Arc Welding Machine And Stick Welder

The arc welding machine and stick welder has 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 of arc welding machines 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 welding video showing the arc welding machine basics.

In this arc welding video it covers the basics such as, power adjustment, earth clamps and electrode holders.