New to tig and having problems

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Hi all, I bought a eastwood tig 200 and am trying to tig stainless. It's 430 stainless 1/16". I set it up like the chart on the tig. red electrode 1/16, gas 99% 2% o/2, 50 to 90 amps, filler 1/16" 308l, I tried a few test passes and it was ok but i kept having to turn up the heat to get the same melt and now it is turned all the way up and won't melt at all. It melts the electrode though. I am not sure what's going on. i am use to my mig and never have any problems with it. I should of takin tig in school so i at least have a clue what's going on. Can anyone help?Thanks, David
Reply:You need 100% argon. Make sure you are on dc.100amos is enough, that machine tends to run a bit cooler than what it says.Torchmate 2x2 CNC with Flashcut CNC controlsHypertherm Powermax45 Esab ET220i Razorweld 195 MigRazorweld 200ac/dc TigTormach 770, Tormach xstechRazorweld, Vipercut/Vipermig, SSC Foot Pedal Dealer
Reply:Also if your melting the electrode you may be weldi g with the electrode positive....the torch needs to be conncted to the neg side which will put all that heat into the work instead of the tungsten electrodeMiller Syncrowave 210 w/CK FlexLoc 150  3/6/14ESAB PCM 1125 Plasma CutterAtlas 12x36 LatheACER 9x42 3hp millHarig 612 Surface GrinderDRINK Machine              welding&fabrication
Reply:Sounds like Gamble and Chevydyl have both problems covered. When you get that fixed you will find 90 amps too high for 1/16" stainless. Depending on the joint 45-65 amps will get you close to where you want to be.Airco Ac/Dc 300 HeliwelderMillerMatic 200 (stolen)Miller Maxstar 150STLMiller AEAD200LE (welding and generating power) Hobart MIG
Reply:Originally Posted by chevydylAlso if your melting the electrode you may be weldi g with the electrode positive....the torch needs to be conncted to the neg side which will put all that heat into the work instead of the tungsten electrode
Reply:If it's an inverter ditch the red(thoriated) tungsten.Ceriated is a good performing inverter tungsten.Also put either a large cup or a gas lense on to help with gas coverage.
Reply:Originally Posted by vwguy3If it's an inverter ditch the red(thoriated) tungsten.Ceriated is a good performing inverter tungsten.Also put either a large cup or a gas lense on to help with gas coverage.
Reply:as stated, your polarity sounds wrong. I have burned plenty of tungsten switching from stick to tig and leaving polarity dcep lol.though I have zero experience with 430 stainless, (I only have worked 304 and 316) im backing up who said your gas is wrong. 100% argon is all I have ever used, though I do hear 50/50 ar/he works great for aluminum. all I have ever used 98/2 for is spray-arc mig, especially on stainless.keep at it man, tig is very cool once you get the hang of it. remember, for dc work especially, good, sharp tungsten held about as close as possible to the work will make it look great. then you will notice the cup is conveniently close to the work and learn to walk that sob! since you are learning, spend the dough and get lots of tungsten to sharpen and keep handy. that way your not so discouraged when you "dip" it and have to walk back to the grinderLast edited by 92dlxman; 12-25-2013 at 10:28 PM.bosses stuff:trailblazer 325maxstar 200my stuff:sa 200fronius transpocket 180100 amp Lincoln w/f97 f350 DITKevin
Reply:You can't mix the polarity on that machine, so like Oscar said he may be in AC mode with too much balance (clearance on this machine)Torchmate 2x2 CNC with Flashcut CNC controlsHypertherm Powermax45 Esab ET220i Razorweld 195 MigRazorweld 200ac/dc TigTormach 770, Tormach xstechRazorweld, Vipercut/Vipermig, SSC Foot Pedal Dealer
Reply:The mixed gas is probably going to be the major culprit since it'll burn the tungsten up in a just a few seconds with O2 in the equation.Esab Migmaster 250Lincoln SA 200Lincoln Ranger 8Smith Oxy Fuel setupEverlast PowerPlasma 80Everlast Power iMIG 160Everlast Power iMIG 205 Everlast Power iMIG 140EEverlast PowerARC 300Everlast PowerARC 140STEverlast PowerTIG 255EXT
Reply:very true, that O2 is not good.  Wonder who told him to use that.   1st on WeldingWeb to have a scrolling sig! HTP Invertig 400HTP Invertig 221HTP ProPulse 300HTP ProPulse 200 x2HTP ProPulse 220MTSHTP Inverarc 200TLP HTP Microcut 875SC
Reply:The welder is set on dc i changed the clearance to -2 from 0 like the chart says. A guy that does the welding at our shop said to use the 98/2 and my grinder is about a foot from me now so i don't have to walk acrossed the shop to grind the eletrode. I will have to get a bottle of straight argon to try out. I have k bottles of 75/25 and 98/2 and a couple of smaller bottles of 75/25 but i haven't gotten argon yet. I like to get a k bottle of it but they want you to rent them around here. I was playing with it today and i think there is something wrong with the welder. Because if i pull the torch away from the work with the trigger still depressed i hear a buzzing in the welder and can see it arcing inside then if i put the torch back to the work it works great for a little while then goes back to not heating the stainless intell i do that again. I have an email into eastwood about it and will see what they say. I did notice that the electrode is not burning up like it was before.Thanks, Guys
