A little bit better explanation.
To access the GTAW menu you need to push and hold the SEL button on the front panel until the display shows GTAW MENU, same for the Stick Menu. Once in the menu if you continue to press and release the SEL button you can scroll through the menu. The first item Wave the usual shapes are located there and to change from one to the other you use the Control knob (the dial on the front panel). Next you will see DIA, this is the tungsten diameter and sets the starting characteristics. Sizes are .020 – 5/32 there is also and Auto setting and ADV. AUTO sets the starting values based on what you have the max amperage set at. ADV is where you can fine tune the starting characteristics. Items there are Starting Current, Starting Time in ms, Starting Slope in ms, Preset Current Minimum 2-25 amps and Starting Polarity EN or EP. The Exit Menu button is located above the Control Knob. Once you have exited from the GTAW MENU to scroll through the front panel graphic to check the values of pre and post flow pulsing info etc. you also use the SEL button. Doing this you can check the starting amperage for the tungsten diameter you selected. An example is 3/32 the starting amps is 40 and you can turn it down to 20 or up to the max amperage you have set if it is under 200, 200 seems to be the max starting current. The starting amperage for 020 tungsten is 5 and the minimum is the machine minimum or 2 same as above for the max. So each tungsten diameter has a different starting and minimum amperage. The default setting is 3/32.
I messed around with the advanced start settings and found I could keep a needle sharp tungsten on an AC start if I wanted. I usually just set it to the 020 diameter for both AC and DC just because there were other thing to check out and 020 worked fine.
Pulse, is pretty typical. I’m not a big fan of pulse, just seems to make the pedal mushy and less responsive but more forgiving I guess. I ran this lap on 0.047 SS with 0.035 filler and a 3/32 tungsten using a 50/50/50 pulse. Max amperage was probably around 150 or so. Kinda squirrely but it has been a loooong time since I did something that thin. The pencil it there for perspective and to cover up the area I got to hot because some bonehead kid tapped me on the shoulder to ask if he could go see his counselor…
AC wave variables are typical, Auto, Balance from 5% to 99% EN. But this is new to me, you can also control the EN and EP amps of the AC wave within the parameters of the balance, that is the balance doesn’t change. Since balance is a function of the time the AC wave spends on a particular side of the wave changing the EN and EP amps with further enhance the AC wave, pretty cool!
And after sitting idle for a while it goes into Green Mode and flashes that on the display. Cooler shuts off and the fan in the machine if it is not to hot but I’m not sure what else is shut down. Touching pedal or a button will wake it up immediately.
The display it a bright white with three levels of intensity and is easily seen through an auto darkener.
All in all I really like this machine, my new favorite! It will be a sad day when I have to give it up…..
Oh and nine memory slots. And since I'm hearing of a potential argon shortage. Post flow can be set to AUTO and the time is based on the the max amperage you have the machine set at. I used this today and never had a blue tungsten but never paid attention to the time it ran in relation to the max amperage I had set.
John
