He says there are times you can’t use a foot pedal or really don’t need one. This is information that can be especially helpful to new TIG welders.
Afoot pedal is really great for low amperage control as you start your arc. But what if you aren’t sitting at a workbench? What if you are standing up? Are you going to try to put the foot pedal between your knees or under your arm to squeeze it?
No, you can let the machine do it for you.
Two adjustments that really help Kevin whether he’s at his workbench, working at his magic lift table, or welding on a big sculpture, are starting amps and upslope.
Kevin shows the control panel on his Everlast PowerTIG 255 EXT where you can see starting amps and upslope, which are right at the beginning of the menu. He fires up the TIG welder and scrolls to these controls. He sets his starting amperage at 5 amps and the upslope at 5 seconds. That will give him a slow start and a slow build up to 80 amps, which is what he wants for welding 16 gauge aluminum.
He puts on his safety gear and first shows the start up at 5 seconds of upslope. Then he sets the upslope to 15 seconds, during which it takes “forever” for the arc to come up to full welding amperage.
So if you’re using a foot pedal to creep up on a welding project, you can also just use the starting amps and upslope controls on your welder to do the same thing.
The only thing you can’t do is adjust your amperage on the fly. But once you figure out your settings and know what thickness of metal you’re working with, Kevin finds it just as easy 90% of the time to use the settings on the machine. Play with your dials, and give your ankle a break.
Kevin hopes that points you in the right direction, and also points to the YouTube subscribe button so you can see a new how-to video every week.
Well, you can stick around another moment to see Kevin get propositioned ….