ESAB Miniarc Rogue ES 180i

[hotponyshoes]

Thanks for your reply. The washers are about 2mm thick.

If you are just starting out, that's not actually a particularly easy job to weld.
You have 2 vastly different metal thickness and are welding inside a hole!

Settings,
Either a 2mm rod with about 45a
Or a 2.5mm rod with about 60a
You could use a 1.6mm rod but I'd get a bit of practice in first.
Plug the earth lead into the - and the holder into the +

I'd start by practicing with a washer on a thick piece of flat steel.
Try welding around the outside of the washer first.
Strike the arc on the thick piece of metal. As the metal melts feed in the rod and walk the arc towards the washer. As the washer starts to melt move the arc back to the thicker bit and work your way around in a circle.
You'll find you need to spend more time with the arc on the thicker bit than the washer.

Once you have got the hang of welding the outsides give the inside a go. This will be the same technique except you won't really be able to see what you are doing! Hence practice on the outside first.

Depending how big that hoke in the washer is, maybe strike the arc in the center of the thick bar and just weld half way around.
Chip off the stag and do the other half.

It's important to drag the rod rather than push it and that's hard with round welds.
You might want to only weld 1/4 of the way, then rotate the part 90deg, repeat ×4.

 

[TheJay]

Thanks very much for your reply. I need to get some practice in.

Are remote control foot pedals only used for TIG? I see one is available for this machine.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Thanks very much for your reply. I need to get some practice in.

Are remote control foot pedals only used for TIG? I see one is available for this machine.

Yup, generally only used for tig.
The tig tungsten has a tapered point.
So you can start the arc right at the tip of the tungsten without much power then widen the arc back up the taper with more power.

An arc rod is a fixed size, so you need a certain amount of power to start the arc and to maintain it. The sweet spot for an arc rod might be in the range of only 20a or so. So not much point having control of the full power range.

You can deactivate the power adjustment in arc mode and just use the foot pedal as an on/off switch but that's pretty pointless unless you want to put the holder down frequently on a metal table or you are welding deep inside a framework or something.