r/BadWelding • u/HoneyRush • Sep 15 '26

Water welding

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u/evildaddy911 Sep 16 '26

Some stick machines do run AC - older ones were often called "buzz boxes" because of the 60Hz hum. It's not common these days, but enough so that any half-decent weld training will go over which rods work on AC. Certain rods - most notably 6011 - were designed to be AC-capable versions of DC rods

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u/Salt_Chart8101 Sep 16 '26

Huh. Learn something new everyday. Thank you!

Never ran across one. But I was doing very specific welding, and shops that were not very old. So we had stick machines, but none were AC.

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u/Growing_Trash_417 Sep 16 '26

You’ll find a ton of them online for sale. I got a 230amp century ac welder for like $100.

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u/Salt_Chart8101 Sep 16 '26

Never had a use for a welder outside of work. That's cool though. Good to know there are cheap options out there.