Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on TIG welding some thin carbon steel sheetmetal.
Specifically, I would like to know what settings I should start with on the welder.

My welder is a Everlast PowerTIG 255EXT.

I'm not using a foot pedal as I'm a paraplegic, so only using the torch control.

What settings should I start with on the welder?? the sheetmetal is only 0.7mm/0.8mm thick.

I would also like to play with pulse, what settings should I start with?

Thank you in advance!

B

I have only welded that thin with a pedal but this is how I would do it with only s torch switch. You are talking about butt welds, right?

Start with some straight strips put together with 0-gap. Start without filler and try to find correct amps at a comfortable weld speed were they fuse completely. My guess 25-35 amps.
Now cut some 0,6 or 0,8 mm mig wire and straighten them.
Go back with some strips but leave some gap close to what you expect your real work would have.
Start welding using as little filler as possible. Up the current just enough so the filler melts easily.

Set your up-slope to 1s and down slope to 2s. If you feel its getting too hot, release the trigger and let it slope down until it cools off a bit then hit trigger again and be prepared to feed wire.

I would suggest you practise this before trying with pulse to get a better understanding of the material and weld conditions. Working with manual pulse is sometimes easier when the gap varies along the seam.

Hope others chime in, I certainly would like to read more about thin material welding here. I consider 1,5 mm steel to be thick

YES
"Set your up-slope to 1s and down slope to 2s. If you feel its getting too hot, release the trigger and let it slope down until it cools off a bit then hit trigger again and be prepared to feed wire".

Pulse with the trigger is surpringly easy/effective on 2T,for control of puddle heat

What should I set the amps at for working with this thickness Steel?

I'm doing lap, butt, and tee joints.

Thx in advance

AndersK's suggestion is a good starting point for amperage, but if using pulse you'll have to experiment because user technique will vary, and that will affect bead width, heat input, and depth of penetration. There is no 1 magic setting. Practice practice & experiment.

I would just like to welcome you to the forum and suggest the CK Steady-Grip for amperage control. I too am a paraplegic. The Steady Grip gives me the control I need without so much wobble as regular thumb controls. My welds are much more uniform and I don't stub my tungsten nearly as much. Hope this helps.
Cheers.
-Eldon

xwrench wrote:I would just like to welcome you to the forum and suggest the CK Steady-Grip for amperage control. I too am a paraplegic. The Steady Grip gives me the control I need without so much wobble as regular thumb controls. My welds are much more uniform and I don't stub my tungsten nearly as much. Hope this helps.
Cheers.
-Eldon

Hi Eldon,

great to meet a fellow para I've had a look at those, they look fantastic, how are you finding it??
They don't seem to have one for my Everlast 255EXT?? I think the foot pedal that came with mine is 47k or 50k ohm rating??
Would the steady-grip work on my welder??

I really like my steady grip but don't know if they make one for your machine.

My 255EX is 47 ohm
check the on line manual for yours

Not out at the shed today but I suspect mine is 47k too so I'm guessing it will not work

Everlast website says it's 47K. Bummer. Maybe they'll introduce one for that model.

rick9345 wrote:My 255EX is 47 ohm
check the on line manual for yours

Hi Rick
I wonder can you check that value? 47 ohm is extremely low. Maybe it's a typo. It may more typically be 4.7K ohms or 47K ohms
The document I checked showed 47K ohm Cheers
Trevor

typo 47k and 250ex old fingers hit wrong keys with old eyes
as Otto Nobedder would say "see what I mean, not what I write" parapharse

rick9345 wrote:typo 47k and 250ex old fingers hit wrong keys with old eyes
as Otto Nobedder would say "see what I mean, not what I write" parapharse

Ha ha, Love the quote!

All good

Trev

CK Worldwide have replied to my email and said they'll hopefully have some good news for me this week.. x fingers

Excellent. It seems like it would be a simple matter to build one of their controls
With a different value resistor in it.
Cheers.
Eldon

Potentiometers (the 47Kohm thingies) come in various standard bodies.

You can open up a Miller or Lincoln foot-pedal, and replace the Pot. with a 47Kohm from any reliable online electronics site.

You can weld, so surely you can solder.

Steve S

I have a 50Kohm pot in my 250ex... It's what Everlast sent when I told them mine was junk lol. I had to shorten the shaft with a hacksaw, but it welds no different now than it did with the 47Kohm one.

A 47k and a 50k are going to be virtually indistinguishable from each other in most cases. As long as the sweep covers the range the machine is expecting, it'll work. One could, in theory, take any control such as the steady-grip and replace the pot with the correct value. There is also the matter of having the right connector to plug into the welder. If CK will set one up for this machine, that would be the preferred way to keep warranty etc but it can be done. I made my own trigger control for an Eastwood machine i used to have. Not a big deal.
Cheers.
Eldon

To get technical,

The potentiometer in the pedal is a variable voltage-divider, and will work the same at 47 ohm or 47 Meg-ohm.

The 47K spec is the resistance the circuit supplying the voltage expects to see, so I would not put a 5Kohm pot there, as the current through the legs of the pot would be higher than designed for. I'd have no qualms putting a 50 or 75 Kohm pot in there, as the current will be a bit smaller. The "sweep" will see the same voltage regardless of the ohm-rating of the pot.

I would not, however, scale up a magnitude of ten, like a 470Kohm pot, as there may not be enough current coming from the "sweep" to give an accurate signal to the sensing circuit.

Steve S

Received this response from CK today:

Bevan, the part number for that amperage control would be SGACV-25-2-LG7. I would recommend purchasing that from www.TIGdepot.net, as they will be able to help you with any technical difficulties you might run into with your Everlast machine. The amperage control I just gave you a part number for is something we found that works. We don't make anything that has a 47k potentiometer, but we found that the 25k works. Let me know if you have any questions.