Homemade Arc Welder

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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:42 pm

"Frankenwelder". It has been christened.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby Flightstopper » Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:52 pm

assateague wrote:"Frankenwelder(TM)". It has been christened.


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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby rebelp74 » Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:56 pm

:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby Goldfish » Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:39 am

"I can't see anything, let me get over by the door"
Translation: I want to be as close to the exit as possible when you try this shit

Your beard and simple pleasure in welding that reminds me of the crazy old timer at the mining camps in movies

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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:45 am

I was pretty damn happy.

And you can't see it, but he was also carrying a fire extinguisher with the pin out in his other hand. And the guy running the breaker pulled the door open to cover him before I started. Didn't exactly inspire confidence.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby Goldfish » Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:06 am

I was wondering about the guy standing right in front of the breaker box. Just see the fuse blowing up with him right in front of it

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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:45 pm

It's a 50 amp breaker. That thing goes off like a roman candle, I suspect we would have had bigger problems than me smoldering on the floor. Or at least they would've.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby huntall6 » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:14 pm

Could you try it with one microwave? My industrial miller's top setting is around 260 and I can weld anything I want to. And try 1/8" rod for that 1/4" metal. Bevel it and make a couple passes if you need a real strong hold.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby huntall6 » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:16 pm

Or better yet, ask your neighbor if you could put removable/exchangeable resistors inline with the ground wire to limit amps. Then jut get some different size resisters to change your settings.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:20 pm

huntall6 wrote:Could you try it with one microwave? My industrial miller's top setting is around 260 and I can weld anything I want to. And try 1/8" rod for that 1/4" metal. Bevel it and make a couple passes if you need a real strong hold.


The guy said one microwave didn't put out enough juice to make the welds hold. But if you watch the video he was welding a stainless coated beater out of a mixer. My money says that the stainless coat is what fucked his weld, cause I remember us having the same issue welding zinc (?) coated bolts to flatstrap.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:27 pm

huntall6 wrote:Or better yet, ask your neighbor if you could put removable/exchangeable resistors inline with the ground wire to limit amps. Then jut get some different size resisters to change your settings.



We checked into it. A resistor which would work for the amperage I need is crazy expensive. As in $400 expensive. I need a rheostat, but the only ones I find are not suitable (made for the fine adjustment, not the coarse adjustment). My neighbor's trying to figure out a way to wire it only using 110, which rather than cutting the amperage in half, would cut it by about a little over 2/3. don't ask me why, he started talking about "it's a non-linear progression when dealing with amperage increase" at which point my brain turned off.

I'm left with 3 options, as near as I can figure:

1. Build the damn Scariac, although we can't even figure out how to do that with 220.
2. Unwind coils from the secondary, until a desired amperage is found (probably around 150 or so for what I want to use it for)
3. Figure a way to wire it using only 110.

But in the meantime, I've got some 5/32 rods coming, to see what sort of difference that makes. Although with the amperage we're talking about (he let me know today that he re-ran the numbers, and that damn thing could be putting out closer to 600 amps) it's probably still too hot.


Updates will follow. Until they don't. And then that means that I accidentally found something that doesn't work. Catastrophically.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:36 pm

assateague wrote:
I'm left with 3 options, as near as I can figure:

1. Build the damn Scariac, although we can't even figure out how to do that with 220.
2. Unwind coils from the secondary, until a desired amperage is found (probably around 150 or so for what I want to use it for)
3. Figure a way to wire it using only 110.


That guy had 220 running through his but he had it wired from two 110s, instead of just doing it the right way with a 220. That seems like the most useful way but it really scares the shit out of me. If I built one, I'd have to over engineer it to no it to make damn sure that sumbitch don't spill.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby rozzo842 » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:38 pm

If you cut that 600 by 2/3 you would still have a bad ass welder but adjustability is real nice as you won't always be welding the same thicknesses.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:47 pm

rozzo842 wrote:If you cut that 600 by 2/3 you would still have a bad ass welder but adjustability is real nice as you won't always be welding the same thicknesses.



I agree, but this is just to get me tinkering and actually fixing some stuff, before getting a "real" one when I get to the point where I'll be working on different metals. This will be more for fixing treestands, implements, and that sort of stuff.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:52 pm

The Duck Hammer wrote:
assateague wrote:
I'm left with 3 options, as near as I can figure:

1. Build the damn Scariac, although we can't even figure out how to do that with 220.
2. Unwind coils from the secondary, until a desired amperage is found (probably around 150 or so for what I want to use it for)
3. Figure a way to wire it using only 110.


That guy had 220 running through his but he had it wired from two 110s, instead of just doing it the right way with a 220. That seems like the most useful way but it really scares the shit out of me. If I built one, I'd have to over engineer it to no it to make damn sure that sumbitch don't spill.



I know, but it still confusing. If you watch the video where he makes the Scariac, he puts in a 110 receptacle and a 110 switch, and neither of us can figure out how that puts the 220 through it. And he only runs one hot lead into the copper bar. The video really doesn't make it look like 220, although he claims to run the welder with it.

And I'm with you- if I do go that route, that fucker is gonna be sealed up so good it takes me an hour to get to the water when I need to "change" it, or whatever you have to do to it from time to time.


For those that haven't seen it (can't remember if it's in here or not) here's the video. Anyone with ideas to run it off of 220, let me know.


