Ac Or Dc For Welding Sheet Metal

Distinct contrasts between ac vs dc welding.

Ac or dc for welding sheet metal.

Just grab a piece of sheet metal to get the heat set correctly and go to town. Tig welding sheet metal. Ac machines are small in size. Forget the larger 1 8 inch tungsten electrode and use a smaller one.

There are some big differences that have a big impact on whether the ac or dc welding is right for you. Figure 1 is a graph of dc welding output vs. In most cases dc is the preferred welding polarity. Most of all metals and metal alloys except aluminum and magnesium are welded with dc especially when wedding higher strength and low alloy steels.

Ac vs dc welding. For 3 32 7018 s it s about the same. Don t attempt to weld thin materials like sheet metal with flux cored wires which put more heat into the base metal. Don t expect smooth cut as dc.

Welding involves creating an electric arc between an electrode and the metal that is being welded. To weld sheet metal with solid wires use electrode positive ep or reverse polarity. The 7018 welding rods are used for pipe welding and structural steel welding and repair welding. Other ac welding rods include 6013 7018 and 7024.

First let s talk about size. In addition to that arc welding creates lots of heat and will in almost all cases create heat distortion. Your question leads to a more general discussion of dc vs. Tig welding can be done with both alternating current ac or direct current dc.

First of all it is very difficult and will take considerable practice. Everyone is different but those settings will get you in the right ballpark to weld sheet metal. When you start tig welding the first major setting you have to set up is the current. Using ac or dc has a hugh impact on your weld results.

In this article i will give you a best practice guideline that should help you make the right choice for your welding tasks in the future. A good heat setting for 1 8 6011 rods on thin material is about 80 90 amps. For thin sheet metal tig mig and gas welding will be easier than arc welding. For many people ac dc gets them reminiscing about a certain era of rock music but for welders it means polarity.

Whether it is dc electrode positive or reverse polarity or dc electrode negative or straight polarity dc produces smoother welding output than ac. Disadvantages of ac welding.