TFS: Understanding AC Balance #TIGSimple

Acey balance quite often to consider a very very confusing topic well there are some fantastic videos out there and there are a handful of them that really explain this in great detail but there are some things that I think I can reiterate on and maybe I can offer a better visual representation of exactly what's happening and maybe how to set up your machine with AC balance correctly set or at least to the preference that you like it at based on the results and that's what we're going to go over as part of the tig simple series today only on the fabrication series [Music] all right so in order to actually start this one off here we're gonna have to focus on two things here the difference between DC electrode negative and the DC electrode positive side of the welding machine now most of it we're all welding on DC electrode negative but what exactly does that mean well let's look into the actual law of how DC current actually runs electricity travels from negative to positive not positive to negative it goes from negative to positive so with that in mind let's actually explain the difference between the electro positive and the electro negative how it applies to a TIG welder check this out let's start with the power tick 2:55 EXT just because I like it that works so we're getting close here you can take a look at the left side is the negative terminal the right side is the positive terminal when we connect our leads to it so just for reference there now we're gonna need our clamp now this is known as a work clamp maybe a work lead or an earth or a ground and then we're gonna need the torch now the torch this is very important to remember about this when it holds the tungsten it conducts the electricity therefore the torch is the electrode not anything else it's the electrode whenever it references electronegative electro positive the torch is the electrode remember that next we'll bring in something to well this is also known as our work we're going to connect that to our clamp now we're gonna send one line over to the clamp which we're gonna send a positive side over and then the negative side to the electrode or the torch now this is DC current electrode negative or dcen now since our current travels from negative to positive it's going from the torch to the work that's the direction that is traveling now this is typically what we use to well things like stainless steel mild steel chromoly titanium stuff like that pretty much anything that isn't an alloy so that is DC current electrode negative for dcen now i'll set it up on the machine just so you get another reference here that is our work side goes on the positive our torch end or our electrode goes on the negative side and of course I'll hook it all up here and I'll show you what it looks like underneath the hood you get a nice pinpointed arc good stability keeps the tungsten nice and sharp we can just pinpoint it wherever we want focus it wherever we want and just make it happen all on direct current electrode negative this is typically what we use now let's flip this around we're gonna send our clamp or our work lead into the negative side and we'll send our torch or our electrode into the positive side this is known as DC electrode positive or dcep sometimes called reverse polarity so again it travels from negative to positive so we're going from the work to the torch now you can't actually weld on this and this animation here is just a representation of if you could that's probably something about what it would look like but the cup gets ridiculously hot the tungsten will melt and fall back and you actually won't be able to get anywhere with it so I'll show you kind of what that looks like we can't actually make a well because it takes you know just half a sniff on that panel of amperage to uh to make that tungsten just explode like this it's it's really really bad yeah so again everything gets ridiculously hot it's impractical we don't actually use it there is a use for EP or the positive side and that's on aluminum but this is essentially what happens all of the current is going up into that tungsten instead of it being focused and coming out of it it goes into it which creates a lot of resistance and a lot of heat that's why it melts now that we got the DC or the direct current side figured out let's talk about what happens on the AC or the alternating current side check this out now what alternating current does is actually in its name it alternates it oscillates it switches from one side to the other in one cycle so it goes from positive and then it flip-flops and goes right back down into the negative side to complete one cycle now the number of positive to negative oscillations of the wave or how many times the switches from positive to negative however many times in one second it does that is the frequency now the frequency is typically measured in Hertz or Hz which is what it's abbreviated so if you have say 60 oscillations from positive to negative on one second you have 60 Hertz same thing goes if you have like 412 - or 50 or whatever that number how many times it oscillates from positive to negative is your frequency in Hertz and once upon a time the only thing we were ever able to work with on its hIgG welder was a 60 Hertz sine wave which is what's shown here that's exactly what came out of the wall but waves have evolved over the years for the AC side so aside from the sine wave we typically or most machines have the square wave which is available in typically two forms which is the sharp square which is shown here or a soft square which actually has kind of rounded corners on each one of those edges making it a nice smooth transition some machines also have the triangle wave our triangle wave is a very tight pinpoint type of arc it doesn't build up a lot of heat but let's actually switch over and talk about the square wave since that's most common now aluminum is kind of a fickle metal it has an invisible oxide layer on it that melts somewhere around 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit while the aluminum melts somewhere around 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit now this is depending on who you talk to and what great a metal it is so let's bring in our torch here and we'll kind of review here on the positive side remember the electricity travels from negative to positive so on the positive side it's going from the work to the torch and on the negative side it's going from the torch to the work now where it applies to aluminum this is actually very important because the positive