Power I-Tig 200T question

[Sherr20]

Received my I-Tig 200T Friday and got a chance to hook it up and run a few beads this early evening. It went well, the 26 torch is a lot larger than I am used to, I learned mainly with a 9. I will be hooking my 9 up when I get another adapter.

My markings on the front of the machines have the - negative on the left and the + positive on the right as you look at the front panel. So of course I plugged the torch lead into the left negative side and the ground lead into positive on the right.
The instructions show the opposite, was this a change or is my front panel mis-marked?

[christian]

Yeah,

It looks like they swapped sides for the polarity. But they seem to be marked correctly nonetheless.

That unit has a dainty low starting amperage.

What are you going to use the machine for, primarily?

[Sherr20]

I am restoring my wife’s 59 Austin Healey FrogEye Sprite. These cars are early unibody type construction and all crossmembers or frame rails are actually just formed from sheet metal and spot welded at the seams. I am replacing tons of metal, 16 gauge being the thickest and the average being 19 gauge which was what the brits mainly used in those days and very unavailable in today’s world.

So I am using the Tig to weld in new parts and patch panels. I do use MiG in areas that I do not need to metal finish. But butt welding a lot of 20 gauge.

[christian]

Well allright!

Yeah, as kids in the 1960s, we used to call those bug-eye Sprites.

But they really are more like frog-eyed front lights.

I've never done light metal body panel welding, but it's undoubtedly challenging, so that low amperage will be great.

I mean, I was just recently welding on my Everlast unit, and it occured to me how nice and dainty the start amps and small of an arc it can produce. I even thought of welding some utility knife blade edges togather with it, since I do have some 20 gauge stainless wire for filler. But I'm not that curious about it, I suppose.

[Sherr20]

Yep, Bugeye is the US name, Frogeye is what they were called originally in the UK. When on AH websites they typically correct you if you don’t call it Frogeye

We will see how this machine goes, should be much better than my Forney MP machine. I could do sheetmetal with it but it was a fine line for me. One issue is once you plug in a pedal the max amperage is not adjustable. So you have min amperage to max amperage with the pedal. One accidental tip in of your foot and you blow holes with no amp limit set.

[rixbea]

how you find the 201-T?

i was going to buy a 255ext ,but need a small compact one for work first i can take anywhere ( even on a plane overseas ), stick for structural steel & tig for stainless handrails etc ..ima construction contractor , just hoping everlast Australia have one or will have to get the analog version ..

[Sherr20]

Rix, it is a very compact machine. I have about 30 minutes of Tig on it so far. I only have probably five hours total Tig welding experience, all self taught through trial and error and YouTube videos.. This machine is much easier to weld with with all the features that my Forney MP does not have.

I have been practicing butt welding 20 gauge sheetmetal this evening. Seems to be going ok. The beads aren’t the best looking but I’m not blowing holes. I’m using .045 70s2 Rod, pulse tig 40 amp max, 35%, 35%, 1hz, 17 torch with 1/16 2% thoriated tungsten.

I’m going to keep practicing. It’s good enough to butt weld patch panels in since the welds will be ground down. But I want them to look much better, more consistent. And I need to get my heat affected zone smaller. The bead with is not quite 1/8” in this picture.

[Rambozo]

Looks like your travel speed needs to go up a little bit. One thing you can also try is to position a guide bar or something for your torch hand to slide along. Just like with a cutting torch, a guide for your hand will help keep you on target so you can follow the line and concentrate more of your attention on the puddle.

[performance]

You are getting the hang of it. I'd work on prepping the metal a little better. The only thing you really need is a little more practice. Will it stick? Looks like it. I see one air pocket there. Probably from an accidental dip or dirty metal.

[Sherr20]

Thanks for the tips guys. Yes travel speed was slow. And yes a dipped tip. My hood is having issues dealing with low amperage and I’m getting flashed leading to visibility issues. I had a raging headache behind my eyes this morning. I ordered a Miller Digital Infinity last night.

I have the HF Vulcan Arc Safe helmet right now. Works great with MIG and higher amp TIG. This sheetmetal work not so much. I should have researched the purchase more, biggest thing was I didn’t know how TIG affected the auto darken features in helmets. Lesson learned. I’m not going to practice anymore until I get my new hood. My eyesight is very important in my line of work.

[christian]

Yeah,

That i-TIG model seems to be capable of the most dainty little arcs and beads of almost any other TIG unit, or comparable to the very latest Miller Dynasty models on DC.

The literature suggests 2 or 3 amp arc starts and welding potential, which is undoubtedly a challenge for any TIG welding helmet, I mean if you ever actually want to try to do stuff that low or at around 5 amps.

My own 210EXT has arc starts beginning at 5 amps, which is nice and low too, and I'll sometimes set the arc start adjustment above the 5 amp minimum, even though my welding lid is rated to 5 amp TIG ability.

So, I guess what I'm suggesting is that whatever helmet/lid that you use, try setting the arc starts at around 5 or 10 amps (which is a handy Everlast feature, as other makers seem to have a mandatory and unpublished 25 amp capacitor-discharge TIG arc start, to make arc starts seem better, regardless of whether their welding TIG amperage goes a lot lower than the unpublished 25 amp starts, e.g., the Lincoln SW200), with the Sensativity on the lid to the highest, and include a couple seconds or more for the Delay on the lid.

Otherwise, I sometimes leave the arc start setting to the 5 amp minumum, just to check if my lid is darkening well at that low starting amperage, which it usually does, but not always.

How about post some of your weld shots with a dime in the pic, so we can get a better impression of the actual bead size.

[Rambozo]

For really low amp work you might want to check into some helmets that don't trigger on light, but trigger on the EMF of the arc. Miller calls it X mode, not sure what it's called on other brands. However, often times the best thing is to use a fixed shade hood. That also gives you the ability to go to a lower shade than many autodark units do. I like to use a 7 or 8 shade for the really low stuff, and if you have a bright worklight, you really don't need autodark as you can see enough even before you strike the arc.

On a side note, as long as your helmet is in front of your eyes, you are protected from both UV and IR even without the helmet going dark. You may be dazzled by the bright arc, but it is not damaging your eyes. The thing to watch out for are reflections that come in around your helmet, and are not filtered. White shirts are notorious for this, hence one reason most welding clothes are dark colored.