Arc Welding Machines And Stick Welder

Arc welding machines and stick welders have been around for many, many years. According to wikipedia.com the first recorded use of an arc welding machine was way back in the early 1800's.

Slowly over time the development of the stick welder and arc welding machine were greatly improved. The evolution of mankind demanded better ways of joining metal together.

Anyone who has even remotly looked into welding has most likely heard of, or seen an arc welding machine.

To understand the stick welder you need to understand that you are dealing with electricity. All electricity that is supplied to your workshop, shed, garage or house is what is called AC power.

AC power is short for "alternating current". In english this means that the power coming out of your wall socket will go from positive (+), to negative (-) really fast over a short amount of time.


In my country of Australia we are on 240volt AC power at 50Hz. So this means that my power will go up to 240V positive, then back down to negative 240V at 50Hz. Hz is Hertz, which means that the power will go from +240V to -240V at 50times per second. Pretty quick huh!

On a side note this is why the light bulbs in you house do not flicker, as the change from positive to negative is so fast. But if the Hz was only say 5 instead of 50 you would probably see the light globe flicker on, off, on, off.

The majority are DC output.

DC is direct current. That is the power does not go up and down like a wave but rather in just a straight line.

This gives us a consistent current power source of DC power which is ideal for arc welding.
Here is a video that I did about Arc Welding Machines and their basic setup.

It is much easier for me to show you in a video rather than you having to read through page after page of welding information.

In the video I show two different types of arc welding machines. The first machine is the type of welder that you would buy from the local hardware store for a hundred or so dollars.

The second machine is a more heavy duty industrial machine that is physically bigger and will offer more power output for bigger welds, and it has a higher duty cycle. The second machine has a high voltage output option as well.

In the video I go over how to attatch the welding leads, how to adjust the welding power output, and how to put the electrode into the "stinger".

click here to watch the video