Diy welder

>>1206495
they will make you hate welding

there are stick welders on ebay for $70+ shipped better than any you can cobble together with 2 microwave transformers and thick cable.

>>1206495
>Anyone have any experience on these?

Yes.

>>1206497
Seems like you fucked up making yours. Don't blame the parts. Blame yourself for not constructing it correctly. Your logic is like saying a tree will make you hate woodworking, because it isn't lumber you buy from the store, because when you tried it everything split.

>>1206497
Those are basically the same thing I think. I have one that doesn't work for shit. Now it just sits in my garage reminding me to never buy cheap shit again.

>>1206495
MOTs are good for spot welders, since it's easy way to produce low-voltage high-amps current.

For a stick welder to work at least kinda OK, you need 48V min. And even that is PITA to work with / start an arc.

Microwaves are usually around 1kW range. Getting 50V from 1kVA MOT gets you roughly 20 Amps, which is terribly low.

So unless you plan to get at least 5 MOTs, try something different for a welder, like high-power switching supply.
The idea is to raise current frequency from 50 - 60 Hz to kHz range and thus raise efficiency of transformer.
MOTs also tends to overheat like a bitch, they are not meant as continuous current source, but rather combined power source and a resonant element (that's why there are field shunts between primary and secondary windings).

>>1206508
If you were too cheap to buy real lumber and real tools, rough cut lumber out of a tree WOULD make you hate welding.

Its much more subtle with welding though, because you dont know what to expect coming into it

>>1206583
An hour of tinkering usually gets most people going just find, if they are capable. There are several online MOT stick welder designs. Learn to read schematics.

>>1206495
Makes a better jacobs ladder than a welder.

Could be used as a nichrome wire current source but I prefer a variac for this.

>>1206693
I prefer MOTs for spot welders and electromagnets.

>>1206701
>when you gotta wipe all dem floppies of cheesy pizza

If OP wants to weld effectively, obtain a proper welding machine. Used is fine. Visit real welding forums like Weldingweb to learn what those are.

If OP just wants to play with transformers, have a nut.

Real welding forums.

Not here.

Any questions?

Goto real welding forums.

>>1206594
>being able to poorly lay down metal without any penetration
>"just fine"

This is what non-welders actually believe

>>1206718

Building your own welder with a alternator is pretty standard practice. My teacher in hs made all his own welding gear made his own tig.

It's probably less effort and easier buying a used stick welder or hell even a new mig.

If it's just a one off job I'd just rent one.

I thought the microwave transformers were only good for tac type jobs, not actual welding.

>>1206706
Or, you need an electromagnet for your small crane, I guess.

>>1206720
You've never made a welder before have you?

>>1206808
No, but ive used multiple "budget" actual welders which I guarantee lay a bead better than anything you are going to make. And most of them are so bad they arent worth using.

Welders are one of those things you cant cheap out on unless you want complete shit results.

>>1206863

Ultra-cheap transformer welders are usually trash. Cheap inverter machines usually at least work, up until the point that they don't.

Microwave transformer machines are okay...if you're using between 4 and 8 transformers to actually get some decent power out of it. At that point, though, might as well be a regular buzzbox.

>>1206583
I'd imagine rough cut lumber wouldn't weld so well, was I mistaken in thinking that you can't weld any wood?

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>>1206863
Christ dude, get a good plan and build one.

http://www.dansworkshop.com/2008/03/homebuilt-arc-welder/

>>1206495
>building a stick welder
just go buy a used one. unless you have all the parts laying around its going to cost you more and be shittier. its not like stick welders are expensive

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>all these buyfags

This is /diy/, kids.

>>1207098

Some things are not /diy/. If you need an entire welder you should buy one unless your hobby is learning how to design welders rather than welding.

If you bought the device you used to post that then you need to STFU.

>>1207108
>Some things are not /diy/.

Every damn thing is /diy/. Go shit up a knife making thread of something with that shit logic.

>>1207112

fucking awesome. show pics of your phone or PC build. and I'm assuming you made the pc boards and chips and monitor or display as well.

You are a /diy/ god.

>>1207098
The only people who diy their own welders are poor "kids".

>>1207131
Or kids with access to big xfomers cause daddy works for utility

>>1207126
>child's logic

Sure thing, kid.

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>>1206495
How about something like this?

>>1206805
>Building your own welder with a alternator is pretty standard practice. My teacher in hs made all his own welding gear made his own tig.

