I am a welding novice. I have been welding for years, but I don't do enough welding to maintain proficiency or gather a wide pool of experience. My main welder is an
Eastwood TIG200, AC/DC 200A TIG/Stick machine. I also have an old craftsman MIG (125A? I believe) that's pretty much useless for anything outside of sheet metal. I opted for TIG as my main machine because I wanted the cheapest (larger/more capable) machine I could get, that I could also use to weld aluminum. I have done lots of smaller jobs with it and have been happy with it so far.
I had my first experience last week doing a larger job on thicker steel with the TIG, and I am not at all happy with how it went. I made some modifications to a friend's trailer, probably a total of 25 linear feet of weld on 3/16" and 1/4" steel, and it took over 12 hours. The welder has a rated 60% duty cycle, but I empirically discovered that the WP17 torch (or, maybe my hand) has its own duty cycle which is significantly less than that. After 1-2 minutes of welding at anything over 150A, the torch gets too hot to hold with a gloved hand, and takes 10 minutes sitting in front of a shop fan to cool down. Probably only an hour or two of the 12hr job was spent actually welding.
I did a bit of research and I'm still researching, but I thought I would post here for help in addition. One thing that I came across on someone else's post on another forum, was a suggestion to upgrade to an 18 series torch. I don't know much about parts interchangeability with these torches. I went to the Eastwood website looking for a bigger torch, or a water cooled torch, and they do sell some stuff, but they only advertise it as being compatible with their bigger machines. Will any welder that uses a 17 torch, also use an 18 torch? And what is meant by "series?" Is there a specific 18 torch I need? What about a water cooled torch? What would fit my machine?
One thing I did find on the Eastwood website that they guarantee fit, is the stick holder torch for this machine. The specs that Eastwood provides seem only to apply to the TIG process. Very little is said about its stick capabilities. Will stick welding give me better results on a project like I just did? Also as far as stick goes, I would like to know if I can weld even thicker materials with stick, than what the machine is rated for on TIG. I have a project coming up where I will need to weld 1/2" steel, possibly even 3/4"; I am pretty sure I know the answer for that - I'm going to need a bigger welder. But I thought I would ask just in case.
Thank You