In article . com, Karl
Townsend wrote:

Is this something unique to this machine, a combination of reactor etc
etc that makes the arc really harsh?

Its hard for me to explain what I mean by "harsh"..more violent and
stiff an arc..where other machines Ive used give a nice frying bacon
noise, a nice smooth arc with minumum amounts of flying crap, less
under cutting and so forth.


There should be a hot-start adjustment for stick welding.
That should adjust the open-circuit voltage.


I've noticed the same thing on my unit. Always thought welders are just
different. I just went down and looked at my almost identical unit. I don't
see anything that sounds like a hot start adjustment. I'll ask for gunner, I
have these adjustments, have NO CLUE what to do with them:

Afterflow timer: Has electrode sizes listed or desired afterflow min to max.

Lincoln always did this, instead of just listing the time in Seconds.
It is about 7 seconds to each increment.
I timed ours at school.
15-20 seconds is a good range.

Spark Intensity: adjusts by knob from low to high

High Frequency intensity,
Where you set this depends on how happy your high freq. unit is.
Every few years you should pull out the points, clean them and regap to
the factory spec, which should be between0.008" and 0.011", depending
on manufacturer.


Soft start: On/off

This is for stick welding and drops the open circuit volts to start the
arc with less chance of sticking.


Spark start only: On/off


High Frequency Start only for DC TIG.


Any of these related to hot start by chance?

Karl

Soft Start.