soft and stiff settings???????

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I have a  small Miller CST250  arc welder.It has 2 buttons..Amp adjust and Process select.The Process Select has 5 options...Lift arc tig------Exx18 soft and stiff------Exx10 soft and stiff.Can anyone tell me what the Soft and Stiff settings are and their functions.thanks
Reply:Stick welding....xx18 is 7018, try them out and you will notice the difference when starting your arc.xx10 is for 6010 rod etc....same deal, try them out and you will answer your own question.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720
Reply:I thought you were gonna get into something way too personal. Thanks for not doing that.Miller thunderbolt 250Decastar 135ERecovering tool-o-holic ESAB OAI have been interested or involved in Electrical, Fire Alarm, Auto, Marine, Welding, Electronics ETC to name a just a few. So YES you can own too many tools.
Reply:This machine has what they call a choke. It regulates amperage, and you can control your arc characteristics. Soft is a less aggresive arc, for say, stringer caps that you want to stack rather than dig, or penetrate. Stiff is the opposite of that, for thick materials and root passes on pipe and the like......it's the newer technology.Aws:  SMAW d1.1 , d1.5, b31.3 , 1104
Reply:Manufacturers have different terms.  With Lincoln it is crisp and soft.  The relation between arc voltage or arc gap will change with amperage.  How much it changes refers to the crispness or softness.   When you are doing TIG or SMAW on the flat you want soft characteristics.  When you pull back the voltage rises and have a longer arc, the amperage only slightly drops.  With TIG you really don't want the amperage to change.  Unless a TIG power supply has a crisp adjustment it is very difficult to weld out of position with stick using the same power supply.   With crisp when you draw back and the voltage rises the amperage drops significantly.  You want this characteristic in order to make it easier to whip and control your heat when using cellulose rods out of position.  Many people select soft for E 7018 because you cannot vary the arc length as much or you lose shielding.  I dial in a little bit of crisp when using 7018.  It is up to personal preferences.   If you have older texts they often refer it as changing the slope.  This refers to the slope of a graph plotting arc voltages and amperages when you are welding.  If you have amp and voltmeter display pull a long and short arc while looking at the meter displays.   If you don't have voltage displays you can take a light bulb and socket.  Wire it temporarily between your ground clamp and electrode holder.  The bulb will glow with about 60 volts open circuit.  When you strike up and weld the bulb will dim.  You can change the amount of dimming by increasing or decreasing the arc length.  On stiff the change will be greater.  This is an old demonstration trick used by instructors to illustrate arc voltage.Last edited by lotechman; 03-25-2012 at 11:54 PM.Reason: addition
Reply:Thanks man.