I have a harber freight like new i bought at pawn store, the duty cycle is about 10 percent at 110 amps,witch is weld 1 minute and let cool 9 minutes, the biger welders i am looking at other than three phase, or single phase, used are about 1000 bucks used , and good non stop at about 130 too 150 amps.The inverter welders are nice,just not sure on the cheaper one year warrentee machines, and how long before needing a circuit board repair man, might be good thing too school for these days,electronics schooling not in my schedual of goals.
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No offense to you BrianHWA I see you are part of the younger cohort I paint with broad strokes…
I used to get IT, I used to be on top of IT,…
The IT changed, and one day I was no longer with IT.
It had become stupid and weird to me.
Mostly because IT had become something young people had a handle on ( and I stopped caring )
I became old and ridged.
IT has always been a moving target and what changed was I was no longer chasing IT.
What was IT is still firmly in my grasp and understanding.
But what I think is the end all and be all of IT is antiquated and foolish to people half my age.
Now the young people may or may not be with " IT " in my opinion.
The do not seem to the grasp the science and theory of IT.
What ever IT has become if it can not be googled and and found on a cell phone, if IT does not self calibrate and diagnose, if IT is serviceable on its own and not a disposable black box component you change then IT is no longer IT…
IT has become a WAS if it requires experience to repair and run…
IT is all about now, plug and play and no real understanding is required.
That scares the crap out of me to be honest…
Welding:
Once time a fellow brought me a welder to fix.
I spent the morning trying to fix it and boss foreman was getting angry because time is money.
He looked too and found nothing, then he laid a bead down with it on some scrap and found nothing wrong.
Turned out the guy who owned the welder was an Idiot.
That was a satuarble core type welder, not electronics to fix.
I don’t think very many people ( myself included ) can repair modern SMT electronics or much of anything that is digitally controlled.
Today most things are designed to be tossed out of they fail and replaced. ( even the replacement parts …)
That is all I know about welders.
But if you find a gold old welder for sale that’s heavy and simple odds are its worth keeping and learning to fix
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Yes sir Wallace that is my welding plan, a good used or new transformer mig, use about 15 percent more watts then inverter migs, not a problem if one gets a wood gas generator working,is my other project eventually goals.
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Bought a Lincoln welder for my first wood gas project in the early 80’s. Ac/DC 220vac stick. Never ever did any maintenance to it. I now need to splice the ground wire. Burned at least half a ton of rod with it. Works today as well as the first day I brought it home. Love it…
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Best tape for repair cables like that you can buy.
Inside use layers of 3M 130c or other linerless rubber, but that Plymouth stuff on the outside will last a long long time in rough service.
Everyone has a roll of vinyl tape in there tool box.
Very few people have a roll of linerless rubber but everyone should…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Scotch-Linerless-Rubber-Splicing-Tape-130C-3-4-in-x-30-ft-4-ROLLS-/371550814336?hash=item5682278080:g:uR4AAOSwWTRWufrl
Always vinyl over rubber though and not the other way around
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I saw this the other day for the first time. Is it any good? I don’t have 3 arms required to effectively use liner tape!!!
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Its easy to use, just stretchy rubber tape.
It seals up good and keep things dry and insulated, but it needs something on top to protect if form cuts and scrapes.
When you stretch it it sticks to itself and almost becomes like a solid block of rubber.
You will never be able to unwrap it once its stretched and sticks to itself.
A must for the guy that has flexible rubber single and multi conductor power cables.
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I have a Lincoln 175hd MIG. I cheat a bit and preheat parts to handle 200+ amp type parts. Great machine. That being said, I have an Everlast TIG/Arc and an Everlast 80 amp plasma cutter. Both machines work flawlessly. They make a MIGs starting at $400. I think their largest is 400 amps.
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Well with a five year warrentee ,you caint hardly beat it,after five years the manufacture dont have too stock all the parts anymore, is what the tech support.guy at esab told me,wonder who wrote that law.
The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission recommended this to Congress.
Auto’s it is mandated a 10 years after model release parts availability.
“Availability” is the key word. No mandate on how-soon shipped out. Or how much!
S.U.
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Well i bought the mig welder snap on ya212 a indusrial ,not as large of a transformer as i hoped for,hopefully its big enough for 1/8" at 100 percent.or around 130 amps 100 percent,
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I am no transformer builder,but it looks like all the wire taping too raise or lower the voltage is done from the low amps primary magnet wire, around 30 amps max, 220 volts.The secondary coils are just under 1/4" square thick, two out of the top center of transformer heading too the diode plate area,and two out the bottom of the main transformer too hard too see in picture.
