Constructing TIG machine

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I have an AC/DC Lincoln welder. What would I need to use this as a power supply for a TIG machine. Such as hi-frequency box, so on and so forth?Thanks in advance for your help.
Reply:What material do you plan to TIG with it?
Reply:You'll need at least a torch with a gas valve built-in, and a cylinder of 100% argon with a flowgauge or flowmeter.
Reply:If you modify your profile to include your location, it can be helpful to those who might be close to you can sometimes provide personal help or even have extra parts.
Reply:if you are just wanting to weld steels all you need is a power block and some form of regulator for argon with a hose.  You can run scratch start tig like that, if you want to go aluminum then you will have to go with a hi-freq box, and be prepared to spend some money.  You can probably find a good used tig machine for what a new high freq box will cost.I'm a Lover, Fighter, Wild horse Rider, and a pretty good welding man......
Reply:High freq boxes are cheap for what you get.  New they are only $850 for the miller HF-251D-1 (miller lists them for over $1,000 but they are actually cheaper through many online sources).  Used you can get them for as little as $100 for the old style and $350 for the new style.  They are nice because they are VERY high quality and will turn any cheap welder into a nice TIG welder and as you upgrade your equipment it will hook up to your new welders with ease and you really won't find yourself limited with it.
Reply:Also looking at doing TIG, only have an AC machine right now. I've got the TIG torch, some tungstens, hose and flow regulator already. Only looking at steel at the moment. Do I need to rectify the AC to DC?
Reply:Originally Posted by MAC702If you modify your profile to include your location, it can be helpful to those who might be close to you can sometimes provide personal help or even have extra parts.
Reply:If you use an arc welder with a HF box to TIG on AC, you need to derate the duty cycle of the machine by about 30%.  The instructions with the HF box will go into this.Has something to do with arc rectification as a result of less emmisivity of the work versus the tungsten in the electrode positive phase of the AC wave that an arc welder not made for TIG isn't designed to handle as well.More "useless trivia" I read about recently but if you do it, don't let your machine overheat. As for AC TIG on steel, unless it is really thin steel, you would need DC (or some really humongous tungsten). Last edited by phila.renewal; 05-22-2007 at 06:58 AM.