Welding Tips and Tricks

I need to do some welding where I can't use my foot pedal unless I can lay on it. What do you do in this situation? I could do it with the old scratch start. Can I put the HTP 221 in a scratch start mode?

You can get a momentary switch or hand control for your 221. See links below.

https://usaweld.com/collections/remote- ... ig-welders


https://usaweld.com/collections/remote- ... nd_control




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croshaul wrote:I need to do some welding where I can't use my foot pedal unless I can lay on it. What do you do in this situation? I could do it with the old scratch start. Can I put the HTP 221 in a scratch start mode?

Yep, just take high-freq off, and use lift-arc or flick the filler rod to the tungsten if you have good coordination. Or order a TIG Button from Dave@tigcontrol.com and don't skip a beat.

TIG Button, best investment I’ve made since I got my welder.


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We pretty much only use tig torch switchs here in Australia. I'm sure people use foot pedals but not too common

Just setup a tig button.
Still getting used to it, only issue is there is no feedback for where you are in the amp range.
With a pedal you know if your at 1/4 or 3/4 of the pedal position.

Thanks guys. I think I bought the wrong hand control. I bought the hand control, bottom link, unit that Thatkid2diesel gave a link to. I think I have about ten minutes into that unit. It sits in the bottom of my tool box. If the button control is simply a start switch, I think I could work with it. I take it that amps will be controlled at the machine and not in the switch. Basically a glorified scratch start?

Oscar, do I have to unplug the pedal?

TIG button is a pressure sensitive amperage control. Very light touch, so it doesn’t fatigue your hand.


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croshaul wrote:Thanks guys. I think I bought the wrong hand control. I bought the hand control, bottom link, unit that Thatkid2diesel gave a link to. I think I have about ten minutes into that unit. It sits in the bottom of my tool box. If the button control is simply a start switch, I think I could work with it. I take it that amps will be controlled at the machine and not in the switch. Basically a glorified scratch start?

Oscar, do I have to unplug the pedal?

You would unplug the foot pedal and plug the button or momentary into the machine same place the foot pedal plugs in. If you got the tig button that Oscar referenced, you would set your maximum amperage and control the amperage with a harder or softer press of the button. If you get a momentary switch like the one I linked to, you set your amperage and when you hit the switch it gives you full amperage to whatever you set it to and hit the switch again cuts it off.

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weldin mike 27 wrote:We pretty much only use tig torch switchs here in Australia. I'm sure people use foot pedals but not too common

Mick, are they the pressure sensitive type that control amperage or just on/off?

croshaul wrote:Thanks guys. I think I bought the wrong hand control. I bought the hand control, bottom link, unit that Thatkid2diesel gave a link to. I think I have about ten minutes into that unit. It sits in the bottom of my tool box. If the button control is simply a start switch, I think I could work with it. I take it that amps will be controlled at the machine and not in the switch. Basically a glorified scratch start?

You can also set your machine up with a sloped up amperage and then a downslope. Set your momentary to 4T to take advantage of these features.

cj737 wrote:

croshaul wrote:Thanks guys. I think I bought the wrong hand control. I bought the hand control, bottom link, unit that Thatkid2diesel gave a link to. I think I have about ten minutes into that unit. It sits in the bottom of my tool box. If the button control is simply a start switch, I think I could work with it. I take it that amps will be controlled at the machine and not in the switch. Basically a glorified scratch start?

You can also set your machine up with a sloped up amperage and then a downslope. Set your momentary to 4T to take advantage of these features.

Good point cj737.

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A Tig Button is headed my way!

Dave, the ones I use are an on off, and you alter your starting current, up slope and downslope on the machine.

croshaul wrote:A Tig Button is headed my way!

Good deal. It should serve you well. People love the tig button!

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and I"ll tell ya what ... that tig button is amazing. the durn button has no movement and still controlls amperage from zero to the desired max setting.

cj737 wrote:

croshaul wrote:Thanks guys. I think I bought the wrong hand control. I bought the hand control, bottom link, unit that Thatkid2diesel gave a link to. I think I have about ten minutes into that unit. It sits in the bottom of my tool box. If the button control is simply a start switch, I think I could work with it. I take it that amps will be controlled at the machine and not in the switch. Basically a glorified scratch start?

You can also set your machine up with a sloped up amperage and then a downslope. Set your momentary to 4T to take advantage of these features.

Not only that, with a momentary on/off switch the HTP can use the TIG-Reset feature. It is a variant of 4T, with the difference that you can cut the amperage to a user-defined % of the peak, using the button itself, and then return to the original peak amperage if you want. IOW, you can manually pulse between two amperages, as defined by you, as often as you want, using only the button.

weldin mike 27 wrote:Dave, the ones I use are an on off, and you alter your starting current, up slope and downslope on the machine.

Thanks Mick, I have one of those that I’m going to try. I’m building a garden trellis that won’t fit on my table so I’ll be crawling around on the floor :-/


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Good luck with it. Pro tip (from jody) if you set your downslope very long, you can hit the button when things get hot, it'll be like backing off the pedal. When it cools down, get back on the button and keep going.

Tig Button is an amperage control device, just like the pedal. It is non an on off switch. No need to set up and down slope(that defeats the purpose of having control of the amperage with the Tig Button.


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dgapilot wrote:Tig Button is an amperage control device, just like the pedal. It is non an on off switch. No need to set up and down slope(that defeats the purpose of having control of the amperage with the Tig Button.


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The comments re: slope are for simple momentary or Lift Arc setups.

My Tig button arrived yesterday. Thank you Dave

Well, I've had a chance to use my new Tig Buttom. I'm really liking it. No real issues, my kit didn't come with the button clip but I can easily live without it. My biggest problem is trying to find my peddle when I'm ready to light up.

The thing that was hard for me with the TIG button is how sensitive it is. Lighting up before I was really ready. I’m getting used to it now. I don’t even think I want to go back to the pedal now.


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These are the torches we have at work. It's an inbuilt button. A tiny click click switch. You click it once to upslope and hold it down to run the set downslope time.