NOOB Tig Welder in need of questions answered

hello guys im very new to tig welding but have done alot of other kinda of welding. ive been welding/fabbing for about 2-3 years on my own stuff and other peoples stuff.

Ok so i ordered my power pro 205 tig and just got it hooked up lastnight (had to install new box in garage) and im using what came with the setup very small #4 cup and i only have rare earth 3/32 so i know this isnt the best combo but im waiting on my bigger cuts to come in sooo anyways i started on mild steel 1/8th inch thick seemed to weld pretty good so went to stainless 1/4 flange i had laying around welded ok need bigger lens for better coverage then went to aluminum. heres my deal i watched a vid from weldingtipsandtricks.com on setting up so he has his leads hooked up torch hooked to - and ground hooked to + and hes welding aluminum and steel hooked this way mine wont weld aluminum this way it will just eat tungstens i have to switch the leads around to get it to weld is this normal??? jody was saying going from steel to aluminum all he had to change was dc to ac and make sure the hz and balance are set right then weld away.

Sorry guys my forum writing sucks ive been told its hard to read cuz i put it all together.

thanks Eric

You just flip the switch for ac on your machine... no need to swap leads.

Yep switch to AC for aluminum and make sure your balance is around 20-30 if the material is clean. To much balance will destroy electrodes quickly. Depending on what weld joint, adjust the AC frequency accordingly. For a flat butt joint my frequency is around 70-100

Welcome to the forum, Eric! If you don't mind me asking, what's your location?

Just curious- when you went from stainless to aluminum, did you alter settings and switches on your control panel *and* swap the leads?

im in iowa

Ya i went from dc to ac the problem was i had the balance set to 65% and i went down to 30 now and it works great now thanks guys

The Everlast balance control is backwards from Miller, so if you see Miller settings, just use the opposite. Switching leads has the same effect as that for AC, as you figured out.

Doesn't Miller actually use settings that technically do not make sense in terms of the balance?

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Originally Posted by zedron

Doesn't Miller actually use settings that technically do not make sense in terms of the balance?

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Not really, both companies do a percentage adjustment, but one is % positive and one is % negative. It's AC so it's just a coin toss on which one you use. You can use positive and call it cleaning or negative and call it penetration. The old Syncrowaves used to have a knob that went from max cleaning to max penetration. It was just numbered 1-10 and wasn't a true percentage because the balanced position was number 3. The actual percent is a much better way, and either pos or neg just a function of brand preference.