On 30/07/2020 00:31, Fredxx wrote:
On 29/07/2020 19:39:21, John Rumm wrote:
On 29/07/2020 15:32, Fredxx wrote:
On 29/07/2020 14:33:23, John Rumm wrote:
On 29/07/2020 13:16, Fredxx wrote:
On 29/07/2020 02:06:31, John Rumm wrote:

snip

I wanted to weld up some bits of rebar outside, and the wind was
quite strong. So, ideal time to try it in MMA mode...Â* and wow
what a difference! You can strike an arc with ease, it runs quiet
and smooth with a really nice stable DC arc, and makes it almost
easy to get pretty decent results with relatively little skill or
practice. No buzzing, spluttering, or sticking either.

Of course gasless wire would have done the trick too.

Indeed, but I have not got any of that in stock[1], but still have a
third of a 5kg box of 2.5mm electrodes left (which I bought them
from CPC *years* ago :-)

[1] and the slight faff or remembering to swap the polarity.

I have welded satisfactorily when not swapping the electrodes. There
was a lot more platter though.

I think it also depends a bit on the wire chosen - some are more fussy
than others.

(It was telling that I got through about 8 rods in ten to fifteen
mins with the other welder that would have been over an hours work!)

I have a very old MIG welder and was thinking of making the jump to
TIG[1] with AC/DC provision to weld aluminium. Some machines can do
all three MMA/MIG/TIG.

I looked at a few, but most of the three in ones I looked at seemed to
only do DC tig. In the end I thought there was a danger of ending up
with a jack of all trades master of none result, and decided to get a
stand-alone setup later.

I can see your viewpoint, but inverters give ultimate control over
current and voltage. I see no reason why you can't have master of all 3.

Are you aware of any multi process machines that can do AC tig, with HF
start, foot pedal, variable frequency, mark space etc?

I found plenty that will do DC tig.

In the end I figures a separate machine would probably be easier -
especially as it would save swapping gas when swapping process.

(in fact you can do "austere" lift start DC tig with my machine, but
it obviously lacks the finesse that you get with a "real" tig machine)

So not a scratch start?

Yup, IFAIU Lift start and scratch start are just different names for the
same thing (as opposed to HF start on a more sophisticated machine)

--
Cheers,

John.

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