Welding Tips and Tricks

I am an apprentice pipefitter/welder I love welding and im extremely fascinated by it but i am a beginner....so i have some questions about my machine that i cannot figure out so feedback would be greatly appreciated.

i just recently purchased a tweco fabricator 141i it allows you to TIG,MIG, and stick off of household current
i want to scratch start TIG weld because primarily that's what we do in the field and i want to work on getting my skills better...i am using 1/8" tungsten (thoriated 2%) on 1/8" mild steel with 90 amps which is the maximum amperage i can use on stick mode... it works i can strike up an arc but my problem is it feels like im not getting enough juice the puddle is extremely small i can barley melt down the metal so i was wondering if i need to step down to 3/32 tungsten or am i not getting the amount of amperage it says im getting?????

like i said any feedback would be great thank you

90 amps is not much, I think you'll need to flip it to tig mode to get your practice time.

Learning to scratch to start the arc doesn't take much practice and is the smallest part of the job - actually time welding is what you are likely after.
Flip 'er to tig and have at it

3/32" tungsten is plenty for that machine.

I don't have a foot pedal for the machine yet so that's why I can't use the lift tig option but I would think that 3/32 tungsten would be enough for 90 amps??

You don't need a pedal, but you will need a switch to turn on the juice in tig mode.

eric325 wrote:I don't have a foot pedal for the machine yet so that's why I can't use the lift tig option but I would think that 3/32 tungsten would be enough for 90 amps??

Did you buy the torch w/switch with the welder? That will do it too.

Here is a tungsten chart for you - as you can see 3/32" is great plenty, 1/16" would do it too.

thanks for the chart I actually used a 1/16" tungsten and it works great.....I do need the foot pedal cause its lift tig mode and I only have a tig torch that my stinger hooks up to so I only can scratch start at the moment but I am looking into buying a foot pedal and a new torch once I get some money

Ok, try this. Leave your mig gun attached with the 8 pin connector connected. Put you tig torch in the neg terminal, work lead on positive. Set you machine to tig mode, select 4t mode and put the "voltage"(down slope) to mid position. set your amps to what ever you want. Now put your tungsten on the piece you want to weld, press your MIG torch swicth, and lift up your tig torch...you should have just had a lift start on your tig torch...let go of the mig switch and continue welding, with 4t mode it will keep the power on. When you want to stop welding, press and hold your mig gun switch...tig torch should go into down slope to gradually taper your current down. When you release the switch your current should stop. You can use it this way until you get a switch for your torch, or a foot pedal.

Dave

TxBigRed - that cheating - probably why I like it

wow that's awesome thanks dave....I appreciate the help

Well you know what they say, necessity is the mother of invention. I recently bought a 181i and the guy I bought it from said that he could only do scratch start with his tig torch, so that's what I came up with to test the lift start function before I bought it.

I'm a firm believer that laziness is the true mother of all invention or else we would still only have the basics, but that's just me.

Len

Braehill wrote:I'm a firm believer that laziness is the true mother of all invention or else we would still only have the basics, but that's just me.

Len

You know that's why we got remote controls for our televisions....some guy got tired of trying to use a long stick to poke at it and his kids grew up and moved out

Txbigred tried your set up there and it works great I have plenty of amperage for 1/8" tungsten ....appreciate the help

Braehill wrote:I'm a firm believer that laziness is the true mother of all invention or else we would still only have the basics, but that's just me.

Len

Laziness is my greatest asset as an employee. Wrap your head around that idea for a moment.

Because I'm lazy and intelligent, I will always find the easiest and quickest way to do a job. Then, everyone can do it that way, and the company saves money.

Being lazy has made me one of the best paid hands in my shop.

Steve S

I'm what my dad called 'ambitiously lazy', meaning I work like hell to get done so I can set around and bullshit.


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eric325 wrote:Txbigred tried your set up there and it works great I have plenty of amperage for 1/8" tungsten ....appreciate the help

Good deal. Glad I could help.

Dave

@Eric and Dave,
Sorry about the detour (aka hijack) there.

Len

It's all good. Problem solved, now we can bullshit... [WINKING FACE]