I'm confused perhaps...on my tig welder (miller sync 250), the argon gas starts automatically when I depress the footpedal to strike the arc, and flows constantly until I stop. All I have to do is hold the tig torch and the filler rod.
Do you have a hand-control for amperage that's right on the torch? I've seen this setup for sanitary pipe welding in a facility where there's no possible way that a person could use the footpedal due to cramming their body into unergonomic positions. But usually...the hand control and the foot control are just options, so if you didn't like the hand, you just get a footpedal for the same machine. I can't say whether you also have to switch the torch to a "non controlled" version in that case.
Just some more to clarify. On my "bench" setup, I set the max amperage and the pedal is infintely variable to command 0-100% of maximum amps. It also starts and stops the argon with the arc. There's a programmed parameter for amount of pre-flow-delay and a knob to turn for the post-flow delay for the argon.
