Common TIG Welding Issues, Hard Starting - Final Article

Common TIG Welding Issues. Part 10. TIG: Hard StartingIf you haven't been following our blog searies on Common TIG Welding Issues: TIG: Hard Starting, I suggestion start from the beggining at part 1.We previously mentioned arc starting issues caused by turbulence created by too much gas flow. Another difficult to pinpoint source of this turbulence is the presence of drafts. It’s hard to fathom how a small breeze, otherwise unnoticeable to you can affect something like electricity. But it can. It can literally blow the arc around, not mention blowing away the shielding gas that is around the area to be welded. Not long ago, an experienced customer who welded at work and had bought one of our machines to weld at home called me up telling me his issues in his garage and how the welder would not light consistently and the awful job it did when welding. Based off his details, I surmised it had to be a draft. He swore otherwise. Giving the customer the benefit of the doubt, I went to work on trying to figure out what else it could be. After a couple of phone calls back and forth he finally emailed me that indeed it was not the welder, but rather his shop door was open. No major breeze seemed to be coming from it, but when he closed it, the problem went away, when he opened it up, the problem returned. Another source of draft is from the machine itself. Every welder has a fan in it, and most of them produce quite a noticeable draft. Getting the welder itself too near the work area (usually set on the table beside the part being welded for convenience sake) will cause hard arc starting as the breeze from the welder is still significant at 5 feet. In a straight, unobstructed line of sight from the weldment to the TIG welder itself, allow at least 10 ft and if possible put up something that will knock down the wind from the fan. Don’t block the fan input or output of course, but use something if possible to deflect it from the weld if locating the welder elsewhere is not possible.Everlast Power Equipment, your TIG welding experts.Learn more on our welding forum.