You might be having trouble simply on the way you strike up. Experienced hands just tap the rod but when things go wrong we play "airplane". To strike up pretend you are back in your youth playing with toy airplanes and gradually land the tip of the rod on the steel keeping a forward motion then take off again. Do that a few times until you have the feel of the arc sparking as you land and take off. Next step is to land and touch then take off the surface just slightly, stop your forward motion, and hold the gap. Remember that as the rod burns off you have to keep lowering the tip. If you can maintain an arc for several seconds the end gets hot enough that it is relatively difficult to get too close and have the rod stick. Dragging the tip across the surface is one method that works but is frowned upon because it leaves arc tracks. For home use with a stubborn welder or electrode it is fool proof. Randy
I was having issues striking an arc and was told to be patient, practice is needed due to low OCV on these lil junkboxes.
last night I spent two hours trying to get an arc. was able to burn off about an inch of 6011 1/8" and maybe a quarter of 6011 3/32"
was able to get plenty of sparks, but the rods just would not sustain an arc. brand new rods too
this is getting me to think that maybe the box needs some TLC, or I really need some tutorials about striking an arc that have good sections on troubleshooting bad techniques.
I don't think I've had this much problem with my dads 240V arc box, nor with the wirefeed that was at my last job.
some suggestions? preferably links?