Maker
Most folk just call me; Orange Joe
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I've got an Oerlikon Miniarc 3.2, it's an MMA machine but I bought it with a valve torch to use for scratch start, never questioned that it shouldn't work.
I've never really got on with it, always put it down to lack of practice and a crap current adjustment but now I'm not so sure. I've just noticed on the product page it has "Hot start, Arc Force and Anti-Stick functions". I started this thread to ask if that would be why I was having problems but now I've typed out the behaviour I'm getting, it's so obvious that's the problem, I can't believe I never realised what was going on before.
Laying beads on thick plate (Say 8mm steel at 100A) I don't have a problem but if I try 1mm steel at 30A I blow a hole in it, so I decrease the current a bit, try again and same thing. Decrease it all the way (5A apparently) and I get a second of useful puddle before it drops to barely an arc, my helmet un-darkens and I stop. I'd always assumed the welder didn't like my long arc length or something and refused to supply the current. Clearly it's supplying it's massive blast of however much current and then dropping back to the 5A I've asked for, which is of course useless on 1.5mm material.
Anyone want to buy a stick welder?
I've never really got on with it, always put it down to lack of practice and a crap current adjustment but now I'm not so sure. I've just noticed on the product page it has "Hot start, Arc Force and Anti-Stick functions". I started this thread to ask if that would be why I was having problems but now I've typed out the behaviour I'm getting, it's so obvious that's the problem, I can't believe I never realised what was going on before.
Laying beads on thick plate (Say 8mm steel at 100A) I don't have a problem but if I try 1mm steel at 30A I blow a hole in it, so I decrease the current a bit, try again and same thing. Decrease it all the way (5A apparently) and I get a second of useful puddle before it drops to barely an arc, my helmet un-darkens and I stop. I'd always assumed the welder didn't like my long arc length or something and refused to supply the current. Clearly it's supplying it's massive blast of however much current and then dropping back to the 5A I've asked for, which is of course useless on 1.5mm material.
Anyone want to buy a stick welder?