Welding Tips and Tricks

I have a AHP ALPHA TIG. It's a good starter unit. Here recnetly it started shocking me through the filler rod when I start a puddle. It normarly does it once or twice. Only at the beginning of the weld and it only happens on AC pulse


Does anyone have any ideas on what could cause this? I've changed torches , tungsten, collet body's I don't have a clue what it could be. Thanks for you help on this.

How's your ground? That's where I'd look first.

I don't have a really good answer at the moment so these are guesses. Is your hand or glove wet or damp? This can cause a slight shock although I don't know why you should get a shock at all through your filler. Again a guess and not a insult to your intelligence but are you getting shocked if/when you touch the tungsten? The only other thing is what Dave suggested, your ground. Sorry not much of a answer.
-Jonathan

I'm getting a slight shock when I first dab the filler. As so as the filler gets close to the arc I get a shock. Ive checked the ground, I'm not touching the tungsten to the work piece. It's coming up the filler rod and only does it on AC pulse.

Bholcomb87,

One possibility is that you are trying to (or on accident are...) feed the rod into the arc to drip the filler, rather than feeding the rod into the front of puddle. Dripping can be done in DC mode on steels, but will shock the crap out of you in HFAC mode.

Observe your rod placement as you dip... If you're not consistent, you will occassionaly put the rod in the arc, and get zapped.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:Bholcomb87,

One possibility is that you are trying to (or on accident are...) feed the rod into the arc to drip the filler, rather than feeding the rod into the front of puddle. Dripping can be done in DC mode on steels, but will shock the crap out of you in HFAC mode.

Observe your rod placement as you dip... If you're not consistent, you will occassionaly put the rod in the arc, and get zapped.

Steve S

That was the first thing that I thought too. Why? Because I still do it occasionally. Worse when I have to lay on the concrete up under something or have to lay/reach across what I am welding. Now I put carpet squares down if I can.

Otto Nobedder wrote:Bholcomb87,

One possibility is that you are trying to (or on accident are...) feed the rod into the arc to drip the filler, rather than feeding the rod into the front of puddle. Dripping can be done in DC mode on steels, but will shock the crap out of you in HFAC mode.

Observe your rod placement as you dip... If you're not consistent, you will occassionaly put the rod in the arc, and get zapped.

Steve S

Now that you say that it makes sense, will have to try it and see what happens. I am sure it has happened to me just don't remember it off hand.
-Jonathan

If it's not what Steve said, its the ground. Open up your power source and check internal connections if you have already checked your return lead and clamp. Are you clamped onto shiny metal?

I did some aluminum welding this morning and didn't have any problems and my ground is clamped to my 3rd hand witches has silicon bronze on all the contact points. I've checked all my outer connections and changed torches. It must be in the power source. Thanks guys for all the input I really appreciate it.

Did you miss the whole section from Steve and TamJeff?

GreinTime wrote:Did you miss the whole section from Steve and TamJeff?

A weak ground connection in the machine IS a real possibility, and can be intermittent, so it's worth investigating.

Another possibility I hadn't considered... HFAC is more prone to shock (in the manner the OP describes), if one is long-arcing when starting the puddle, as some of the HF will jump longer distances to the rod. This is easy enough to do at the beginning of a puddle, regardless of one's experience.


I'll be interested to see what finally solves it.

Steve S

I wasn't discounting that fact, it was just mere conjecture from the fact that he did not make any mention of changing or examining his filler wire technique.

I made the assumption he commented on what he felt most likely applied.

I do suspect, since he commented it happens only on AC pulse, there's something else in play, but one still has to rule out one thing at a time.

Once he finds the source of the problem, we may all learn something.

Steve S

I fell asleep in welding class one day, only to be awakened when my neighbor struck an arc on his filler metal that was touching on the metal divider I was leaning against lol. That scared the shit out of me lol. My ear tingled for the rest of the day, and the whole class learned some new swear words

I got a handle on thanks guys for all your help. It was the ground cable to Denis connection.

I had a ground cable from another welder that I was using on my tig. That cable had a connection issues at the Dinse plug. It is from the factory so I don't know exactly what it is I just know that plug is bad. I swapped it out everything's all good. I knew it wasn't technique I've been using that welder for over a year now and never had any problems before. It's been awhile since I've weld on AC maybe a month or so. That's way I haven't noticed it before. That's around how long ago I put the longer ground lead on.


I'm going to do some more digging to see exactly what the problem was. I'll keep you posted
Thanks again y'all did guide me to the problem. Because of what y'all said made me evaluate my technique and setup.
Thanks again

Brian

Not a problem man! Glad to see you figured it out!