gas lenes - frist welds not so good

stopped by HTP today and picked up a gas lense kit. I tried the 3/32 body with a #8 cup..I left the flow at 12cfh,but arc wanted to wonder quite a bit, and I got a rust colored soot like coating around the weld on steel. The weld looked really bad lot of holes. I looked on line and found some places say to turn the gas up while ours say to turn it down. I was going to other setting but noticed the argon gague was down around 1300psi, so I called it a night and will get a refill in the next day or two

if your using a gas lense what flow rate do you use? what cup?

1300 psi? that tank is still full. Sounds like your tungsten is contaminated and you have a gas leak somewhere. how many amps are you at when it tries to wander?

50amp on the dial, but I was using the foot petal. I switched back to the normal collet body and a #6 cup and the weld and arc went back to normal. So I am thinking I need to adjust the gas flow, just not sure what way

sounds like a contaminated tungsten i run 12-18 cfh with a gas lens

ok going to grind down some more tungsten and bump up the gas flow

ok I see 1300 is not ruuning out...down to 1100 now...bumping the flow up tp 15cph did the trick on aluminum so far, and getting nice beads

Your regulator should be seeing about 45 psi when it's flowing. SO use the tank until it's all the way gone. No sense in wasting some of that gas before ya gotta

ok will do - and here I was ready to take it back at 1000psi

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Originally Posted by dgarnier

ok will do - and here I was ready to take it back at 1000psi

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Yea, it's still allmost half full.
It's like the tank in my truck, the second half seems to go faster than the first half.

Just weld away till it's empty. How big of tank is it?

330cf - been running the 250 quite a bit since I got it

Well I didnt want to get stuck over the weekend with no gas, I took it down to a little under 100psi and took it in for an exchange. The refill was 4$ less this time, glad I got the 330 rather then a smaller tank

Just like I tell people. Bigger tanks are better tanks.

50.04 for a refill on the 330 vs 48 for the 150...sure getting in and out of the truck is more of a task...but having to move it less often works better for me

Wow. My 150 costs more than that to fill here. I plan to get a 330 later probably but I don't want to have to move the thing around and load/unload it.

yeah they sure do have a scam going on the pricing...I paid 38$ to refill a 40cf with c25.

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Originally Posted by dgarnier

yeah they sure do have a scam going on the pricing...I paid 38$ to refill a 40cf with c25.

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What company do you go to fill your tank? I used prax and to refill my 150cf was $54.xx. I forget what he told me it costs to fill a 330 but I do know its more than the 150 so the prices you get are better but like I said, it could just be location.

Its a local shop on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois - I did find that it pays to call 5 or 6 shops..I didnt find 2 with the same price