Welding Tips and Tricks

My son has to use a Lincoln Power Mig to tig weld by scratch start and only get 3-5 short welds before the electrode is buggred up. His Forman set the adjustments and my son has no clue what he did. Son says it's electrode negative with pure argon but that's it. He's complained but the Forman says that's (Lincoln 350) is a POS. Forman sounds incompetent. My son welds perfectly on my Diversion 160 and has graduated certified pipe welding so he's not that new. Anyone know anything about the Lincoln Power Mig 350 ?

Google is your friend
http://lincolnelectric.com/en-us/Equipm ... ct=K2403-2
The operator manual is on that page as a link to a pdf. There is 2 models, pick the right one.
I dont have one of these, but reading the manual makes me think about selling the first born to buy one.
Have your son read the manual, he'll probably then be heads and shoulders above the super in knowledge on it after that.
What exactly is happening with the electrode, what size electrode, type etc, what is he welding, mild steel, stainless, how thick.
Any idea what the settings on the machine are vs what they should be.

Some machines are lemons, but not many over $4000, usually its operator ignorance of its requirements and settings.

I have one and its a gem. Don't know what took me so long to get one. I haven't tigged much with it yet but it's all in the settings. It is a lift arc machine not scratch start. Which means you have to touch the base metal to initiate the arc. I can say it's taken some getting used to to figure out all its little intricacies and I'm still not there yet but a good read through the manual helps for sure. What do the welds look like? I'm not a Mr Tig but something seems wrong if you are smoking tungsten like that. Size? Cfh? Torch? More of an equipment description would help.

unclenicknack,
I have and use the Lincoln 350MP on TIG and have had absolutely no problems with it. If it really is on electrode negative and he is using argon there are only a few things I can think it could be. One is it is set on the wrong setting. On the 350MP your mode needs to be on 3 and there are only two other settings available to you, besides your amperage, and that is your post flow and start. I typically am welding SS with it so I set the post flow to 10 (seconds) and the start is what amperage you want it to start at and how long you want it to be at that set amperage. If I had to guess your son is probably not using a foot pedal. If he can get one and hook it up the the 350MP it will become much easier to control and you will not need to snap out which could be causing the contamination. I am using a 26V (valve) torch and I leave the valve open when I have the foot pedal hooked up as it will open the gas valve up for me. In the end I am thinking the machine is possible set on the wrong mode since you said the Foreman adjusted the machine.
-Jonathan