New Tigmate

[beenabean]

I Recently Bought A New Tigmate From Hobart At Tool King Online And Im Mhaving A Real Hard Time Starting Arc In Tig Dcen On Common Steel. Does Anyone Else Out There Have A Tigmate That Can Give Me Some Pointers On Arc Starting. I Wish Now I Would Have Bought A Miller Syncrowave For 400 More. I Am New To Tig Welding And Just Wanted To See If I Could Learn.it. I Got A Feeling This Is A Real Low End Tig.im Using Sheilding Gas (argon 85% Co2 15%) On Dcen .090 Sheet Steel. I Got It In Mid August But Just Now Was Able To Get My Gas. Im Using All The Settings Called For. Do You Think There Might Be Something Wrong With The Welder Itself. Im Guessing Its A Pretting Crappie Tig Machine. Any Help Would Be Appreciated. Im Not Getting The Arch To Jump The Gap And When It Does It Contacts Metal And Contaminates Tungsten. Beenabean

[LarryL]

Use 100% argon

I Recently Bought A New Tigmate From Hobart At Tool King Online And Im Mhaving A Real Hard Time Starting Arc In Tig Dcen On Common Steel. . . I Got A Feeling This Is A Real Low End Tig.im Using Sheilding Gas (argon 85% Co2 15%) . . . Im Using All The Settings Called For. Do You Think There Might Be Something Wrong With The Welder Itself. . . Im Guessing Its A Pretting Crappie Tig Machine. . .

I've never used a Tigmate but if it's a Hobart welder, it probably is a good quality machine. You might try using 100% argon. I'm sure that the welder's manual did not recommend the use of a shielding gas mixture of 85% argon-15% CO2. You may find that using the correct shielding gas can turn a pretty crappie machine into an excellent one.
LarryL

[Craig in Denver]

I agree, TIG is a 100% Argon process.

[Joe H]

I've got a Miller Econotig, which is the same machine as a Tigmate. I think it's a good little machine. It's missing some of the features (that I don't really need) of a Synchrowave, but they are great little machines otherwise.

Your arc is not starting because you are using the wrong shielding gas. You need 100% argon, or a helium mix for TIG. If you did start an arc, your tungsten would be contaminated from the CO2 anyway. It wouldn't work even with the best machine out there.

[southsiderich]

Same problem

I have the same machine, bought it quite awhile ago, just hooked it up. I am running 100% argon. I've been tig welding for 16 years and I can't get this machine to weld for nothing.Let me know what you find out because i'm about ready to send mine back.....good luck!