Inverter

[Colin Smith]

Hi
I recently bought a 230V ac Inverter, on the front it has - and + female connection points as far as I can see the electrode and earth can go in either. Can anyone help with which goes where ?
Thanks

 

[Spark plug]

It depends on the type of electrode your useing and the work your doing but generally electrode positive covers most general applications.

 

[Colin Smith]

Many thanks Spark Plug,
Colin (Originally from Ashington)

 

[Miggy89]

reverse polarity is correct for smaw & gas mig, straight polarity for gasless mig & tig

 

[matt1978]

Is it a ACDC Tig inverter?

If so put it in the - socket and then you select on the front panel of you want to weld with DCEN DCEP or AC

 

[Richard.]

Hi Colin.
As the guys have said polarity can be a bit of a mine field because it depends on process, application and consumables as to where you plug your leads in.
What inverter have you bought?
If it's a mig/mag multi process machine this will cover all 3 manual electric welding types.
For gasless mig with a flux cored wire you would have the return lead to +.
For mma you can use both depending on rod type and penetration requirements. A typical 6013 electrode will run fine which ever way you plug in the leads but you'll get more penetration with the return in the -
Tig is nearly always used in reverse polarity. (Return in +). There are very few rare cases when you would do it the other way round and tbh they are that rare it's best at this time not to try it.
My advice would be with the sticks to swap em about and get a feel for the differences to understand polarity.

 

[Colin Smith]

Many thanks all
The machine is a standard MMA, 160A, 1.6-4mm electrodes.

 

[Richard.]

Many thanks all
The machine is a standard MMA, 160A, 1.6-4mm electrodes.

It won't be happy with too many 4mm electrodes
Mine goes up to 170 amps on mma and 3.2's are it's realistic limit.
In that case buy a box of 6013's and try them out with the leads both way round.

 

[matt1978]

I'm a bit confused (it doesn't take a lot )

If it's an AC inverter, surely there must be some sort of button on the front for selecting which mode you want?

Otherwise if not then it would be AC all the time and wouldn't matter which socket he used.

 

[Miggy89]

Tig is nearly always used in reverse polarity. (Return in +).

could be wrong but im pretty sure thats straight polarity (dcen) as electric flows neg to pos. reverse is electrode pos as in gas mig, atleast thats how i always thought

 

[Richard.]

could be wrong but im pretty sure thats straight polarity (dcen) as electric flows neg to pos. reverse is electrode pos as in gas mig, atleast thats how i always thought

Your right mate.
I stand corrected. Reverse polarity is electrode positive.

 

[Colin Smith]

I'm a bit confused (it doesn't take a lot )

If it's an AC inverter, surely there must be some sort of button on the front for selecting which mode you want?

Otherwise if not then it would be AC all the time and wouldn't matter which socket he used.

Hi Matt, Its single phase 220-230V supply
Colin

 

[Colin Smith]

It won't be happy with too many 4mm electrodes
Mine goes up to 170 amps on mma and 3.2's are it's realistic limit.
In that case buy a box of 6013's and try them out with the leads both way round.

Hi Richard, You are probably right, the power supply over here is rubbish anyway.
I have some 6013's, I will have let you know how it goes
Colin

 

[matt1978]

So you mean 230v AC power supply? Not an actual ACDC inverter?

It should of been described as a DC inverter as its only output is DCEN or DCEP. As already explained, DCEN gives 1/3 of the heat at the electrode and 2/3's at the workpiece and vice verse for DCEP.

6013 rutile can run on either but DCEN tends to run a little smoother, less spattering and less aggressive. Most modern day electrodes can run on either polarity, but I tend to only use the slightly more difficult to burn types such as Lo-Hydrogen (7018 and simerla) on DCEP