tig torch on stick welder

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Can you use a tig torch on a AC/DC welder and reverse polarity and tig weld
Reply:Yes and no, I have a customer who several years ago would put tig torches on their AC/DC Miller Thunderbolts, this was mostly used for stainless tig maintenance functions on the floor at a beef packinghouse, they used to buy the cheap two wheel carts, mount the T-bolt, then an 80cf argon cylinder. This worked ok, but they periodically had to replace the diodes in these units. Granted this was kind of crude, and a scratch start for tig, but it did the job. You won't need the reverse polarity for tig though, unless you use it briefly to ball your tungsten for aluminum. Some of the old AC/DC units were ok to use for tig, like the Miller Dialarc with hi-freq, Lincoln and Century likewise made AC/DC units that had hi-freq as well. If you've got one of those older units, you'd probably be ok putting a tig torch on it.
Reply:I have run a scratch start, air cooled tig torch, about $150, with straight argon, on a variety of DC power supplies. Even use a Trailblazer gas drive sometimes.It works. It is not the most elegant thing in the world, or the most controllable, and I wouldnt want to learn to tig weld on one.But for a skilled tig welder, like me and the boys who work for me, its a usuable, if somewhat kludgy, way of site tig welding when there is no other machine available. Wont work AC for aluminum, only DC for steel, stainless, or copper alloys.You will mess up your tungsten more often, and need to resharpen regularly. You will inevitably forget to turn off the little hand knob for argon, and go thru more gas than you would with a real tig machine. You will quickly learn why its worth it to drop the big bucks on a real tig machine, with HF start, a foot pedal, solenoids for gas, and a water cooler.But yeah, you can do it.
Reply:check out this site www.tigdepot.com
Reply:I've tig'd with my bobcat and like others have mentioned scratch arc to start, And Ries there is a remote capability on trailbrazers if I'm remembering correctly.
Reply:Ries, I am just the opposite of you.  I always tigged with my Weldman power G7.  I had to put a little capacitor in on the output terminals, but I plugged the high freq into the welder 110.  DC scratch start was all I knew.  I upgraded to a Ranger 250 with Lift start (no AC output).  I bought the Arcmaster  185 on Friday.  It has all the bells and whistles.  Now I wonder how I did it then.  Its so much easier with the right equipment.  I have been welding for over 25 years and that is the first time I used a foot pedal.  A true luxury.DavidReal world weldin.  When I grow up I want to be a tig weldor.
Reply:I didnt say there isnt remote controls on a trailblazer- and nowadays, I use em.But my point is just that for a relatively small amount of money, using just a scratch start air cooled torch, you can tig weld with just about any DC power supply.It works, it just aint pretty.My current site welding rig is a small cart that has on it a Miller High Freq box, a Radiator, a foot pedal, a watercooled torch with an additional hand amp control, a tank of argon, and a bunch of cables. It rolls anywhere within a couple of hundred feet of the gas drive trailblazer, and allows me to tig weld precisely and accurately just about anywhere, while the gas drive is outside, chuffing away.It requires no hookups to the building power, which helps because I am often on jobsites before there even is power. I am totally self contained, and yet I can do perfect welds with no sparks, spatter, or fire danger.I can use the pedal, or if up on a ladder, plug in the hand control.I have used it inside a new library, with some of the most advanced smoke detection equipment known to man all running- no way could you have stick welded or mig welded in there without setting it off- and we were welding 2" above finished carpeting, with very expensive custom woodworking a couple of inches in the other direction.I have used it 80 feet up in a manlift, with a 5 story building worth of custom tinted curtain wall glass panels 18" away- a few dingleballs on that glass, and I would have been out the cost of a new pickup in repair costs.So I am quite familiar with the right way to tig weld, but its pricy- that little cart is probably worth over 2 grand, and that is with NO WELDER included.Scratch start, however, still gets the job done.