Buzz box help

[little harry]

Morning guys I have some queries concerning my old 140 AC SiP Welder, etc if any one can shed some light for me.
I've made a couple of new cable lugs out of mild steel as photo.
All i have seen advertised are copper so will mild steel work !
I use a auto darkening mask which i have set to 11 and as i
have struggled to see weld pool i reduced to 10 which I think is better is this appropriate !
When using 6013x3.2 rods I'm constantly resetting trip would a16 --32 amp socket help and what work is involved thanx in anticipation

Little Harry

 

[Mark 2]

Copper is widely regarded as being much better for conducting electricity. For welding you go no lower than shade 9, and yes, 16 amp is preferable.
Welcome to the forum.

 

[Erie Fred]

The time you invested in making those lugs, you could have purchased proper lugs made of copper.
I will wager these are going to heat up, and be a problem down the road.

 

[tom2207]

they dont use steel cables usually , theres a reason for that.
welcome to the forum.

 

[little harry]

Cheers for advice Mark ,Erie Fred, and Tom 2207

 

[frank horton]

copper only....prob ready made up cable available.....cheap enough...diff to size ur's but they look like 250amps.....
way to heavy for that little welder.....if it's all u got and little money....no probs......heavy cable are hard to work with.....
my 160amp buzz box has prob 8m length of cables and still too short.....the copper inner is a bit thicker than a wood pencil and very flexi....the machine cut's / trips out before the cables get hot....
As for helmet....some cost £200 and down say £25......
is ur's old with scratched up lenses....do u norm wear glasses....

 

[BrokenBiker]

i wouldnt use steel cable lugs...copper lugs arent expensive, they give them away free with gorund clamps...i would say you could make some from a bit of copper pipe, but i probably wouldnt risk it on a welder.

as for the shade of lense, i sit on shade 9 for tig and most stick welding, and then bump it to 10.5-11 for my gasless mig, purely based on preference really but anything from a shade 9 to 13 is fine.

 

[brightspark]

it will be ok using the steel lug providing its clamped up tight its only the one . after all the return is just clamped on to to big lumps and lengths of steel

 

[aesmith]

When using 6013x3.2 rods I'm constantly resetting trip would a16 --32 amp socket help and what work is involved thanx in anticipation

What is the "trip" that you have to keep resetting, if it's the circuit breaker for the socket then what's it's rating ( B32, B20, C16 etc)?

Also, in case it's not obvious, replacing a 13A socket with a 16A or even 32A socket in itself won't help. Iit would need to be fitted to a new separate circuit with its own separate breaker, with rating and cable size to suit.

Finally are we sure a dedicated 16A (or even 32A) circuit should be needed for this sort of machine? A long time ago I did quite a lot with a SIP 140A buzz box using 3.2mm rods, plugged into a 13A socket on a a B32 MCB. It never tripped the breaker nor blew the fuse.

 

[premmington]

copper only....prob ready made up cable available.....cheap enough...diff to size ur's but they look like 250amps.....
way to heavy for that little welder.....if it's all u got and little money....no probs......heavy cable are hard to work with.....
my 160amp buzz box has prob 8m length of cables and still too short.....the copper inner is a bit thicker than a wood pencil and very flexi....the machine cut's / trips out before the cables get hot....
As for helmet....some cost £200 and down say £25......
is ur's old with scratched up lenses....do u norm wear glasses....

Short MMA cables no fun.

I tend to make mine up out of 30m length of cable.

14m for return lead - 16m for stinger.

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I hate joins in welding leads - but due to the price of cable of late - I have a couple of welders with joins in the MMA leads