[TheForge] Tig welding

Wed Jul 24 22:10:07 2002

You can absolutely assemble a scratch start TIG welder with a DC  power 
supply, and an argon bottle and regulator. Missing the Hi-Freq will also 
cause the arc to be a little less stable. Unless you are welding 
aluminum or other non-ferous metals your AC welder will not cut the 
mustard, however. You run DCEN(electrode negative) or DC straight 
polarity for TIG on ferrous welds. With ferrous metals, DCEP or reverse 
polarity will burn up the tungsten electrodes. For non-ferrous metals 
you run AC and the heat is distributed well enough to not burn up the 
tungsten.

I guess in the way of the metal mongers you could investigate a 
rectifier to convert the AC into DC, but then that's going down a dark 
tunnel instead of buying a TIG welder.
Ray Miller
Cincinnati

Rafter Lazy C wrote:

>Hi Guys -
>
>    I am wondering about a thing I saw several years ago.  A guy I knew took
>a tig torch and gas bottle with regulator, and hooked it to his DC stick
>welder.  Nothing else was used, and he had to scratch start the tig, but it
>worked.  I know without high-freq. it wouldn't work with aluminum, (or am I
>wrong about that, too?) but it has intrigued me all these years.  I have an
>OLD Lincoln stick welder.  A 180 amp AC welder, and was wondering if this
>idea
>would work with this?  I am on a limited budget and this seems like a way I
>could have tig in my shop, but I hesitate to buy all this if it won't work
>with my welder.
>
>Please tell me what you think,
>
>Rick Crawford at  Rafter Lazy C
>Home of Rick's Forge and Lem the Wonder Mule
>email = [email protected]
>home page = http://www.tbcnet.com/~rafterlazyc/
>
>
>
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