Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone. I'm recently retired from the construction industry. I've been a stick welder for 45 years and thought I could weld anything. So I bought myself a new Miller syn 210 with a spool gun. I've gained new respect for the tig welder. In the past I've only used tig to smooth out welds that were going to be magnafluxed. It's a new learning curve. Thanks to all the info on this site and the incredible videos available.

BillM

You sound like me. Welcome!!

Thanks for the welcome.
What's the best size electrode to start learning/practice with? What I tried first.

I have a new Miller syn 210.

3/32" !.5% lanthanated electrode.
1/8" hot rolled coupons. 3"x5". I found out real quick to grind off the mill scale.
Factory settings. 125amps, volts were running around 9.2 to10.0.

Once I cleaned the coupons I could dab a decent bead.
Then I tried a 1/16" 2% lanthanated on cold rolled coupons.

was doing great until I touched the tungsten with the filler. It seems I had to many amps (125) for the 1/16" electrode.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I use 3/32 80% of the time. As I go up in amperage I use i/8".

A 3/32 lanthanated tungsten will handle most everything your machine throws at it. Even going thinner, the 3/32 is quite capable of a clean arc at low amps. Absent of doing coded work, 3/32 for even 27 amps works well. I swap to a 1/8” for thick ally when I’m running above 180 amps for extended periods, and swap to a 26 style torch when I do. I don’t find much occasion to run a 1/8 tungsten with a 17 torch personally. Either it’s more tungsten than I need, or it’s too high in amperage for the torch (air cooled 17). Hence the paring of the 26-1/8.