OK Folks,

Things went better today but only did steel. Sadly, the cups have cracked as they built up with splatter and that put a quick end to them. I'm curious, how long (or how much life) do folks get out of their rods and other consumables?

Anyhow, with steel, I'm able to get a good "cone of arc" going and was pushing a puddle around but, the tip was melting away quickly and before you know it, I was shoving the cup into the pool. Of course, I was in DC mode while doing this. I was welding some 1/8" plate, butt joint with 3/32 rod, 10 lpm, foot pedal, 150A on the dial. When the large cones cracked, I dropped down to 1/16 rod and worked on thinner metal but I ran out of play time and wrapped-up.

As for TIG gloves, I have a much better pair of stick gloves than what I was using earlier and I slipped a strip of AL under the pinky to insulate. Was a good compromise for now.

And last, I found time to do some stick practice with the new machine and did some standing vertical and overhead. I avoid overhead like the plague and have rare occasion to do it. These positions aren't my favorite but, I gotta say, this machine helped a LOT. The vertical almost passed for a flat and the overhead looked like my vertical with the old Lincoln. BTW: This isn't my full-time gig but, when the day job is done, I've spent the last couple years in the garage shop behind the lathe, mill, surface grinder etc and I have no formal training in welding.