225LX problems

I'm getting excessive arc that's seems like it's maxing out the machine and melting everything in it's path.

This happens with my cheap Harbor Freight inverter TIG but it shouldn't be happening with the 225.

Right now I'm trying to tack some twisted MIG wire on a belt-buckle. I'm using 2T @ 85 amps on the torch button and momentarily touching the button. About one out of ten tried I get a good arc. Half the times it buzzes like the ground isn't attached or it blows the wire completely off the belt buckle. I've had to cut and re-weld a half dozen times already.


http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...ings/004-2.jpg

What is causing the problem?

85 amps for something like this is way too high it seems. But really, need some more information on how it is behaving. Have you tried it on anything else at any other amps? If it happens with the HF inverter too, it may be something else, like your power supply...the only thing these two units have in common is you and your environment. If you get the same issue from two different sources, there is likely a common link in the operator or the environment.

Try turning the up slope off fully or set it at maybe 1/2 second or less and turn the downslope off.

Pre flow zero. Post flow 5. Pre slope zero. Post slope zero.

I had it up to 105 amps and it was working sometimes. Dropping to 85 didn't improve the arc.

This is a technique I got from welding tips and tricks. Works absolutely great if machine is working correctly.

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/...brication.html

The trick is to not have any gap and short arc/short burst.

I put short length(1/8" long) of .045 wire on inside of belt buckle. It lay on the heavy center hex. Working correctly, the micro burst melts the wire into the hex and twisted wire.

Not working right and it blows the 1/8" piece of wire off the work and melts the twisted wire and blows it off the work. It makes a very loud air blast sound when doing this. When it works right, there's almost no sound.

When there's no arc , only a buzzing from the machine, it's as if the ground isn't attached. I've ground and wire wheeled the ground plate and even tried starting an arc 3" from the ground clamp and I still get the buzz/no arc.

Every once in a while I'll see the amp setting go to 13 amps after a 'no arc' episode. It's not something I can look at while trying to weld.

Try welding on something else...The blast of "air" sound is the bleeding off of excess gas from the argon and can cause arc instability. Also it can be the cause of hard arc starting at times. What are your regulator settings?

It DID sound like a blast of 'air'. I turned it down to 9/10 L. The arc seemed at times to jump away from the pinpoint tip I was trying to direct the arc to.

I do have a post flow going...maybe 3 seconds. Like described, it's a micro burst and really works well for tacking small or thin parts.

9-10 is still too high for this kind of welding. You need about 7 lpm.

The kind of tacking Jody demonstrated is not for sound or quality welds. Trust me. I use this kind of welding technique too. Its not meant to be a final weld solution and its not meant to be very controllable, if you'll see his video, the welds are inconsistent at best. The type of welding you are doing is meant to be welded over to correct any inconsistencies. To weld something like this, you MIGHT need a MAX of 50 amps and probably less.

I tried welding up a rod holder(fishing pole) from 3/8" solid bar and it seems to work fine on heavy stuff. At least the blast didn't seem to affect anything, using both button and foot.

I have some 3/16" brazing rods I want to put in to fill some of the spaces. This is a rough example of what I'm thinking of. How do you weld them to SS?

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...ybt/001-10.jpg

You can't weld brass to SS. You can braze it with O/A or low amp tig, but the two metals are incompatible. You'd end up melting the pieces of rod though and you'd need flux.