Bought welder for $299 in effort to rust repair on car panels- was useless-either burnt holes or left ugly splatter & lumps. I was not expecting this- having used mig before (gas) as a welder employed, the difference here is the cheapy gasless welder. In fact, I achieved better results using stick!. So I r"earched on web & found prob- lack of gas!, 0.8mm fluxcore wire, no fine adj of wirefeed, only supposed 80 & 100 amp output, & only ac weld. I did following: fitted fan from s/h microwave oven which runs all time welder is plugged in; fitted inside a plugpack 12v modified by fitting a lm317 linear volt reg at 1.5 amp;using a 1k pot to vary feed volts to wirefeed motor from 8v to 13v dc; fitting 4x 25 amp full bridge rectifiers wired in parallel; wiring so wirefeed was neg & earth clamp pos. The tx prim winds are copper & sec winds are alum with flameproof insul- So now we have a much better weld & duty cycle has increased from 25% to maybe 75%. Having said all that - I would never recomend anyone to buy a gasless wirefeed welder - a stick m achine is far better- if buying a mig get a quality gas unit- or if can afford- a tig!.
- Thread starter boofhed1
- Start date
Flux cored is always a bit... bleh. If it is really windy, and you have no choice but to use it, it's allright, but for car work i can imagine it would be a nightmare.
For $299 ( Im assuming Australian dollars?), a little under £200, you could pick up a fairly decent gas unit for around that price, but bottle charges might be a bit aswell.
How much did you spend on all the additions? Very keen to see some photos aswell
For $299 ( Im assuming Australian dollars?), a little under £200, you could pick up a fairly decent gas unit for around that price, but bottle charges might be a bit aswell.
How much did you spend on all the additions? Very keen to see some photos aswell
Hi all- I never took photos- just thought details may be useful to others- cost minimal as I do all myself- fan from junked microwave- diode bridges @ $5ea- new reg 12v plugpack @ $5- time-@6 hrs- wiring hookups using s/h copper power cable- hookups to alum sec using copper tubing tightly crimped- forgot to mention used 7 amp twinlead power cable & a mom push on sw to turn on wirefeed motor instead of modding orig trigger setup. Tx is standard-I mentioned wiring to indicate good Q-ie no shorted turns likely on sec winds. Funny thing is I Knew these things were toys- I was told so years ago by a mech engineer- yet I took the word of the shop owner!!- that everyone uses these in pref to their big plant!!- not so- Pinochio!.( makes one wonder what happens to all these things- they certainly sell plenty of them!- guess most folk try em then just leave em till eventually they are thrown out!.) Oh & the name is weldmate 100- trade quality! not trademate!, some versions have a choke- this didn't- only 1/2 wave diode feed to wirefeed motor- & ac weld. I fail to see how a choke can do anything positive- a choke simply resists rapid current change- & also fail to see how a bank of caps can act as a choke or could do anything helpful- caps store dc & pass ac- though maybe they could act as a energy resevoir?. Anyway the simple mods I made work- the weld now is controllable & narrow- angle iron glows redhot- far less spatter. Oh & use a good quality see-thru auto darken helmet(mine cost $450 -solar powered-when 1st came out @ 20 yrs ago). And leave the diffuser off- not needed for fluxcore. Also- the knurled finish on drive roller can lead to rapid wear of tip from stippled wire- experiment to get pos wire flow with min serrations. Cheers to all.
shenion
Tool Pack Rat
- Messages
- 7,586
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- Stone Mountain, GA USA
A choke is necessary for short-arc transfer (dip mode.) Without inductance, the current will spike real high when the wire touches the weld pool. Rather than melt off a drop it will break off a section violently. The choke stores up current and when the drop melts off and forms an arc, it maintains a higher current.
It increases penetration and weld pool fluidity.
Other have tried paralleling diode bridges only to see them fail. See how long yours last.
It increases penetration and weld pool fluidity.
Other have tried paralleling diode bridges only to see them fail. See how long yours last.
Thanks for your reply making purpose of choke in wirefeed welder clearer- I understood that one avoided dipping into weldpool as doing so degraded weld quality, but then what would a boofhed know!. as to bridge longevity- we will find out!. I forgot to mention they are soldered together & mounted on inside roof of welder using smear of heat transfer compound- the fan blows directly past them as also tx & modded plug pack reg. The mods I have made have given some use to an otherwise worthless piece of junk that the maker,s have been selling for many years without improvement!. Regards from an A grade boofhed- it comes naturally!.