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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:57 pm

assateague wrote:
The Duck Hammer wrote:
assateague wrote:
I'm left with 3 options, as near as I can figure:

1. Build the damn Scariac, although we can't even figure out how to do that with 220.
2. Unwind coils from the secondary, until a desired amperage is found (probably around 150 or so for what I want to use it for)
3. Figure a way to wire it using only 110.


That guy had 220 running through his but he had it wired from two 110s, instead of just doing it the right way with a 220. That seems like the most useful way but it really scares the shit out of me. If I built one, I'd have to over engineer it to no it to make damn sure that sumbitch don't spill.



I know, but it still confusing. If you watch the video where he makes the Scariac, he puts in a 110 receptacle and a 110 switch, and neither of us can figure out how that puts the 220 through it. And he only runs one hot lead into the copper bar. The video really doesn't make it look like 220, although he claims to run the welder with it.

And I'm with you- if I do go that route, that fucker is gonna be sealed up so good it takes me an hour to get to the water when I need to "change" it, or whatever you have to do to it from time to time.


For those that haven't seen it (can't remember if it's in here or not) here's the video. Anyone with ideas to run it off of 220, let me know.




If you watch it he runs 2 110s extension cords into that nigger rigged conversion plug setup he built straight into the electrocution water box. All that power runs through the 110 rated switch and receptacle. It really is confusing as hell but he minutely explains it in the 2nd welder build video. Fucker is eventually going to burn up on him the way its set up but it worked for the video.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:13 pm

But how does he only have one lead going to the bar? If it's 220, there have to be 2, right?
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:17 pm

I'm working on finding it. Give me a minute.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:19 pm

This is the contraption he built. Electrocution box plugs into this.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1383005983.494652.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1383005990.288152.jpg



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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:53 pm

I know that part. What I'm talking about is on the scariac- he only has one hot going to the copper bar, not two. If it's 220, there have to be two hot leads some damn where.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:58 pm

The scariac plugs into that. Then the welder plugs into the scariac. Its a 110 wired system with 220 running into it from the get go.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:04 pm

Like this bud. Its crude but I think you'll get the point.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:22 pm

Won't work. The welder has two hot feeds, one from each leg going into each transformer, then another line jumped from one transformer to the other to wire them in series. With only one hot coming in, it won't work. I don't think. Something about phase, and whatnot.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:31 pm

I guarantee you that's how he did it. The 110s are coming in are 180 degrees out of phase.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby triplecurl » Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:44 pm

You'll still smoke a 5/32" with all those amps. I've got some 1/4" rods laying around somewhere that your welcome too if you wanna try them.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby Eric Haynes » Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:53 pm

assateague wrote:
huntall6 wrote:Or better yet, ask your neighbor if you could put removable/exchangeable resistors inline with the ground wire to limit amps. Then jut get some different size resisters to change your settings.



We checked into it. A resistor which would work for the amperage I need is crazy expensive. As in $400 expensive. I need a rheostat, but the only ones I find are not suitable (made for the fine adjustment, not the coarse adjustment). My neighbor's trying to figure out a way to wire it only using 110, which rather than cutting the amperage in half, would cut it by about a little over 2/3. don't ask me why, he started talking about "it's a non-linear progression when dealing with amperage increase" at which point my brain turned off.

I'm left with 3 options, as near as I can figure:

1. Build the damn Scariac, although we can't even figure out how to do that with 220.
2. Unwind coils from the secondary, until a desired amperage is found (probably around 150 or so for what I want to use it for)
3. Figure a way to wire it using only 110.

But in the meantime, I've got some 5/32 rods coming, to see what sort of difference that makes. Although with the amperage we're talking about (he let me know today that he re-ran the numbers, and that damn thing could be putting out closer to 600 amps) it's probably still too hot.


Updates will follow. Until they don't. And then that means that I accidentally found something that doesn't work. Catastrophically.


You forgot #4.

#4. Just buy a damn welder and have all of the adjustments you need along with a little bit of safety(although its pretty tough to get zapped with a welder anyways)
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:08 pm

assateague wrote:Won't work. The welder has two hot feeds, one from each leg going into each transformer, then another line jumped from one transformer to the other to wire them in series. With only one hot coming in, it won't work. I don't think. Something about phase, and whatnot.


Wait, you got two hot wires going into your welder? I thought there was a 1 hot and 1 neutral wire. Can you take a pic of the wiring on yours? I want to see it. I got my dad watching the metal recycling bin at work to get me some parts.
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby The Duck Hammer » Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:30 pm

The Duck Hammer wrote:
assateague wrote:Won't work. The welder has two hot feeds, one from each leg going into each transformer, then another line jumped from one transformer to the other to wire them in series. With only one hot coming in, it won't work. I don't think. Something about phase, and whatnot.


Wait, you got two hot wires going into your welder? I thought there was a 1 hot and 1 neutral wire. Can you take a pic of the wiring on yours? I want to see it. I got my dad watching the metal recycling bin at work to get me some parts.


Never mind found what I was looking for. :lol:
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby DeadEye_Dan » Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:44 pm

You should try adjusting the flux capacitor
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Re: Homemade Arc Welder

Postby assateague » Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:37 pm

I think I already made lightning. I suppose there was a 50/50 chance I was going back in time the first time I tried it, as well.
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