Reply:Clearance doesn't matter on DC. Only on AC.Tig welding you use 100% argon or a mix of helium. Nothing else.Torchmate 2x2 CNC with Flashcut CNC controlsHypertherm Powermax45 Esab ET220i Razorweld 195 MigRazorweld 200ac/dc TigTormach 770, Tormach xstechRazorweld, Vipercut/Vipermig, SSC Foot Pedal Dealer
Reply:get a bottle of 100% argon, then report back.  Right now it seems that it is your biggest problem and needs to be dealt with before you waste any more of your time. 1st on WeldingWeb to have a scrolling sig! HTP Invertig 400HTP Invertig 221HTP ProPulse 300HTP ProPulse 200 x2HTP ProPulse 220MTSHTP Inverarc 200TLP HTP Microcut 875SC
Reply:Originally Posted by felgar_1I should of takin tig in school so i at least have a clue what's going on.
Reply:Originally Posted by felgar_1 Because if i pull the torch away from the work with the trigger still depressed i hear a buzzing in the welder and can see it arcing inside then if i put the torch back to the work it works great for a little while then goes back to not heating the stainless intell i do that again. I have an email into eastwood about it and will see what they say. I did notice that the electrode is not burning up like it was before.Thanks, Guys
Reply:Originally Posted by hillI'm only responding about the portion of your post that I quoted here: This could be caused by a couple of things - 1)if you have the machine set on "4T" the weld will continue (or the torch/welder will keep going) until you either floor the pedal again or hit you weld switch again. The "4T" setting enables not having to hold down the torch button but it requires that you hit the button to start and hit it again to stop. Or 2) check your settings for "down slope". If that is set to wind the amerage down at the end of your weld it can keep the torch going after you've let off the control The setting could be as high as ten seconds, or more I guess, and it blew my mind until I figured out what was going on. One time my torch kept arcing after I lifted it away from the weld and looked like about four inches of lightning. A little thunderstorm right there in my shop!
Reply:Originally Posted by OscarThat machine has none of that.
Reply:Hi all,  This welder is a basic one it does has ac/dc and you can ether control panel with the trigger on the torch or switch it to foot control. I switched it to foot control and it worked good for a little while but then slowly got to where at 200 amps it will hardly melt the stainless. There is something wrong with the welder because when i first started running test passes it would melt right through the stainless now turned all the way up it won't hardly melt it. I found the ground for the power cord coming into the welder was not even hooked up. Eastwood thinks it's the torch that's bad and sending me one( thank goodness for a three year warrenty)I hope that fixes the welder. My bother is a good tig welder he seen my welder and said i should of bought a water cooled tig but those are out of my price range right now. Thanks guys,David
Reply:Originally Posted by felgar_1Hi all,  This welder is a basic one it does has ac/dc and you can ether control panel with the trigger on the torch or switch it to foot control. I switched it to foot control and it worked good for a little while but then slowly got to where at 200 amps it will hardly melt the stainless. There is something wrong with the welder because when i first started running test passes it would melt right through the stainless now turned all the way up it won't hardly melt it. I found the ground for the power cord coming into the welder was not even hooked up. Eastwood thinks it's the torch that's bad and sending me one( thank goodness for a three year warrenty)I hope that fixes the welder. My bother is a good tig welder he seen my welder and said i should of bought a water cooled tig but those are out of my price range right now. Thanks guys,David
Reply:Originally Posted by felgar_1Hi all,  T I found the ground for the power cord coming into the welder was not even hooked up.Did you fix that?My bother is a good tig welder he seen my welder and said i should of bought a water cooled tig but those are out of my price range right now. David
Reply:Hi, All I can't get any tell next week. I found that the regulator that came with it is bad. I went through alot of gas doing test passes and hooked uo a flow meter i had and it peged it. But i have an extra one so i will use it. I will let you know when i get the argon. I hope that's all that's wrong with it. Thanks, David
Reply:The regulator that came with my ta 181i has a dual range. For the first few passes I had adjusted th3 flow to liters and spewed about a 1/4 bottle before figuring it out that I had read it wrong. If you have 2 bad items out of the box with a brand new welder I would return it and buy a different brand like TA 186 for the budget minded which can be had for around 1600Miller Syncrowave 210 w/CK FlexLoc 150  3/6/14ESAB PCM 1125 Plasma CutterAtlas 12x36 LatheACER 9x42 3hp millHarig 612 Surface GrinderDRINK Machine              welding&fabrication
