Cemont TX 1601 MMA/TIG Set

[Steve Langgaard]

Hi to all,
I'm a complete newbie and my name is Steve, I could do with a little help or some kind person to put me straight, The problem I've got is to do with the TIG part of my set, the MMA works fine, I can't get it to strike an arc, It did go in for repair a few months back because of a blown rectifier (using MMA), when it came back the MMA is, as I say, working because that's all I used to use, but now I want to start using the TIG side of it for some exacting work on stainless, I shall now tell you what it is doing, when I go to strike an arc all I get is a weak and very feeble spark, I press the switch on the torch, the gas starts to flow but after about 10 seconds the gas then shuts off, this happens every time I go to strike up, can anyone please tell me what I'm doing wrong or do I need to consign this set to the bin? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Cheers
Steve

 

[HughF]

the gas shuts off because the main arc hasn't fired up. Is this a lift tig machine or is it hf start???

 

[Steve Langgaard]

Hi Hughf,
Thanks for your reply, I think it's HF because there are 2 settings 2T or 4T I've been onto Cemonts Website (now Air Liquide) and they have a photos on there which states it's HF start, I hope this tells you more.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Richard.]

By the sound of it it's defo hf as that little spark you describe is the hf spark jumping the gap. So that's working as it should but the arc ignition isn't. Not sure this would create your problem but when using tig you must reverse the leads around so the return lead goes in the +. Now you say it works in mma so I'm gonna assume all the simple stuff regarding good contact etc is covered. I'm not sure tbh. Maybe contact the blokes that repaired it to get some insight.

 

[Steve Langgaard]

Thanks MrFuzzy and Richard your replies are much appreciated, I think I might just try reversing the leads as you suggest (could be because I'm a heating engineer and not a welder oops!) and hope it works, if not it's going back to where it was repaired, thanks again and I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Richard.]

Torch ALWAYS negative earth positive for tig. Now on some machines the polarity is switched by simply putting into tig mode. Yours may need swapping at the leads. Maybe there is some sort of circuitry that won't let it arc in tig mode if in pos polarity. Who knows. . Put up a pic of the front of the unit to see if anything obvious stands out.

 

[Steve Langgaard]

What a complete **** I am, just sussed out that I need an adapter for the torch and gas, only realised when Richard mentioned about reversing the leads because the torch I've got didn't come with one, it was only a couple of days ago I took the torch out of the box, brand new, never needed to open it before, thanks to everyone who came to my rescue, now! do you know of anywhere I can get one cheap, cheers lads you're all on my Christmas card list.

Cheers

Steve