Power Tig 185 Dual Voltage / my first time welding

[Rodsmachineshop]

what i have learned with 110 v welders is they weld crappy unless you have a dedicated 110v outlet and wired with 12 gauge or thicker wire with 20 amp outlet . a 15 amp outlet with 14 gauge just wont cut it . I had a couple of 110 welders at my old shop in California and had my 110v wiring all in 12 gauge they worked great

[Rambozo]

what i have learned with 110 v welders is they weld crappy unless you have a dedicated 110v outlet and wired with 12 gauge or thicker wire with 20 amp outlet . a 15 amp outlet with 14 gauge just wont cut it . I had a couple of 110 welders at my old shop in California and had my 110v wiring all in 12 gauge they worked great

Trying to weld aluminum with a 120 volt welder is just not easy no matter what. Pre-heat like crazy and have a good circuit. Much better just to switch to 230 volt, since you have that option.

The Hobart rep that would come by my old shop to demo new welders had an interesting cheat. He would run them off a generator that was set to over 150 volts on a 30 amp circuit. Makes any welder look a lot better.

[CMJ]

What is the technique for welding thin steel to thicker steel? I have some ~1/16 stainless an I tried to make a T joint with some thinner stainless that was around 1/32. I kept blowing through the thin stuff. I tried to ride the pedal and give less amps as I moved over the thin stuff, and that helped, but then my 1/16 filler rod would stick or just ball up and look like crap.

[Rambozo]

A general rule of thumb is to use filler rod that is the thickness of your material or less. This is because it might take more current to melt the filler than the base metal. What you describe is possible, but it will require skill to pull it off. I would get some .040" filler to make things easier. But any kind of thin welding takes practice. If you concentrate the heat on your .062" part, add the filler there, then wash the puddle up to the .030" part, you could produce a good weld. I would say start with .125" material, then .062" before trying .030.

[CMJ]

I started to build a small welding table. Are these welds looking alright? It's a 1/8 plate with 1/8 L pieces.

[KSmith]

I started to build a small welding table. Are these welds looking alright? It's a 1/8 plate with 1/8 L pieces.

The only thing I could suggest to make better welds is to clean the metal a bit more, down to shiny steel. Things will go alot better that way.

ken