Welding Tips and Tricks

i know, i know, you have read a million of these but im just soo excited gotta share.
today our clothes dryer took a crap and we had to buy a new one, so i explained to the wife how a gas dryer would be
a better route than an electric one. so on the way home from getting the dryer i stopped by a picked up a esab multimaster 260
since i now have the free'd space in the panel for it.
as fast as i could i installed the new dryer and pulled the electrical wire from the old dryer threw all the walls back to the garage where the main panel is and installed the outlet for the welder plug and there i was ready to go.
thank god the dryer had 6ga to it.
the welder also came with a full tank of gas.
iv mig/stick welded for years so i didnt even try those options, i went right for the TIG
hadnt read much on here about it or talked to anyone about it.
i was even too excited to clean off the bench so i kneeled on one knee in the driveway infront of the garage and put the torch together
picked the smallest tungsten and cone put the setting real low and tried it out.
i only had about 10 mins to play around due to my family needing me elsewhere.
i think its AWESOME, the control you have with the weld ohhhhhhhhhhhh i love it
of course i got the tungsten stuck a few times trying to make the arc and all that but overall
i think i did pretty good for what i had and the time available.
wasnt sure if the cone could touch the work pc or not so i didnt let it.
theres 2 things i have figured out already.
1. it sucks that you have to scribe the tungsten on the pc before the arc will happen
2. a pedal is in the near future for more user control
oh ya, the wife loves how the gas version drys the clothes better.

1-glad you enjoy the new welder,new toys are the cats a$$
2-I am most impressed with the whole elect-gas for the greater good. nicely played with the extra outlet..

Now practice on everything you can get your hands on. Thats what i did and still do as much as I can.

Why do you need a pedal? if u ask me, i would get the optional pulsed mig thingy and forget about the Tig part for now, for a good Tig weld u need at least hf start (specially for beginners) not to mention up/downslope and pre/post gas (that translates in a new dedicated Tig machine).

Welding mig will get you way better results then tig.

Nice machine btw, i love esab.

dude, tig is so fun. It really, really is.

Until you start welding stainless, like I did this week. Then you will cuss. Alot

That is a great story by the way, switchin out the elec for the gas dryer . I cant believe they ran 6 guage cable though, thats real heavy for a dryer.

thanks for the comments guys, 6 amp for the dryer is allot i thought too, but the dryer is also about 115 ft from the panel (thats how long the wire was).
i thought the pre/post flow module for that welder would only control the mig part of the machine. not the tig.
i guess i never checked into it further than that.
does that mean the inductance control would also work for the tig part.
HF start would be nice but if i was sitting down on something i wouldnt have a prob with scratch start.
but yes, a lincoln pres. tig 225 is on my mind. or else i have looked into an everlast powerpro 205/256 any input on either ?
as for the pedal, im told that will control amps so you can control the puddle and what not. (maybe i understood wrong)
and for the pre/post gas, why can i not just turn the knob on the tig gun just a little before i weld and leave it for a little after and then turn it off.. i know its a hastle but can be done.
as for the the pulsed mig and stuff, i have a mig welder that came factory with a pulse,stitch,spot and all those goodies so im not soo worried about it with this one. i will probably get the inductance control because i hear that helps allot.
this is the first machine i have with a digital readout (ill have to get used to that) its kinda different.
nice to see i got some responce, thanks guys
have a good day

dustelf wrote:Why do you need a pedal? if u ask me, i would get the optional pulsed mig thingy and forget about the Tig part for now, for a good Tig weld u need at least hf start (specially for beginners) not to mention up/downslope and pre/post gas (that translates in a new dedicated Tig machine).

Welding mig will get you way better results then tig.

Nice machine btw, i love esab.

I would choose tig over mig all day, so would most I believe. The foot pedal would be a definate. You will need with the thinner guage, makes life alot easier. As far as better results? Tig all day. only benefit to mig is its alot faster.
Anthony

anthonyfawley wrote:
I would choose tig over mig all day, so would most I believe. The foot pedal would be a definate. You will need with the thinner guage, makes life alot easier. As far as better results? Tig all day. only benefit to mig is its alot faster.
Anthony

tig all day= mig only half day
mig cheaper then tig
tig all day without HF? =grind more tungsten then weld.

experience with mig, 0 with tig , witch one u think gets better results?

as i don't intend to get this to a dispute tig vs mig, I would say Stick is king for home use , and I'm tig welding ss for a living.

if you gotta weld production, and really crank out alot of bead, migs the way to go. If you need critical, x-ray quality weld, then you use tig.

J_68, my 220 recepticle for my welder is 110 feet from the panel, and I ran 8guage and a 50 amp breaker for it. 6guage is still overkill for a dryer which is usually on a 30 amp circuit, or maybe a 40. Either way its oversized, but in this case it worked out for you

edit: ya know what, I may be wrong on that. Welders you dont have to use such a high guage wire because you only use the current intermittently, versus something like a light bulb that is designed to stay on for hours at a time, or in this case, a dryer. So that 6 guage might not be oversized after all.

i agree with you kermdawg overkill it is, im thinking that they used 6ga because it was left over from when the builder installed the hot tub
thats the only other thing in the house that has 6ga wire.

i agree, every type of welding has its place, theres a reason why there is just more than 1 type of welder made
and for what i do i wish i would have just ponied up for a tig welder long ago.
now i wish i would have done so for an ac/dc model, live n learn i guess
guess the stove will have to die now