Its hard for me to describe because I don't have much experience tigging. I am familiar with general welding practices, I just don't have enough seat time to trouble shoot the tig process. At first I thought it might be a contamination issue, but i'm not 100% sure what or where the contam would come from?


I usually leave the tungsten protrude about half the width of the cup opening and I try to keep it as close to the work as possible without touching. After I grind my tungsten, I make sure to use a stainless wirewheel to once-over the tip before wiping off with acetone. I've made the mistake of touching the tungsten to the work piece and now know what THAT looks like WHEN it happens, but this "bright light" for lack of a better term-when it happens is almost blinding. Its intense enough to cause white spots in your vision with the welding helment on.

Its disappointing because everday I come home and try to look over everything with a new set of eyes hoping I can figure it out, but so far no luck. I usually give it one or two tries to get a nice smooth arc but most times it will just flicker right off the bat and blind me... I just end up putting it away because its too irritating.

What are some of the other things I can look into ruling out?