Little sparks with tig welding steel

I spent a while last night tig welding mild steel. Sometimes little sparks (size of a pinhead) would fly, as though there were very tiny explosions in the weld puddle. (extremely small) Any ideas why that could be happening?

Some possibly relevant things.

  1. I did mess a little bit with adjusting air flow. I got a flowmeter which was not working, so I put the old pressure regulator back and reduced pressure. There were no characteristic brown spots on steel, so, I assume the flow was adequate, but less than I had before.

  1. I installed a water recirculator.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus1740
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I have seen this when I think I am overheating the steel. It seems to go away when I reduce the current and weld slower. Just an idea, I am looking forward to seeing what others have to say.

Brian

Reply to
Brian

Could be. I was welding relatively small things.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus1740

This happens to me if I haven't cleaned the metal adequately. A little bit of oil or schmutz heats up and I get a bit of a pop.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Grey

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