Foot Pedal vs Hand switch? (walking the cup)

crouchy · Wed May 27, 2015 2:30 am

Hi guys,

Im getting practice in on 6g test (63mm carbon steel 6mm wall) just wondered if you guys used the foot pedal or the hand switch? Or is it a case of whats comftable for you?

TRACKRANGER · Wed May 27, 2015 4:24 am

crouchy wrote:Hi guys,

Im getting practice in on 6g test (63mm carbon steel 6mm wall) just wondered if you guys used the foot pedal or the hand switch? Or is it a case of whats comftable for you?

I started off with hand switch (2T 4T). My torch even has thumb-wheel control. Moved to a foot-pedal, much better control. YMMV but for me, I never looked back.

Coldman · Wed May 27, 2015 8:43 am

It depends on what you are aiming to do. If you are going to be spooling in a workshop, the pedal is ideal. If you're going to be in field doing pipework you may as well get used to a torch switch now while you're practicing cause the pedal is of little use out there.

crouchy · Wed May 27, 2015 8:56 am

Thanks guys, will punt the hand switch back and practice using that. Thumb wheel control you say? What make of touch do you have trackranger??

taz · Wed May 27, 2015 9:04 am

I use a hand switch or even scratch start for all my steel pipe welding. The only time I will use a pedal welding pipe is for aluminum or on the bench.

TRACKRANGER · Wed May 27, 2015 4:16 pm

crouchy wrote:Thanks guys, will punt the hand switch back and practice using that. Thumb wheel control you say? What make of touch do you have trackranger??

I should have clarified. The torch switch is absolutely fine. The thumb-wheel control compared to foot-pedal control is where the foot pedal is much easier. Again, it depends if you're sitting at a bench or standing. Foot-pedals are quite difficult to use unless you are seated.

I'll try and get a photo of the torch later today

TRACKRANGER · Wed May 27, 2015 4:24 pm

Here it is:

plain ol Bill · Wed May 27, 2015 10:53 pm

The only TIG torches I ever saw on the jobs were dry rigs running off the same power source for stick machines. If you were really lucky you might have a remote amperage control but most of the time you set your amperage close and lived with what you had rather than crawl out of the boiler and adjust and crawl back in several times. If you were really lucky you could run a long ground lead to the work and swap polarity by switching leads for stick welding. Contractors just won't spend the money for the nice stuff if you can get by with less.