Hi everyone, I'm a complete noob and I seem to be having trouble. While trying to stick weld with any rod I start in the middle of the recommended amperage range and see how it goes. I always end up passed the recommended amperage or higher to get a "reasonable" bead and get the frying bacon sound. Its tough to know the right amperage when your just starting but the beads look better past the upper recommended amperage. So... is this normal or is my PP256 not "calibrated" correctly?

I had my wife watch the display that was set at 120 amps and I ran a bead and she said it only dropped to 117 amps while welding.

I've had to do this with 3/32 6013, 6011 and 1/8 6011 all DCEP