I had hoped to start playing with my new 200DX over Christmas, but it just didn't happen.

I set time aside today, watched some basic videos and gave it a try. Wow - I'm blown away at how much cleaner and easier to control it is over MIG. I don't know anything about TIG, but the 200DX seems really sweet.

I'm using 3/32, 2% Lanthanated, 2T and a gas flow of about 6 on 5/16 carbon steel.

Some of the videos I saw said to start practicing without filler, so that's what I did. Initially I had it at 60 amps and barely got an arc. After the bare minimum RTFM time, I went to 200 amps. Here's what I got after a couple passes:

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On the lower amp setting I hit the steel a little. I don't know if that's what affected the tip, or if it was something else.

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I never imaged this could be so much nicer than MIG.

So, a couple questions:

For just practicing running a bead, are those the right settings?

Any feedback on the bead? (After MIG it seemed like a thing of beauty to me, but I know I have a lot to learn.)

When an electrode gets to the point shown, does it need resharpened or can it still be used?

On some of the earlier passes, I got a lot of fairly big holes. What's the cause of that?

Thanks