TIG: using A/C for mild steel ?

Well, I for one have never tried it - AC on mild steel. I guess it would work - but can't see where any advantage would come from.

You don't desire the extra heat in your tungsten and loss of the sharp focus of your arc with the tungsten balling which comes with AC. You only use AC when it makes welding possible where it would otherwise be impossible - which for Al is about the cleaning of your metal of oxide on the reverse current, allowing the weld to flow.

You get nice welding of mild, steel, stainless steel (and most metals) on DC with TIG. Small narrow cool deep-penetration welds, I'd characterise them as.

'nother advantage is that DC TIG is silent - just a gentle hiss - so you can settle down, put some sound on and settle into a nice head-space and get your TIG'ing done.

See if any experts around here have any comments.

Richard Smith

The article claims that A/C provides the necessary "cleaning" effect. (Which is why we use A/C for "aluminum")

Yes sir, all true!

Couldn't of said it better. Love the nice quiet gentle hiss. Love the fact that I can TIG indoors on the back of the vice on hte bench.

Will do, I'll find the link, and post it - they *must* be refering to Al (or just very mixed up)

I read that somewhere too. Somthing about running high freq and high duty cycle to get a more focused arc. Well, I tried it on steel and all I got was a balled tungsten and a crappy looking weld, but I am pretty new to this.

Thanks for reporting this experience! It's what we'd expect, but without trying it, it would be dodgy to assert that. -- Richard Smith

Yeah, the article was whacked. At first I thought they ment Alum., since that is where you DO use A/C, but they said that its "rare" in *any* TIG to run A/C. Go figger.