Welding Tips and Tricks

I had seen some pictures of some guys inserting a stick electrodes in the collet of their tig torch. Is this actually a thing you can do? As you may or may not know I am interested in running some 7018s we got but only have AC buzz box and was wondering if this was okay or not. I feel like it is not okay but could be interesting. High frequency stick welding with amperage control?

People do it for laughs mostly - but as long as you switch to DC+ it will work just fine.

MinnesotaDave wrote:People do it for laughs mostly - but as long as you switch to DC+ it will work just fine.

Dang it... It is DCEN only.

But I can do this with no problem huh. I figured it was a bad thing. I may try it for craps and laughs now.

Farmwelding wrote:

MinnesotaDave wrote:People do it for laughs mostly - but as long as you switch to DC+ it will work just fine.

Dang it... It is DCEN only.

But I can do this with no problem huh. I figured it was a bad thing. I may try it for craps and laughs now.

It's just a cable swap under the cover. There are pics and I believe a video on how to make the cables removable like they should have already been to begin with.

I don't recall if the diversion actually ends up stick welding good or not though.

It's another reason a Syncro 250 is a good machine for teaching - stick and tig very well.

Edit: if it were me, I'd try 6013 and/or 7014 on AC before I tried switching out anything under the cover.

Its haNdy for getting the stick rod right into a tight spot. Slide it right in then hit the button/pedal. Jody wrote about it once. (he published the pic you see on the net, and i think he has a video of doing it....of course)

There are cases of 6010 root, TIG out, where this technique is very handy. You only have to change polarity, not your whole stinger. Not too common, but not unheard of.

Steve