Tig not working

[1930artdeco]

Hi All,

Quick question, my TIG machine does not want to seem to work. This is the first time I have used 220-I previously used 110 on it. I cleaned the metal with a wheel and ground the tip. I was finally able to get it sputter out a few electrons but nothing near an electron stream. I left everything as it was from previous usage-about a year ago-so it has been awhile. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[PCustoms]

What machine?

Put it back to 120v, does it work?

Is your gas on?

 

[welder4956]

Ground clamp attached to the workpiece? Also looks like the shielding gas is not on.

What brand and model of machine?

 

[1930artdeco]

Well went back and tried again. I am running an Everlast tig/stick machine that has about an hour of run time on it. I made sure the gas was on-this time and I switched over to 110. Still nothing. Yes the clamp was attached to the piece of metal. Pic. is of her on 110/120, the only thing I did not test was the finger trigger as I have it set up for foot control.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

The gas was on, but do you have flow?
What gas are you running?

I've had similar issues when I accidently used a tank of Mig gas (Ar/CO2/O2). Back to 100% argon and all was well.

 

[Tim in Indiana]

Looks like no shielding gas. You have a flow meter and how much flow are you getting? Can you feel or hear it coming out of the cup?

 

[Willie Makeit]

is it a new bottle of shielding gas? had a similar problem a while back ... purchased Argon but the bottle was NOT argon. replaced bottle and everything worked fine.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Ground and electrode in the right holes?

 

[mark-NJ]

The pic (above) shows 21 Amps on the readout. Is that the current you're trying to weld at?

If so, crank it way up & see what happens....

 

[Walkers]

Turn off the pulse, turn the 2 yellow dials to midway, turn the amps up to 1 amp per thousandth of an inch of metal thickness, or just turn it up all the way and throttle with the pedal

 

[welder4956]

All of the above - 21 amps with the pulse on is going to be hard to establish an arc and the tungsten will need to be very close to the work to make it happen (1/8" or less). Turn the amps up to 90 and hold the tungsten about 1/8" from the surface. Also, make sure the tungsten is not sticking out too far past the cup, rule of thumb is no more than the inside diameter of the cup. Finally, make sure the welding leads are on the right polarity for DC TIG, the torch must be connected to the negative side and ground to the positive side for straight polarity. It's hard to tell from the photo of the machine, but it looks like the gas hose runs toward the welding cable coming from the positive terminal, which is not correct for DC TIG.

 

[1930artdeco]

Thank you for the input. Right now the machine is set up for 110v welding. I will make the adjustments when i get home from retiring from the military!!!!! I figure 23 years is enough.

 

[dkmc]

Call Everlast and ask them?

 

[G-ManBart]

I have seen this problem when someone assembled the torch improperly...they had the collet in backwards. It will hold the tungsten, but not let the gas through properly. You want the skinny part of the collet towards the front.