Reply:Hi All, I got the 100% argon and tried it. It didn't even weld as good as the 98/2 it would hardly weld at all. It would take forever to melt the stainless at all. So i called eastwood and they had the welder picked up and are going to send me a new welder. They don't even carry that one any more so there must have been to many problems with it so they went with a differant one. I deffantly won't let this one sit on the self for two years before tring it out. As soon as i get it i will let you know how it goes.Thanks, David
Reply:what did they say they are going to send you?  The website doesn't show anything different other than the same 200A AC/DC TIG200 machine. 1st on WeldingWeb to have a scrolling sig! HTP Invertig 400HTP Invertig 221HTP ProPulse 300HTP ProPulse 200 x2HTP ProPulse 220MTSHTP Inverarc 200TLP HTP Microcut 875SCWhat are you getting instead?Torchmate 2x2 CNC with Flashcut CNC controlsHypertherm Powermax45 Esab ET220i Razorweld 195 MigRazorweld 200ac/dc TigTormach 770, Tormach xstechRazorweld, Vipercut/Vipermig, SSC Foot Pedal Dealer
Reply:Hi all, They don't have the same as i had. Mine was the blue one that they first started selling now they are black and i got it yesterday and they look close to the one i had but the trigger control where it plugs to the welder is metal now not plastic as before. I run it yesterday and there is a big diffeance, When you pull the trigger i don't get the loud bussing coming out of the welder now and i started at 80 amps and had to turn it down twice to about 55 amps now and it welds great. I got use to the old welder now i have to relearn it because it acts so differant. The old tig i never used a welding glove on the torch hand and the new tig you have to have it on as soon as you start welding. My welding helmet is acting up. It is going from light to dark so i have to mess with the adjustment on that some. The only thing i am having problems with is the weld is not a nice clean weld it is gray but i believe that with a little adjustment on flow and other controls i will get it right.Thanks, David
Reply:Grey welds on stainless are usually an indication the weld is still too hot when it looses it's shielding gas. There are any number of reasons for this, but a typical issue with newer tig welders is that they are going too slow using too low an amp setting and "cooking" the material. It seems counter intuitive, but MORE amps and going faster, reduces heat input and allows the welds to cool faster while still inside the shielding coverage. Low gas flow is another issue, but I see more problems with the amps being too low than I do with poor gas issues on average..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Don't use gases other than straight argon or helium with your TIG setup.  Argon/CO2 or O2 mixes are MIG gases, and should not be considered interchangeable for TIG welding purposes.Buy yourself a welding textbook and READ it, if you want to learn more about TIG welding, or any welding discipline, really.  One oldie but goodie that I like is "Welding: principles & practices (Revised)" by Raymond Sacks.  No substitute for taking the class, BUT it's both a good supplement to taking a class, and a next best thing.  Clearly, you still need the saddle time, but it will help you understand what gases to use, what problems you might be having, and sort out the BS that people state.Miller Dynasty 200 DXMiller CP-300 with 30A feederHypertherm Powermax 900Oxy-fuel w/Harris torchesScotchman Glide-in bandsawMonarch 10EE latheEmi-Mec Autoturn latheDeckel FP2NC milling machinePro-Tools 105 Bender
Reply:The buzzing you hear when there is no arc with the trigger depressed is the HF circuit trying to start an arc.  It is normal.  When an arc starts or the trigger is released it turns off.It sounds like your original welder was bad.  I am glad you could get it replaced under the 3 year warranty.  I just bought the same welder as you and it's working fine.  I only welded steel and aluminum, not stainless. Eastwood 200 AC/DC TIG Lincoln Pro Mig 180Century 230/140 AC/DC stickCraftsman Colormatic AC stick
Reply:Originally Posted by felgar_1Hi all, They don't have the same as i had. Mine was the blue one that they first started selling now they are black and i got it yesterday and they look close to the one i had but the trigger control where it plugs to the welder is metal now not plastic as before. I run it yesterday and there is a big diffeance, When you pull the trigger i don't get the loud bussing coming out of the welder now and i started at 80 amps and had to turn it down twice to about 55 amps now and it welds great. I got use to the old welder now i have to relearn it because it acts so differant. The old tig i never used a welding glove on the torch hand and the new tig you have to have it on as soon as you start welding. My welding helmet is acting up. It is going from light to dark so i have to mess with the adjustment on that some. The only thing i am having problems with is the weld is not a nice clean weld it is gray but i believe that with a little adjustment on flow and other controls i will get it right.Thanks, David