embarrassed and excited at the same time

Switch to gas lens collet bodies and cups and you can drop your gas use to 10-12 CFH.

What I did when I had a scratch start unit was to have a piece of copper plate grounded and near the part I was going to weld and would run off the copper plate to the project that was being welded. Is the regulator ajustable for cfm if so try to reduce it. Ed ke6bnl

Yeah, embarrassed. But you won't quit despite the shame, will you? That's called addiction.

Re the gas: you may try running a series of simple beads and cutting back incrementally on the gas flow until you reach the threshold at which the gas no longer shields, then bump flow up a bit until it works again. That's your basic flow index for your present torch.

As for gas lense: get them. The advantages are a) reduced gas consumption and b) much longer tungsten stick out. We are not talking about a big expense here, and besides, you'll pay for the lense(s) in the gas you save. You'll also be able to carry the lenses over to your dream tig welder.

Go here to get some basic information:

If you have a standard torch--I don't know anyting about the harbour freight tig stuff--then you can just get the parts to add to your torch body and bob's your uncle! (You probably have a torch type called "W17" or a Weldcraft-type 17 torch body.) When I switched into gas lenses, I found the learning at first confusing. So ask questions here if you are interested--you'll get all the info you need. (I just thought: you can also do a google groups search on this newsgroup using the search terms "gas" and "lense" and you'll get previous discussions on the topic.)

Best, David Todtman

The way I like to scratch start is....place the side of the cup on the metal,rotate until there is about the arc gap you want between the tungsten and metal,then take you filler rod and very quickly pass it through said gap causing the arc to start.Doing this you have your arc gap where you want it to start welding.

geez i thought that was called a hobby :)