What is the difference between AC stick welding and DC stick welding?
A. In general, DC stick welding gives much smoother arc characteristics than AC, so DC is preferred even for electrodes that have coatings to run either AC or DC. There are some electrodes like 6010 that can only be run DC. For running larger electrodes at higher amperages however, AC may be the preferred mode in order to eliminate “arc blow”- the wandering of the arc away from the weld joint due to induced magnetic fields generated by a high DC current flow.
