Turning an AC stick welder into DC

[rhamer]

Are there add on rectifiers that can be bought to turn an AC welder into a DC one?

Is it that simple, or is there a catch?

Cheers

Rohan

[Taylortractornut]

Rohan when I was 16 I got a job i n the machine shop of a small manufacturing plant. we mostly wire welded but when a Die block in the stamping room broke we had to stick them. This company was started in the 50's and had 4 old giant stick welders. One was a huge refrigerater sized General Electric welder that was AC. It did good bt didnt have neough penetration. an old timer in the plate shop part had some DC rectifiers he tried putting on the out put side but that was trouble some. They worked flawlessly on the input side. Used the DC contered power in the transformer. I welded alot with that welder. I Talked to friend that works there now and he said its used weekly. There also been a few posted in Farmshow magazine. You can go to Farmshow.com and look up back issues but you have pay for a reprint. I think this is the rectifier method they used.

[rhamer]

How do you put a rectifier on the primary of a transformer and have the transformer still work?

I realise the output from a straight bridge rectifier really just has the -ve part of the waveform inverted, so you get lumpy DC.

Cheers

Rohan

[bobodu]

Just google "welder ac dc rectifier" and be prepared to wade through a lot of info.
Here is one of my favorite threads.

Machine Builders Network

[excelagator]

I have seen this on a Yahoo members page. One member did it with diodes on both leads.

Dan

[Reg]

You also need a choke in line.

[gemini5362]

Rohan when I was 16 I got a job i n the machine shop of a small manufacturing plant. we mostly wire welded but when a Die block in the stamping room broke we had to stick them. This company was started in the 50's and had 4 old giant stick welders. One was a huge refrigerater sized General Electric welder that was AC. It did good bt didnt have neough penetration. an old timer in the plate shop part had some DC rectifiers he tried putting on the out put side but that was trouble some. They worked flawlessly on the input side. Used the DC contered power in the transformer. I welded alot with that welder. I Talked to friend that works there now and he said its used weekly. There also been a few posted in Farmshow magazine. You can go to Farmshow.com and look up back issues but you have pay for a reprint. I think this is the rectifier method they used.

is it possible that you might have mistyped what you were trying to say. I cannot think of a reason that diodes would not work well in the output side of a welder other than they might not be able to handle the current. On the input side I can think of a lot of reasons why they would not work starting with you cannot get transformer action with dc current.

[nightrodjc]

I have a Linde stick-tig unit and it uses a stand alone dc converter.You can use it with any ac power supply.

[nate_m]

Here is a link to purchase a kit:

DC Cheater - Home

A little spendy but probably cheaper than buying a new welder if you already have an older buzzbox that still works good.

[alltoys]

I have welded for years with an AC machine. You can buy specific rod for the AC Buzz box, 6011 was designed for AC, so was 6013. You can also buy specific 7018 Ac rod it burns just as good as regular 7018 on a DC machine. About the only thing you can't run on AC is a TIG except if it is on high frequency for Aluminum. 7014 and 7024 burns better on AC than DC.

What I am trying to tell you is there is other ways to make your AC machine perform to near high standard as DC machines.