Another Chinese Welder

[bigduke]

Hello all,
I have a WSM 250 pulse tig welder that I bought new about 8 years ago and have not used it much.
I am trying to weld thin stainless and carbon steel approx 1.5 mm thick but keep getting burn through.
I am not sure how to set the pulse. For instance at 1 pulse per sec, when the arc reaches its full current it burns straight through.
Even with the main current and background turned to the lowest setting, it burns through. Possibly there is a problem with the current adjustment at the low setting.
I have attached a picture of the welder and would appreciate any help.
Thanks

 

[gordon stephenson]

Are you using a torch switch or foot pedal?, Some machines with the foot pedal plugged in it overrides the panel controls

 

[Richard.]

Lowest setting of 10 amps shouldn't be burning through 1.5mm anything as that's far from thin. (10 amps is Stanley blade current)
Might be as said above the panel been over rode by an external control but as you've had it 8 years I'd expect you would know if that's the case.
My personal thought would be its done 8 years even of little use and it's given up the ghost and developed a fault.

 

[daleyd]

Can you try it without the pulse - you shouldn't need it for that thickness material and it may just be confusing the issue. Get it set up and working normally (Without pulse) and then if that works OK then move onto using pulse (If you really have to...)

 

[Richard.]

I agree. There are very few case scenarios where a tig pulse is going to make life any better.
In fact I haven't used pulse on my machine since buying it earlier this year. People buy there machines based on it having this feature but with very little understanding of what it actually dose or how to correctly set it up.
Sales guys will push the feature as a must have but in reality it's a feature that offers arc concentration and distortion reduction when set up correctly on the right job. (1hz per second is useless, try 100hz second as a minimum.). Straight current DC tig is the way to go 95% of the time

 

[bigduke]

There is no foot switch fitted.
There is no option to disable pulse so, I'm stuck with that.
Does weld wee bit better at the lowest pulse and the frequency half way but I think that there is a problem with the main current pot or transformer.

 

[daleyd]

Any other reading on the ammeter when you strike up?

 

[Freddy0309]

If you turn background amps the same or higher then the welding Amps it'll take the pulse off

 

[BrokenBiker]

as above, if you set welding amps and background amps the same surely it wont pulse?

 

[Jim Davey]

Exactly