When welding wit AC you need a larger size since your tungsten absorbs 50% of the heat compared to 30% with DC-

@Grant Pratt for sure I didn’t want to give the exact answer in case somebody who wasn’t sure couldn’t just get the answer in the comments haha. With AC your current is usually divided 50/50. 50% electrode 50% your part. Of course changing the balance will change that in a range that’s typically 30 to 70%.

@Scott Birch wow they seem extremely strict. I can get behind following the procedures. Sometimes it’s easy to tell yourself that cutting corners is fine, however those procedures are there for a reason. They’re a proven reliable way of having repeatable welds that you know will hold. What’s the reason behind not waving? Also those welds are very very nice and consistent for not having a weave

@Grant Pratt for sure, where I’m at we go by the CWB since our work is made for the government. We have a full time certified CWB welder that watches over us to make sure we follow the guidelines in place for every type of weld. We also get yearly visits from the CWB. Every 3 years if I remember right every weld has to be recertified as well as every welder has to repass every test for said welds. For sure it annoying at times but I tell myself if I follow the guidelines and it passes inspection my welds will hold. If ever they fail for any reason I feel more assured knowing I’m not the only one liable since they need to pass an inspection before, any flaws should’ve been catched by QC. Like you said, a lot of the time it’s annoying since you can’t use pulsed, or more optimized parameters to your style of welding. I’ve ran into problems once where I used GMAW-P when I should’ve used normal GMAW for an uphill weld.

@Grant Pratt wow, a 24 would be an inch and a half right 😳😅

@Scott Birch do you mean something like this?

Welcome!