Hey Guys,
First of all, these forums are amazing, I've learned how to do all the stuff I discuss below just from trawling your posts for the last week! Thanks for allowing me to access such a large wealth of welding information.
Ok, here goes:
I have two welders at this point:
A Hobart Handler 125 EZ MIG welder and old an old Stinger 3 Airco 230amp stick welder which I just rebuilt (cleaned all the dust and grease out to stop it overheating, put in a superior ventilation system with air-filters, and re-placed the cable contacts).
I have two batches of electrolytic capacitors that I've scavenged and plan to build into large capacitor banks to help stabilize/smooth the arc on my MIG. I have four 6500uf 50VDC computer grade capacitors, and fifteen 7300uf 75VDC computer grade capacitors making a total capacitance of 135,500uf if I built them into a single bank
question 1: is it a bad idea to build a bank for my MIG from dissimilar capacitors? If this is the case, should I just build one that's all fifteen of the 7300uf capacitors = 109500uf total?
question 2: How much overkill is it to have that large a capacitor bank in a MIG welder that only supplies 125 amps? Could this damage the electronic components of the main board? could it fry the diodes (they have small caps to protect them from the normal surges). Or is there no such thing as too large a capacitor bank? Does it matter where I place the bank in the circuit? should I place it before the gun? Should I place it on the ground clamp side?
question 3: should I attempt to convert the CC power source of the stick welder into a CV power source to be used with the wire-feed mechanism in my Handler 125 MIG welder? Would the capacitor bank I have make this possible or is this just a pipe dream? I've built a large 300amp full bridge rectifier out of twelve 100amp/600v diodes (To convert the AC current from my stick welder into DC current). Since the stick welder is already a constant current (CC) power source (as opposed to the constant voltage source (CV) of the MIG welder),with a fair amount of inductance created by the transformer itself, is it unnecessary to install an additional inductor to help smooth the rectified DC output current (which is what most MIG welders have)?
NOTE: the Hobart Handler 125 has its own (standard factory installed) inductor coil to help smooth the rectified DC load, but no capacitor bank.
Finally, how much of a performance increase can I expect to see by adding this capacitor bank to my MIG welder?.
any advice/warnings/encouragement would be greatly appreciated.
First of all, these forums are amazing, I've learned how to do all the stuff I discuss below just from trawling your posts for the last week! Thanks for allowing me to access such a large wealth of welding information.
Ok, here goes:
I have two welders at this point:
A Hobart Handler 125 EZ MIG welder and old an old Stinger 3 Airco 230amp stick welder which I just rebuilt (cleaned all the dust and grease out to stop it overheating, put in a superior ventilation system with air-filters, and re-placed the cable contacts).
I have two batches of electrolytic capacitors that I've scavenged and plan to build into large capacitor banks to help stabilize/smooth the arc on my MIG. I have four 6500uf 50VDC computer grade capacitors, and fifteen 7300uf 75VDC computer grade capacitors making a total capacitance of 135,500uf if I built them into a single bank
question 1: is it a bad idea to build a bank for my MIG from dissimilar capacitors? If this is the case, should I just build one that's all fifteen of the 7300uf capacitors = 109500uf total?
question 2: How much overkill is it to have that large a capacitor bank in a MIG welder that only supplies 125 amps? Could this damage the electronic components of the main board? could it fry the diodes (they have small caps to protect them from the normal surges). Or is there no such thing as too large a capacitor bank? Does it matter where I place the bank in the circuit? should I place it before the gun? Should I place it on the ground clamp side?
question 3: should I attempt to convert the CC power source of the stick welder into a CV power source to be used with the wire-feed mechanism in my Handler 125 MIG welder? Would the capacitor bank I have make this possible or is this just a pipe dream? I've built a large 300amp full bridge rectifier out of twelve 100amp/600v diodes (To convert the AC current from my stick welder into DC current). Since the stick welder is already a constant current (CC) power source (as opposed to the constant voltage source (CV) of the MIG welder),with a fair amount of inductance created by the transformer itself, is it unnecessary to install an additional inductor to help smooth the rectified DC output current (which is what most MIG welders have)?
NOTE: the Hobart Handler 125 has its own (standard factory installed) inductor coil to help smooth the rectified DC load, but no capacitor bank.
Finally, how much of a performance increase can I expect to see by adding this capacitor bank to my MIG welder?.
any advice/warnings/encouragement would be greatly appreciated.