It's common especially in the off-road community but unless you are doing it for fun used welding machines are typically much more versatile. I wouldn't burn .045" flux core wire off a little alternator welder but they are OK for light work.

A basic, AC/DC classic used transformer machine can be had for 200 bucks or less in many areas. You can TIG steel with those using a scratch-start TIG rig. I'm quite capable of building my own welders but after running the numbers it became clear that would have been wasted time and effort when I could be welding instead. A basic AC transformer machine (Dayton, Miller Thunderbolt, Lincoln AC-225) goes for even less money and if you want to DIY to improve them it's not hard to add a rectifier, front panel quick-disconnects and so forth. Choose thy rods wisely and not having DC isn't as limiting as one might think.

Do the math for your own situation. It's easy enough.

Naturally, there are many threads about them:
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?370371-Alternator-Welder-Waste-of-Time

>>1207098
Yeah, at a certain point you have to buy tools to build things.
>>1207112
Its actually your logic that would shit up a knife thread.
Are you going to whine and say they should DIY their anvils? Their crucibles? Maybe they should be baking their own firebricks instead of buying them. I hear charcoal is pretty easy to make on its own too!
The knife thread is full of dirty "buyfags" right?

>>1207162
He made perfectly valid points.
The childish thing to do is to deflect instead of addressing them.

>>1207210
>He made perfectly valid points.
>The childish thing to do is to deflect instead of addressing them.

He didn't. Both of you are using child's logic. Your mental capacity is too low for /diy/. That is why you are buyfags.

>>1207272
>He didn't. Both of you are using child's logic. Your mental capacity is too low for /diy/. That is why you are buyfags.

Explain, with evidential support, why everything should be DIY if your goal is capability rather than play (legit if that is ALL you do and ACKNOWLEDGE THIS) or spergtism (kysthanxbai).

An example of compulsive /diy/ backfiring is my white trashbro. Good guy but he's finally devolving into just being a drunk. He's among the best autodidacts I've ever met, but he grew up so poor he eventually didn't want anything he couldn't put together from bottom tier scrap. He spread his efforts into hoarding junk, some of which was very cool junk but much of which wasn't worth the effort to drag home. He rarely completed projects I know he knew how to finish because the depressing pile of scrap that was his world demotivated him. He eventually even turned down my (skilled, versatile) help because he stopped wanting to do anything. We'd done many projects together but he basically fell out. What money he had went to booze and lottery tickets. I asked him more than once why he didn't add the "buyfag" parts to finish his projects and eventually outright asked him if he saw his junk as running equipment which only needed a little work. He admitted he did. I cut contact shortly thereafter though I'd known him twenty years. He'd become toxic and beyond help.

If you mix DIY with wise purchases of new and used equipment and materials you get the best of both worlds and can actually get serious shit done. You get the learning experience of tasks like getting used machinery working to serve you, and you don't have to wait to score scrap when you know how to buy wisely as needed. Professionals do this all the time outfitting their machine, welding and auto shops. Pros know more than you do so learn from them until you become semi-pro or pro yourself.

DIYing it all yourself WILL slow you down.

Buying everything WILL waste money. Choose wisely.

>>1207172
Dad delicious skin cancer, if I can diy a fucking welder, I can diy some fucking gloves with some diy googles jeesus fuck are these ni.......s

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Yeah I've done it.
I used two transformers, each with about 20 wraps on the secondaries, with the secondaries in series for about 40 volts open-circuit.
The biggest problem with it is that I had to use 10 gauge wire to fit enough turns, which is pretty undersized.
Believe it or not, it actually does work. It doesn't work very well, but it's acceptable in a pinch and I did a couple projects with it before I invested in a Lincoln.
It's often tough to strike an arc, the rod tends to just stick to the workpiece. It would probably work better with thicker wire, because I think a lot of power is being lost to heat, but then either the voltage would have to be lower or three transformers would be required.

i heard they're nowhere near as good as a proper welder. but it'd get the job done for only certain types of metal.

>>1207272
>Your mental capacity is too low for /diy/.

Deflecting doesnt make you right, it makes it obvious to everyone else that you are grasping at straws and are unable to defend yourself.
>personal insults
>not the childish thing to do

>>1207289
>I cut contact shortly thereafter though I'd known him twenty years. He'd become toxic and beyond help.

Are you the faggot who whined about his friends hoarding?

>What money he had went to booze and lottery tickets
So you knew this guy for 20 years, he starts falling out of life and gets into a rough patch. And instead of just being there for him like a real friend, you think its too much effort and break off the relationship?

