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Newbie Ramblings on Harbor Freight TIG

I got to play with the new TIG box today. Much improovement thanks to Earnie's suggestions. I found out by experiment that this little inverter has a "lift arc" starting feature. Nothing about it in the manual but it works like the Miller manual sez to use its lift arc. I have not been able to try the lnathanated rods yet but I did find that the ceriated ones work better on really low current than the thoriated ones. I was able to make a couple of nice beads on a coffee can .. along with a lot of holes :) I have been trying to practice on really thin stuff to get the control down better. I opened the box and it has a 10K pot for the current control and 8 F30U60DN

600V 30A diodes for the rectifier. The way it is assembled I don't think it will be reasonable to get A/C out of it. I now see how wonderful a foot control will be and I have that just about figured out. Couple of questions... What do you do if you get metal melted to the insides of the ceramic cone? Should I be using the "Dip It" for MIG with this torch? I was not letting the tungsten stick out far enough a few times and it got nasty on me :) Anyway I think I am hooked on this TIG thing :) I may even drag out Big Blue tomorrow and see if I learned anything :) Thanks for all the help Glenn Neff Medford, OR
Reply to
Glenn
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i'm kinda a newbie with TIG (by TIG standards). i've been messy with my esab

161 many times and never had any metal get stuck to the ceramic cone. are they quality cones and did you have argon flowing at correct flow??
Reply to
Kryptoknight

I doubt the quality of the cones as they are the ones that came with it. I will go see if I can source some new cones today though the ones with the metal stuck cleand up ok with a stone. Probably a bad thing :) I had argon flowing at or above the recomended rate. I think the current may have been too high for the type/diameter of electrode but?? Since getting things dialed in a bit better I have not had the problem re-occure. I was just wondering if they were bad to use now? What about the no stick dip ??

Reply to
Glenn

Chip it off.

Never ever ever

Glad to hear it is going well. Try this exercise to build up your torch control.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Thanks for the tutorial lesson Ernie! I will try that for awhile ... hope the guys at work don't call the guys with the white coats and butterfly nets when they see me chasing washers across my desk :) I got some lanthanated electrodes today and tried them out. The work well in the mid ranges but the ceriated seems to work better on the bottom of the scale (around 5 amps) I figured out how to fix the munged cones when I priced em at the welding store :) At $1 each it is really a no brainer :) Thanks again. Glenn "Ernie Leimkuhler" wrote in message news:210220051223363534% snipped-for-privacy@stagesmith.com...

Reply to
Glenn

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