Topic: Welders

[b.hog]

we just wired the new part of our garage for 220V.. you need  2 breakers like sharpxman said. they do make them as a single unit double wide but either way it has to take 2"spaces" in the breaker box... and you should have 4 wires (4th is a ground) but for low amp for short runs you can "ignore" the ground and go with 3 wires (this is not optimal, but it is how we wired up our air compressor but the rest is 4 wire for our stick arch welder.)

Yep, colors black & red are your hot, white is neutral and green to ground (both go to ground strip in breaker box).And honestly I wouldnt run a welder off of 10 gauge,in new construction 10/2 is used to power a fridge.Get something that will handle running the higher volts/amps.If it was me I would run 6/3 with ground,but I tend to over do house/shop related things,think of it as insurance.

[aw12345]

Actually the way a lot of fuseboxes are made you can use a single 220 volt breaker.
It's esentiallty two  110 volt breakers sandwiched together. The fuse box has the contacts for the fuses off both phases staggered so you can use a 220 volt breaker

[sharpxmen]

we just wired the new part of our garage for 220V.. you need  2 breakers like sharpxman said. they do make them as a single unit double wide but either way it has to take 2"spaces" in the breaker box... and you should have 4 wires (4th is a ground) but for low amp for short runs you can "ignore" the ground and go with 3 wires (this is not optimal, but it is how we wired up our air compressor but the rest is 4 wire for our stick arch welder.)

yep, it's a double size breaker (double wide), the single only gives you 120v

unless you're in Europe or other parts of the world where you have 220v 1phase circuit

as far as i know you don't need 4 wire cable, 3 will do but the appliances (like stove) are using 4 wires
black, red (these go in the double-breaker), white (neutral) and ground

for 240v like compressor, welder, etc you don't need the neutral but you always use the ground wire

[sharpxmen]

That's better than I can do right now.
What is that going on?

i used 1/8'' 2% thoriated electrode :) - i tried with 3/32'' and i was melting it and destroying the cups, turns out that welding 2 aluminum plates at 90 deg is way tougher than joining 2 of them together flat. I also played around with the clean/penetration setting, about 35 to 40% clean seems to work best for me. In this case i used a #6 cup but for that electrode a 7 or even 8 would probably be better (having it smaller gave more room to have the tip closer to the seam). It drove me nuts initially, the arc was wandering all over the place and i couldn't seem to have it directed in the right spot, and before i could get the puddle started i was melting the tungsten - i moved to the thicker electrode and had it stick out 1/4'' (or a little over) and used 20cfm argon flow (vs 15 before) - it's like night and day

[97 TJ - I dont wave]

Done, returned the breaker, bought the 2 pole 30 amp breaker, 10/3 wire..... Plugged in the Miller 180 and it works like a charm... thank you

[sharpxmen]

Done, returned the breaker, bought the 2 pole 30 amp breaker, 10/3 wire..... Plugged in the Miller 180 and it works like a charm... thank you

 

you should call the Miller tech back 

[sharpxmen]

i used 1/8'' 2% thoriated electrode :) - i tried with 3/32'' and i was melting it and destroying the cups, turns out that welding 2 aluminum plates at 90 deg is way tougher than joining 2 of them together flat. I also played around with the clean/penetration setting, about 35 to 40% clean seems to work best for me. In this case i used a #6 cup but for that electrode a 7 or even 8 would probably be better (having it smaller gave more room to have the tip closer to the seam). It drove me nuts initially, the arc was wandering all over the place and i couldn't seem to have it directed in the right spot, and before i could get the puddle started i was melting the tungsten - i moved to the thicker electrode and had it stick out 1/4'' (or a little over) and used 20cfm argon flow (vs 15 before) - it's like night and day

so my first aluminum welding project is finished 

you can actually tell which is the first weld and which one is last, i got better while working on it (welding scrap is nowhere near real life, i ended up with some narrow spots to weld which almost made me pull my hair), but for a cheapo chinese welder off fleabay and considering my zero aluminum welding experience i'm pretty happy with the result

















if you wonder what these are, they're for a Polaris 6x6 ATV for my father in law, originals are made of super thin stamped sheetmetal and they rust thru over 1 year, these should last a bit longer than that

[BigCountry]

has anyone seen the Metal-Melding Hero article in the new JP issue? has anyone tried the couple of batteries with a set of jumper cables like they show? if so, how well do they work for simple stick welding? i'd like to get into stick welding but i don't really feel like dropping much more than $150 or so to do it. the setup in the article they say was around $100 bucks.

[Jeffy]

has anyone seen the Metal-Melding Hero article in the new JP issue? has anyone tried the couple of batteries with a set of jumper cables like they show? if so, how well do they work for simple stick welding? i'd like to get into stick welding but i don't really feel like dropping much more than $150 or so to do it. the setup in the article they say was around $100 bucks.

In a pinch you can use jumper cables and 3 batteries but I wouldn't make it a regular habit.  For $150 you should be able to buy a used arc/stick welder.

[sharpxmen]

For $150 you should be able to buy a used arc/stick welder.

x2

[BigCountry]

ok. with stick welding does 110v vs 220v make much of a difference? i live in an apartment and i'm not going to lose my security deposit by making a special outlet for the welder...

[ZanderJay]

I could agree that welding scrap is a real life practices. Into a fuse breaker, it may be defends with welding does make well. However, it's good for the 220 volts and tries to see the difference into the 110 volts.

[sharpxmen]

ok. with stick welding does 110v vs 220v make much of a difference? i live in an apartment and i'm not going to lose my security deposit by making a special outlet for the welder...

you would roughly need double the wire size and breaker for the same welding current with 110 input.

EDIT: your outlets for stove and dryer (if electrical) should have 220v power

[BigCountry]

they are electrical, although the garage is across a 50ft courtyard and my dryer is upstairs. not sure they make 100ft extension cords for a 220.

[cz777]

welding shock mounts on the axle ? what about spring mounting plates with shock mounts made together ?? like what is used by the MJ ??