Some fucking friend you are. Only in the rough patches of your life do you understand who is actually a decent person or not.

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>>1206495

>>1207606
This is a proper post, thank you, talented /diy/er.

>It's often tough to strike an arc, the rod tends to just stick to the workpiece.

When you were testing the voltage, did you use a tester or were you just using the math for the wraps and such? It is a lot more difficult making a stick welder than a spot welder due to the higher voltage needed. You can get away with 10AWG-12AWG for a spot welder, if you bundle a bunch of wires as though they were 1 wire.

For a stick welder, I found I had to use a wooden mallet to gently hammer the wire into bending around the turns, to be as flat as possible and as close together as possible (8AWG). That went a long long ways in squeezing the 8AWG wire into the space with enough windings. I also cut the bottom of the E-I MOT frame off (right at that weld line you see on the top of the left MOT in your pic). That allowed me to pull off both windings without damaging either one. It also helped when installing the secondary, since the primary winding wasn't on it while I was hammering around and using wedges. I used MOT spot welder to tack the E-I pieces of the MOT back together.

With thicker wire and using shorter leads, from the MOT array to the work piece, makes all the difference for starting a spark (if the voltage is correct.) The voltage should be higher than expected since it will drop while welding, but not while merely testing it with a tester.

After that, proper workpiece prep work and proper stick selection is of course key. Since this isn't variable in any way, you are stuck at using 1 type of sticks with 1 type of workpiece. You won't be able to switch from a muffler to vehicle roll bars or anything like that. It'll be one or the other depending on your setup. For that you'll need to use a system like >>1207045

>>1207289
This is /diy/ you do not belong in this thread let alone on this board. You'd should be banned for a few days, for being anti-/diy/, if it were up to me.

>>1207654
I really like this for some reason.

>>1207034
Turns out welding wood is a fire hazard.

>>1207686
>You'd should be banned for a few days, for being anti-/diy/, if it were up to me.

Not that guy but, good thing this isnt reddit right?
Dissenting opinions cant get downvoted and you just have to deal with them. Sorry you cant have a safespace where you can force opinions onto people.

There is nothing wrong with telling OP that building this is retarded. Its dangerous and in the end the tool barely does what its supposed to do.

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>>1207686
>When you were testing the voltage, did you use a tester or were you just using the math for the wraps and such?
I tested it and got about 40 volts open circuit.

>I also cut the bottom of the E-I MOT frame off ... I used MOT spot welder to tack the E-I pieces of the MOT back together.

This is absolutely the right way to do it. At the time, I wasn't thinking like a welder, it didn't occur to me that I'd be able to cut the transformer apart and get it to stay together again.

Lack of power regulation is a major drawback. I tried using a saturable inductor (AKA saturable reactor, magnetic amplifier). The idea is to use a series inductor to limit current, and saturate the core of that inductor with a direct current. The inductance will drop as the core saturates. I used a MOT, made the power windings around the outer legs, phased so that they don't induce a voltage in the primary (minimal flux in the center leg), and put current through the primary.
These things work, but the range of adjustment is really small, and you need a large number of windings to get up a decent inductance.

I later got my hands on a really big variac which probably would have worked nicely, but by that time I'd stopped using the MOT welder. I just keep it for emergencies now.

>>1207045
>>1207686
>For that you'll need to use a system like >>1207045

So is this thread just about shilling your shitty schematic?

>>1207698
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the MOTs are actually designed with saturation and eddy currents in mind. This is a design "flaw" from them being ultra cheap and having little iron for the core. Thus, when you try to arc a stick the MOT saturates almost instantly and you get more amp use that translates to the MOT heating up. That alone causes problems which you need to work around. Hence the need for extra MOTs for a stick welder. Using an saturating inductor is a neat idea.

>>1207700
Welcome to /diy/ where that has been posted since the beginning of /diy/.

>>1207696
Correct, you are retarded. Go back to whatever site you came from today.

>>1207763
>Welcome to /diy/ where that has been posted since the beginning of /diy/.

You can try and bluff all you want, ive actually been here since /diy/ was implemented.
These threads have always been rare and never were popular. Especially not popular enough to post some fucking schematic. If you are a cheap faggot building a welder, you arent buying fucking plans to do it.

What was always more popular were people asking if its ok to buy Harbor Freight welders, which of course got an obvious "No" answer.

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>>1207769
I take it you've never actually been in these threads before.