Newbie with a Tig

Ok today was the first full day playing around with my powertig 185, I think I already need a new grinding disk :) anyway my welds obviously aren’t good but I would like to know what I’m doing wrong.
Welding 1/8” mild steel with a 3/32 electrode (2% lanthanated (blue)) and er70s-2 Tig welding rod;
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Sometimes I’m getting a strong flashing light and stops welding (could be because I jump like I just dropped a bomb ;)


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Yeah,

It looks like some slight overheating after about an inch. It also looks like you had trouble keeping up with the filler rod.

But not a bad early effort.

If you're using 1/16" filler, you'll have to do it quicker than 3/32", so 3/32" may be easier to begin with. I tend to like 1/16", to get smaller beads

TIG travel speed is slower than MIG and Stick, so you would do well to pick up your travel speed after the first inch or so, or carefully regulate the heat lower with a foot pedal, if you have one. I mean, a pedal isn't really needed for DC TIG, but if you heat saturate small metal coupons like that, without allowing some cooling between beads, it is a little trickier.

Your flashing light could be your welding lid flashing your eyes, as the sensativity setting may not be low enough.

Or, maybe you blocked the sensors on your welding lid or dipped the tungsten, both of which the welding lid may have sensed, wrongly, as a momentary extinguishing of the arc, which made the lens un-darkened, briefly.

You can prevent that by setting the DELAY on your welding lid to a couple seconds or so, e.g., the sensors will tolerate being briefly obstructed without flashing your eyes, and a little delay is good since glowing metal can be harsh on the eyes too.

You know, it occurred to me further, that since the PT185 has 5 amp DC arc starts, that it may also be that many auto-darkening welding lids might have trouble darkening at that low of an arc initiation.

I mean, lower is generally considered better. And if you're using a passive lens it doesn't matter. Some TIG units have an adjustment for setting arc start amperage.

So, maybe it's your auto-darkening welding lid that is startling you, and just can't deal with low amp starts.

First, slow down.

Christian is right about the helmet. It is flickering. It's not the unit. You should lean over and put your head between the torch and the filler rod so that your helmet sensors can "see" the arc.

I think I need a new helmet because I have the sand sensation on my right eye, checked on the net and people had the same problem with that model (cheap and not that cheap helmet that I paid $100 a few years back), the helmet works fine with mig but not with Tig, so this past weekend I only used my mig. I ordered another helmet from amazon and all the reviews said that works fine with Tig, I will check and if doesn’t work I will send back.


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Back flash can create just as much of a p[roblem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by slanwar

I think I need a new helmet because I have the sand sensation on my right eye, checked on the net and people had the same problem with that model (cheap and not that cheap helmet that I paid $100 a few years back), the helmet works fine with mig but not with Tig, so this past weekend I only used my mig. I ordered another helmet from amazon and all the reviews said that works fine with Tig, I will check and if doesn’t work I will send back.

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Curious what type of helmet did you buy?

Yes, only the newer helmets seem to work with tig at low amperage. Even the Miller classic helmet which gets a good review for a sub $100 helmet, will only go down to 20 amps. That's fine for most tig work, but if you do low amp down to 5 amps, you would need newer technology from Miller. What I'm saying here is that you could use the Miller Classic Series, $68 at cyberweld w/shipping included, but the reality is that it's a mismatch for your welder if it goes below 20 amps on tig. Miller does make a VSi model that will go to 5 amps, this is the cheapest I've seen of the Miller helmets that will do it.

https://store.cyberweld.com/miweheblclse.html

Curious what you ended up with, I have the same problem but my helmet is a non-auto darkening and just difficult to use. I can barely see to start, and not even sure what lens it has.

Whatever any of our choice is, I think it's important to have a good helmet for tig. The sand sensation doesn't sound good, IMO.

Alan

When I was a kid I got blasted twice when my Dad was using the old Lincoln buzz box. I was in misery the first time felt like someone threw a bucket of sand in my face the second time it wasn't as bad.

Mark