Walking the Dog, But Not the Cup

 

I read the manual for the welder and figured out what the problem was. When you set the machine up for TIG welding, the ground cable needs to be positive and the torch lead needs to be negative. On the old welder there was a lever that you moved for either AC, DC+, or DC-. For TIG on steel DC-, or straight polarity, is the necessary setting. Since the new welder doesn't have a polarity lever to change the polarity, it would make sense you would swap out the leads from the stick welding setting of DC+. However, the Miller welders at the college change the polarity automatically when you change from TIG on aluminum, to TIG on steel. Don't know why, but I assumed my machine would be the same. I was on auto-pilot, I guess.

The welds in the photo are on a piece of stainless just to verify that I had things figured out. I made no effort to make things pretty, but rather, to play with the settings and become more familiar with the machine. I'll try some aluminum in the near future. I switch back and forth between metals on a regular basis, so I need to get where I can just turn it on, fiddle with the dials a little, and go to it.

After getting the settings figured out, I bolted on an empty MIG wire spool to wrap the torch and foot pedal cord around. I need to swap places with the plasma cutter to give myself a couple more feet of torch lead. Right now, I can just barely reach the vise on the bench. A couple more feet will help, another ten would be better. I have an extension cord for the incoming power on the machine and it rolls around easily. If I put the argon tank on the cart, I could roll the welder most anywhere I need it in the shop or get a longer argon hose and leave the tank chained to the wall. That would be a cheap and easy solution.

The ham radio club is having a car show today, if it doesn't get rained out, that is. I'll be helping, not sure in what capacity, but it doesn't matter much to me. If you're going to be in an organization, you really should contribute something.