Hi all, I am after some advice, lately I have been seriously contemplating building a HHO generator and one of the options I am thinking of doing is using the output from my large MIG welder to power up the electrolysing cell. On my MIG welder I can dial in the welders DC output voltage from 10V to 40V in 0.1V increments, so that part isn't a problem.
The problem I am concerned about is that my minimum current if welding and at 10V is about 60-70A, now I don't know how that would translate to plugging it in to the cell, as it might be similar to a large car battery when you connect a 5 watt bulb or a 200w bulb the amperage will only be drawn by the attached bulb to its requirements so the cell might also follow the same principle and the welder will only produce the amperage that the cell requires for that given voltage.
The spike that my welder produces at start up is about 75V for a initial startup arc strike and is for a short period of time which may be absorbed by the cell with out damage to anything. The other worry I have is that at the full 40V my welder can output over 600A which would probably blow things to bits if I cranked it up too much. If my assumption is correct and the welder only produces the amps for a given voltage that is required than it shouldn't be a problem.
This would make sense but I am not sure if that would happen in reality. If it is the case then I will also do the same and make an electroplating tank. So has anyone here built something similar powered by a MIG and what was the result? , I mean high amps and over producing a very explosive gas mixture....... what can go wrong?
Cheers
Ed.
The problem I am concerned about is that my minimum current if welding and at 10V is about 60-70A, now I don't know how that would translate to plugging it in to the cell, as it might be similar to a large car battery when you connect a 5 watt bulb or a 200w bulb the amperage will only be drawn by the attached bulb to its requirements so the cell might also follow the same principle and the welder will only produce the amperage that the cell requires for that given voltage.
The spike that my welder produces at start up is about 75V for a initial startup arc strike and is for a short period of time which may be absorbed by the cell with out damage to anything. The other worry I have is that at the full 40V my welder can output over 600A which would probably blow things to bits if I cranked it up too much. If my assumption is correct and the welder only produces the amps for a given voltage that is required than it shouldn't be a problem.
This would make sense but I am not sure if that would happen in reality. If it is the case then I will also do the same and make an electroplating tank. So has anyone here built something similar powered by a MIG and what was the result? , I mean high amps and over producing a very explosive gas mixture....... what can go wrong?
Cheers
Ed.