule of 33 I'm sure is great if you have a machine that will do high speed pulse ( but many imports don't go over epileptic 10 PPS sadly ) & need to control heat on thin material - I do think slow ( like 1PPS or less ) helps newbies keep pace with the filler & is good so as not to overheat root passes - I get a number of newbies visit me as they know I've used Tig on & off for some years & have bought the cheapest machine from Ebay but can't weld like Jodie ! ( & they always think it's the machine !! ) with Chinese machines the controls are often not marked or not very accurate but with slow only pulse I have mostly started them with pulse at 0.7 > 1 PPS set max amps to 1amp per thou plus 50% - background amps half of that - on time start at 40% then adjust to suit heat input ( only adjust 1 parameter at a time or you can confuse yourself ! )- not saying this works for everyone / situation but is a fair starting point. hope this helps & good luck - you will most likely come up with your own favorite with time / experience.

Thanks Brian, I will try this tonight!

OK Brian,

I tried it and those are my new favorite settings for this .065 wall tube...!

Since i am new to dipping the rod .8-1 PPS really helps me stay in time....

Glad it helped - I think it's a fair starting point until you develop your own preference - the slow pulse is easier as a guide to adding rod - if your machine has accurate controls it's easy to write down what works for a given material - many of the cheap Chinese things from Ebay that I get to see have either no calibrations or are meaningless which is one of the things that frustrates people learning - I learned " by feel " on a couple of old machines - one the front was rusty & had virtually no markings left of any controls - the other had at some time had a tin of paint knocked over that ran down the front panel ! so I never knew what any settings were other than by trial & error ! - if your lucky enough to have a new machine where everything is shown on a digital display it does make life better as you can set recommended parameters - anyhow good luck with your project.

Yes this HTP 221 can save 64 different programs..(and it saves everything, even pre and post gas..I have 2 programs saved so far. Lol ...the rule of 33 and yours!

Never used or seen the 221 but several members here have them & seem very happy with them - with regards to using pulse - it can be very useful but if you are new to Tig welding may I suggest not using it routinely while learning - I think you get a better feel for it & reading the puddle if you don't use the pulse - I don't even think using a foot pedal helps when learning as you have no idea what current you are using - my first welds were all scratch start with mo current control followed by lift start & I think you learn the most doing it this way both in terms of current setting & controlling the puddle with filler rod & travel speed - all the features of the new inverters are great & can make a good welders job easier - but while starting out developing core skills & muscle memory is good - only time I would say using the pulse helps learning is with aluminum where slow pulse really helps when adding filler if your after even spaced dimes - as to your original pipe I would probably prefer to not use pulse & travel fast to avoid heat soak or even stop & allow some time to cool but it's a personal thing unless specified in a WPS so use what you get on best with.