I bought a cheap Chinese spot welder a while back but when I finally felt like giving it a go it tripped the house circuit breaker, being a fixit sort of chap I had a good look at it, then as I had the transformer out and was thinking I may have the difficult task of removing the laminations and rewinding it I had a bit of a look online and now just think its current draw is a bit to much for the circuit I was using, so this piccie shows me reassembling it, at least I have a sharper haircut than James May even if my house hat hides most of it.
I'm thinking of adding a home made ballast coil to the transformer input but I'm now in wait and see mode before I try something else.
I sort of wish I'd made up a unit using supercapacitors but this unit has a nice case as well as a pretty decent timer and physical welding probes, something I could rejig later if I decide to make a supercapacitor welder.
Probably a 30 amp outlet is required for proper welding. Marketing may have used too light of a cord so the unit would sell to retail consumers.
ReplyDeleteBut 30 Amps in your safe world of 120 Volt outlets is a mere 3600 Watts, In our land of a notional 230 Volts (which is invariably at least 240 Volts due to power suppliers refusal to adopt to the generation old standard) that becomes a fairly massive 6900 Watts and it's not a beast that power points are provided for, usually at least. The drain is for mere milliseconds so at this point I suspect a too rapid circuit breaker and will play along those lines for a bit with the usual wait patiently for a delivery. Of course I expect it zap the 40 Amp triac if it ever runs reliably.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago we ran a 240 volt 30 amp line to the shed on the back of my lot when one of my sons wanted to use my dad's old arc welder. The volt meter said we were getting 220 volts from the power company if I recall correctly.
ReplyDeleteThese so called "plasma welders" seem to be all the rage now days.
Lucky you, I get 247 Volts which must stress
ReplyDeletethe silicon used in every power supply these days. I actually had cause to use the welder yesterday after a new circuit breaker arrived, it worked fine and enabled me to fit a CR-1616 cell which I had on hand into a watch that desired a CR-1632. I've been a hankering after a plasma cutter for ages but never bought yet, current draw is a factor in my mind with them.