They are all 6013. Just do a bit of feed barrier, gate hinge, general machinery repairs round the yard type of thing, didn’t do stick much and to be honest was struggling to get the flux off a weld when I did use the arc, flux sticking to the edges of the bead type of thing, as earlier I was blaming the generic 3.2 rods picked up at the local store but looks like that’s not the case. The 2.5 are murex 6013, local ag dealer had a job lot of when they’re gone they’re gone murex on the shelf, given above thought I’d give them a try, so that bead was the first run with the welder and a fresh rod out the sealed box. Sorted or so I thought till I tried the bigger rod, same again, so what was wrong before? Would the dc box plugged arc positive as suggested in the help Threads make the difference?
Most 6013's will run nicely on arc positive or neg, the difference will be the amount of penetration you get.
Yea thanks, thats something I’ve picked up since joining this forum, to quote someone? positive=penetration. Till now there hasn’t been a choice my ageing arcs have been hard wired and, I believe, ac. This forum is a whole new world and a great source of information and wise words just sometimes when things get really technical I feel like I’ve dropped in on a foreign language thread. For the best part of forty years I’ve been sticking stuff together make do and mend style, all of a sudden I open a little box, plug in and magic happens just like in the pictures others post.
Nice welds! as said earlier in the thread, it may not be putting out what is states, but hey, it works nice! if you feel like being really safe, you could stick a nice big commando plug on that thing. as far as an extension goes, if you can get away without one then do, and if you have to use one then use the shortest one with the thickest wires as possible. (within reason!)
Thanks Jim, the whole idea behind this box was portability after losing power to some of the sheds so an extension will be needed, wrestling an oil cooled welder through puddles is no longer fun! Hence back to the headline Is this welder safe?
Is it safe? Well it's Chinese and made to the lowest price possible. Is it likely to fail at some point? Probably. Will it kill you when it does? Unlikely.
as @Richiew says, perhaps it may not last forever, but you never know, might still be around in 100 years , and i would say there is no real safety issue, as long as common sense is used. one thing i would do, if you are not going to fit a commando plug (probably fine on regular 13 amp),is chop off the molded plug, and put a proper 13 amp one on, because as mentioned earlier, if there even is a "fuse" in that plug, it is probably just some thick wire soldered across the contacts. Good luck with it!
There's definitely a fuse fitted (with fwiw 13a written on it)it's the first thing I checked. The cable to the plug seems heavy duty to be fair. Those commando plugs look like a good idea think I'll get one, ta.
im not 100percent but think its a 50metre extension lead i could use on my thermal arc fabricator that works on 240volts or 110 v id have to look at the book for sure thou
Nice, good thing to know there is actually a fuse. Commando plugs are a good idea. (heavy duty and more waterproof that the usual ones too!)
I switched from a sealey air cooled transformer welder to an inverter for welding around the farmyard like you. First time I used it in the cubicle house for repairs I had to keep turning the power down in the inverter as I kept blowing holes, with the sealey I had to have it wound up to 180a just to get it to weld because I was running on 30+metres of 2.5mm2 extension lead. What I'm basically saying is that an inverter is more efficient as it doesn't have a big transformer to heat up, so it doesn't need as much juice to feed it. So when running on long extension leads you can get away with a lighter cable than you would with the oil cooled. All my welding leads are now 2.5mm2 arctic or rubber flex with the blue 16a commando connectors, a whole lot safer & stronger than 13a on a farmyard. It also puts most people off borrowing the welder! I only have 1 long 16a reel, most leads are in 10m lengths & just coiled up for storage. You do know to have an extension reel fully unwound for welding?
I'm no expert on transformers but I don't think the better output has anything to do with heating up the transformer. The thing about transformers is they use inductance to create a current in the secondary windings, that means no direct connection, air in between primary and secondary windings. This creates something called droop, where the output voltage drops off under load - and yes this does create heat as a byproduct. Cheap transformers have less turns and less iron, so more droop. You can never get away from it completely, unless you have massive heavy transformers, which you don't want in a portable welder. So the inverter uses semiconductors to switch 240V ac, some chokes (like a capacitor that stores current), and maybe some capacitors to smooth out the controlled dc output. What can go wrong? Loads, if it does then it's warranty time or bin usually, not like your old oil cooled which will last generations, or even the noisy buzzbox, but then you can't put the buzzbox on your shoulder.....
You have said that the cable from the welder to the plug seems heavy duty, so it probably is 1.5mm2 or even 2.5mm2, and probably has three cores. However, some of these imported boxes only have a 2-core cable, and even when there are three, the earth wire is cut flush on the inside and not connected to anything. The correct wiring should be a short flying earth lead inside with a spade tag onto an earth point riveted or spot-welded to the removable sheet metal case, or the welder's base plate. However, maybe the case of your Rohr welder is all plastic, so it is effectively double-insulated ?
Does say something about earthing the case in the book, must read all 2 pages properly and check all again.
These inverters usually have plastic front and rear panels, with a U-shaped wrap-around sheet metal case, which should have a connection to mains earth as mentioned above. Check for continuity between the earth pin on the 13A plug and the case, or it's fixing screws, or any mounting bolts on the base plate of the welder.
If there is no continuity between earth pin in plug and all metal pieces of the case, you should consider somehow attaching a wire to the case metal(bolt, rivet etc) , and then earthing this somehow. (perhaps with a separate plug with just one wire going from the welder case to the earth pin in the plug.)