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The idea is to create a stiff current source.
You set the current to provide enough heat to melt and fuse but not too much.
There are a couple of things going on in the welder.
the transformer reduces the voltage to a level that delivers enough voltage to strike an arc.
The reactor limits the current so we have heat control.
The silicon rectifier group ( and this is based on looking at it not understanding or seeing how its wired ) add finesse to the lot by adding features to make striking the arc an arc control easier
Polarity control makes it easier to deposit metal from one side to another with a push based on electron flow ( for what its worth I do not understand all the subtleties of this part ).
We have wire feed speed control to match the heat.
We have gas control so we can shield the metals involved from the oxygen that might corrode the weld before its solidified.
Stuff happening lol.
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Mostly just posting this design,in case any body was looking on the web at welders and wanting too see what they were buying, this one is a old hard too get parts for, fairly simply too adapt parts for if needed, I just seen one go for $700 cash with the co2 tank in ohio,i think its sold by now, most guys just buy inverter welders,i chose the old school welder.cranked it up about 150 amps.laid bunch of welds, the trans former went from 60 too 63 , degrees f. Most 100 percent duty cycles for light industrial welders are based on about.an hour at there 100 percent rating.
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Hi Kevin,
This machine reminds me of the way quality used to be. It is simple in design, reliable, and built the way manly men like!
Take a look at those capacitors in there. Might want to test them. Over time they tend to go bad. Should be fairly easy to cross them to something similar. Those big diodes are pretty common too.
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Thanks brit.they may be and diodes common break down over time and use.i found a contactor for 18 bucks 220 volt 30 amps, not sure the turn on voltage yet.That one turns power off and on too the primary on the main transformer,when torch trigger is applied,Not much there other than the main transformer that could not be sourced.I think a high school kid could make the little circuit board that runs the wire feed motor.Usa weld HTP 2400 crries a similar duty cycle transformer for $380.00 if i go pick up in Chicago area,good for 140 amps continous,if fan is working fast enough properly.
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I have noticed over the years a lot of modern to moderately old electronics has capacitors in them that do not age well.
The Electrolytics I am talking about seem to dry out leak or break down inside in a process that seems to be caused just by age more than use
They fail with a pop and the device stops, usually this is an easy obvious fix.
SCRs and large Diodes have to shed a lot of heat.
Sometimes the heating and cooling cycles cause them to mechanically fail inside and break up.
The failure mechanism there is not age but heating and cooling cycles.
Transformers are just about the most robust parts you can have.
As long as they stay cool the insulation can last decades or more.
Most insulation is designed to last 30 years in regular service.
But the life shortens exponential if the device is operated at temperature above the insulation rating.
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I found the original paper back service and owners manual in the box of parts,and it is same as the manual on line 20 amps in 230v and 185 amps out 100 percent duty cycle at 185 amps. So it says though i havent seen that good of duty cycle out of it yet,as i welded about 8 foot bead of weld the choke started heating up too about 140 f , the transformer stayed cool any way.I got too check all the ground connections too eliminate the heat source at the choke that is connected on the ground side.I may have too pull the choke off the core and de’shale and recoat.I hope the secondary on the transformer never got as hot as the choke coil.I dont think i would buy another snap on mig welder,due too the fact that they have no heat switches on the main transformer or the choke too shut power off when over heated,at least the harber freght mig welders had that much common sense,and curtisy built in too them.
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It appears my choke coil has over heated,other than a loose or dirty ground,i am woundering if the contactor would cause heat at the choke if it was getting a chatter or intermitten contach due too a week contact coil engaugement,or dirty contacts, and the fan motor is running hot so time for faster fan ,like one off a geo tracker,and add a 12 volt transformer from the back of the braker switch, and let the other transformer power the wire feed instead of running the fan all so.Got half off on a short barrow 20 gauge rattle snake gun so for 650$ not too bad of mig weld tool.
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The end of the snap on welder series, If you consider buying a old snap on dont but it with good faith,make sure they pull the side cover off too inspect the choke coils overheat condition, then make an offer and not before an inside inspection,or it could be worse than the one i bought.And i would say the duty cycle on the welder is more like 130 amps with a new cooling fan,and some air flow additions.
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