evfreek
12-05-2007, 09:38 PM
Hi. I'm new here :) . I just bought a Century/Power Kraft welder on craigslist for a very good price. It came with a strange TIG torch and a HF box. But, it is AC only. I wonder if these can be used on steel. The welder came with a lot of consumables, including 1/16 and 3/32 2% thorium tungstens and replacement collets. The quality of the unit is mediocre, but at least better than the Chinese import welders. The torch/valve would not flow argon, and it was impossible to tell where the clog was, so I ended up hacksawing it in half and drilling out the melted portion :realmad: . Also, the HF box generates so much interference that even the halogen lights flicker. Installed a line filter; didn't help. Pulled out the leads; helped, but could not weld.
I tried it out on 5/64" steel sheet metal at about 40 amps. It worked pretty well. I only had TIG welding instruction in metal shop, and it was brief. The tungsten looked a little melted afterwards. Was that caused by using AC or was it just sloppy? I don't need to run this thing at hi-amps (the stick welder is good for that). Is there anything wrong with using AC on steel? I haven't seen much information on this, since pretty much all TIG welders supply DC.
I tried it out on 5/64" steel sheet metal at about 40 amps. It worked pretty well. I only had TIG welding instruction in metal shop, and it was brief. The tungsten looked a little melted afterwards. Was that caused by using AC or was it just sloppy? I don't need to run this thing at hi-amps (the stick welder is good for that). Is there anything wrong with using AC on steel? I haven't seen much information on this, since pretty much all TIG welders supply DC.