side actually does something for us as serves a function which we call cleaning so as we fire it up the positive side actually comes from within the metal and blasts the oxide layer up and out of the way that way when it switches over to the negative side the negative can fire down into it and penetrate into the metal now this happens rapidly now how rapid it does it is determined by the frequency now this is the fastest I could probably show it where it still makes sense remember it blasts up on the positive side to clean it blast down on the negative side to penetrate now if you look at it through the hood this is pretty much what you're staring at as you're welding aluminum and this bead is welded at 60 Hertz and I'm going a little bit slow here but the topic of frequency and you know the waves of aluminum that we usually run when welding it is a topic for a different episode in the take simple series we'll definitely get into that of course but this is pretty much what it looks like and why you need AC to weld aluminum alright so we know about DC on the positive side we know about DC on negative side and now we know a little bit about AC so let's talk about AC balance now AC balance is the relationship for the positive side to the negative side on the AC wave or the alternating current wave now how exactly that pertains the welding is exactly what we're gonna cover right now check this out so taking a look at this wave we have what we call a balanced wave which is 50% on the positive side and 50% on the negative side so try and follow along the result that it produces is this this is what it looks like underneath the hood gives a bald and quivering type of tungsten kind of wandering arc which results in less focus less stability in a wider weld puddle it's not something we typically like to work with we're able to refine that the way that we refine that is by taking that wave and adjusting the positive side slightly back so we can actually say that we want less time spent on the positive side and more time spent on the negative side so 30% cleaning on the top results in less balling of a tungsten less heat and 70% on the negative side results in a much more pinpointed and stable arc so let's throw up three different welds here you can see one on the top one in the middle one on the bottom and these if you're to your untrained eye are three very different welds and will actually go over and explain them the top is way too much negative side so that kind of produces like a puddle with lots of oxides and it kind of looks like a bowl of snot in a sausage casing there's absolutely no cleaning action on it whatsoever now the 3070 which is a good starting point we can see that this frosty etching zone around there is our cleaning site very good very clean nice stable puddle and our 50/50 produces a very deep benching you can see it gets pretty severe down there at the bottom of it now obviously we're gonna weld somewhere around 30 70 which is ideal and most people actually have their own personal preference here so let's kind of run over a little bit here now our 50/50 remember sometimes you don't have the adjustment this is like an old-school machine of what it used to do it will be equal cleaning and penetration the tungsten would fall up give you a less stability maker a wider puddle in a really deep edging zone now compare that to something like 30 70 which is a good starting point thirty percent positive 70 percent negative you get more penetration than you get cleaning the tungsten stays a little more tapered you get increased stability and focus which is really fantastic now remember the key word here is balance and this is all based on preference so start somewhere around 30 70 and then maybe kind of tweak and refine it just a little bit every machine is different every personal preference is different now this is just where it gets a wee bit confusing because some manufacturers display the wave and the adjustment on the positive side some manufacturers display the wave adjustment on the negative side so which one do you have and how do you figure out and all the rest of that good stuff well there is actually a very very easy way you can look it all up or you can just plug in the machine and do this check this out start by setting up your machine and electrode negative we need your torches on the negative side your work lead is on the positive side and then set your AC balance control to 70 doesn't matter what you think it is just set it to 70 then step on the pedal now if you see the tungsten start balling up and violently reacting and starting to melt away with very little amperage on that panel your machine displays the positive side so turn it back down to 30 and you'll be able to weld okay still confused well you got a couple of options here first and foremost you can definitely sit down and take one of our TIG welding classes anytime that you feel it's convenient all you have to do is go over the fabrication series comp slash classes website to book up a class anytime that you want and people are traveling from all over the world just to take classes it's a fantastic way to get trained in a big hurry and it's in Vegas I mean there's always something to do here even when you're not training for welding classes so it's obviously a really good deal next you can actually hit us up on the fabrication series comm website you send me an email or anything like that dean contact with me very easy to do you can also hit me up on instagram at the doc fabricator or facebook.com slash the ferric leader series I definitely try to get back to all messages and emails in a timely manner and I'll definitely see if I can explain it in a way that you can understand it but that about wraps it up for this episode on AC balance so I want to thank you guys for watching as always don't forget to subscribe to the fabrication Series YouTube channel for more really awesome content and I will see you guys on the next episode

Channel: The Fabrication Series

Views: 223,471

Rating: 4.950685 out of 5

Keywords: #TIGSimple, TIG Welding, What is AC Balance, how to AC balance, how to set ac balance, how to adjust ac balance, what is ac balance, TIG ac balance, TIG Welding how to, Aluminum TIG welding, DC Electrode Negative, DC Electrode Positive, How much AC balance should I set, AC Balance, DCEN, DCEP, About AC balance, set ac balance, TIG balance, The Fabricator, TFS, Season 3, TFS.The fabricator Series, The Fabrication Series, #GetsStrong, Welding Videos

Id: 19AI6uKxmFU

Length: 11min 22sec (682 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2017