Troubleshooting Tips for your Equipment and for your Welding:

**Tip DETAILS are included in my up-coming ebook!**

Troubleshooting tips for your equipment:

1) Cutting Torch:
* When your tanks are OFF.
* Plugged or dirty tip orifices.
* If the flame separates from the tip.
* Bad splatter & popping.
* A sucking, squeeling noise.
* Make sure that all fittings are tight.

The torch is an extremely valuable tool for any welder. You need to pay attention to safety & operational details to get the most benefit from it.

2) Troubleshooting Tips for Arc Welders:

Flux Cored:
* Don't let go of the wire end!
* If you feel the wire pushing against the bottom of the puddle.
* Try not to keep the nozzle end too close to the puddle.
* When you first start the weld.
* Uneven feeding?
* Can't see an actual puddle?

Above is my flux cored welder. For my purposes 4 heat settings work great. Changing the wire speed slightly as needed fully adjusts for my needs & specific welding techniques.

I bought this used (1 year old) for $200 via Craigslist. That's a good deal!

Stick Welder:
* Overheating too much?
* The electrode was running OK then started to stick a lot?
* Can't see the puddle?

My stick welder. This type of amp adjuster can drift down & cause serious rod sticking problems. Make sure it's locked in place.

3) Tips for Electrode Problems:
* Fingernailing.
* The rod flux comes off in chunks?
* Can't get the arc started?

Some of my old rods. These are the SAME AGE, but the lower ones I had left outside in humid conditions. Look at the appearance of the coatings.

Even though they aren't the same type of rod, the upper ones still work fine, but not the lower ones. Keep yours as warm & dry as possible.

4) Tips for Material Problems:
* Dealing with large gaps?
* Repeated breaks or cracks?
* Warpage issues?

5 Tips for your welding:
1) Undercutting.
2) "Cold weld".
3) Un-even beads.
4) Your weld cracks/breaks.
5) You're getting shocks/tingles.
6) Massive beads.

Sometimes circumstances get so VARIED that you just have to create your own troubleshooting tips!

**Tip DETAILS are included in my ebook, "The Arc And Beyond"!**

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