AC Welders

Its because you have an AC welder thats why. They are just more prone to doing that due to the alternating direction of the arc.

I would suggest investing $100(US) and take a welding course at your local Junior College where the fundamentals of welding are explained in detail. And, who knows, you may want invest in a MIG welder instead of a stick welder after the course.

i'm a certified welder in all classes of welding. i have 1000's of hrs. under my belt. you may want to re-read my post before you breath down my nose.

Sorry AP, but your OP says nothing about being Certified in any class of welding! Let alone, have taken any courses in WELDING!!

TEEEE HEEEEEE

Welding takes feel and use of all the senses. Even the best after any duration away from it take time to get the feel back.

I may be the angle that you are striking the arc. The amperage setting. The sputtering distance the rod is from the work. Try changing those. I have welded a lot of sheet metal structures with 6013 one of the easiest to weld with. Never did the cleaning and prep you do.

If you are as experienced as you claim, then you know that AC welding is not easy. I love 6013 for general welding, but on DC. For AC I have to use 6010 or 6011. They are more tolerant of dirt and galvanize, too. They just don't make the pretty weld that 6013 does. Too bad, that's AC for you. Cough up the money for a good machine, and consider mig, too. No whining.

sorry gentlemen, i let my pride get the best of me. thats for the input.

Cool response - now lay back and enjoy the CR4 community - and feel welcome.

Then go out and buy a Miller or Lincoln

check the electrode spec sheets , some will say suitable for AC or DC , while others will say DC only , you might find electrodes that suit AC well until you upgrade the machine

if you do alot of welding , investing in a modern DC inverter welder could save you the price of the machine in the first year or two of electricity bills

my kemppi inverters use 10 watts of idling power between welding , while an AC transformer welder will chew 6000 watts continuously whether you are welding or not.

a company i am associated with replaced all their lincoln AC/DC 500 amp transformer machines and the drop in electricity bill for the first year alone paid for the price of those inverter machines.

never looked back.

thanks for posting here , thanks for your well mannered responses to the varied answers given

have a nice day ( before they put a tax on that too )

"while an AC transformer welder will chew 6000 watts continuously whether you are welding or not"

Wot?

transformer welders chew big amps even when you are not welding

stick a meter on one

feel free to measure your own ( welder that is )

(Hehe)

About 10% in my experience. E.g. a 15 amp primary at 240 Vac transformer stick, on idle, takes around 380 W, but maybe on US power it's different.

But I must admit I haven't put a meter on the ESAB 250 MIGs or the Miller 500 TIG's, but they are 3ph and don't seem to have any impact on shop power until an arc is struck.

_{(which is only noticeable when the shop is running on the standby generator)}

I don't know what you are welding, so my comment may not be relevant, but MIG/MAG welding is really easy, even for a relative beginner as me.

I learnt Stick welding over 40 years ago, but MIG is just simple and I can weld almost any steel.....I even started with stainless and it held!! It was not pretty, but a grinder made it look far better. Nowadays I don't need to clean it up, it looks good straight away....

I personally find that the gas "shield" of MIG/MAG is an easy way to go, no dangerous flux (try getting that in your eye!!) to get rid of....

Get as powerful a machine as you can afford, nothing that works on 110v or similar is good enough except for very light stuff......run 220v cables/socket to where you work if need be.....

Have you tried different types of rod? I alway used 7014 for AC welding, with reasonable success. (I liked the 7014 because when you had a nice clean weld the slag would peel up by itself.) Are you welding where there is considerable air movement? Have you tried other AC machines with any better sucess? Sounds like you are doing all the right stuff for the prep work. If you have tons of hours of welding under your belt with AC and DC machines then your skill level may be just allowing you to see the downside of AC that others with far less experience take for granted...

Regarding the post about AC welders drawing full power when idling....Not! An AC welder is just a step-down transformer and it only draws a small amount of power when idling--just the magnetizing current required in the transformer core and some other minor losses. Civilization would be in big trouble if transformers started drawing full power when idling!

Jon.

If you are stick welding on a TIG welder capable and for what ever reason starting becomes a problem, I flip on the High Frequency Start and lay my bead. I have heard this is hard on the welder if you do it all the time but in cases when the job needs done it works.

Have you tried 7014 rod? It seems the smoothest for AC.