Van sill repair

[Paulie73]

Yes I’m getting there at last ! Yes I plugged the welder in that lead ! Should I have straightened the lead out first ?

 

[Morris]

Yes I’m getting there at last ! Yes I plugged the welder in that lead ! Should I have straightened the lead out first ?

Yes! High current+coil=heat.
Job's looking good.

 

[Windy Miller]

Yes I’m getting there at last ! Yes I plugged the welder in that lead ! Should I have straightened the lead out first ?

You really need to unroll it if you’re using a heavy load like a welder. The cable will be getting warm, and you risk melting the insulation and causing a short. Maybe even a fire if you’re really unlucky.

I’ve only burned out one extension lead through not unwinding it - a lesson learned the hard way. The 16 year old me had to own up to buggering up my Dad’s extension lead and he was not impressed. Could have been far worse though…

 

[bricol]

I can't imagine the welding of a sill into a rusty Ford will be long, full fat, seam welding, so unlikely to be pulling serious current for long enough to over heat to the point of combustion.

Id still use a shorter, straighter, lead though.

 

[Windy Miller]

I can't imagine the welding of a sill into a rusty Ford will be long, full fat, seam welding, so unlikely to be pulling serious current for long enough to over heat to the point of combustion.

Id still use a shorter, straighter, lead though.

Yeah thats a good point actually. When I melted my Dad’s cable it was with a stick welder, but likely plug welding with a mig would be slightly less likely. Still good practice to unwind it tho

 

[Morris]

I can't imagine the welding of a sill into a rusty Ford will be long, full fat, seam welding, so unlikely to be pulling serious current for long enough to over heat to the point of combustion.

Id still use a shorter, straighter, lead though.

Fair point.

 

[pedrobedro]

You really need to unroll it if you’re using a heavy load like a welder. The cable will be getting warm, and you risk melting the insulation and causing a short. Maybe even a fire if you’re really unlucky.

I’ve only burned out one extension lead through not unwinding it - a lesson learned the hard way. The 16 year old me had to own up to buggering up my Dad’s extension lead and he was not impressed. Could have been far worse though…

Only time I saw it happen was not really an extension. It was a really heavy duty industrial vacuum cleaner with a lot of flex wrapped round the motor on top. Ten minutes use saw it go up in smoke.

The van is looking a lot more solid now

 

[Morris]

Only time I saw it happen was not really an extension. It was a really heavy duty industrial vacuum cleaner with a lot of flex wrapped round the motor on top. Ten minutes use saw it go up in smoke.

The van is looking a lot more solid now

I've only seen one really bad extension lead, it was a melted mess that had reset in a solid lump. What the hell the user was doing while it was destroying itself is anybody's guess.

 

[Paulie73]

Thanks for the comments guys ! Will unroll the lead from now on or get a shorter cable to be safe ! Yes van is getting solid as I’ve cut all rust out that side and welded new metal in ! Once I’ve done this side I got other side to do then it be a good solid van ! It’s just this cold weather that’s delaying things a bit

 

[marlinspike]

We melted a cheap extension reel once. Can't remember if it was with the welder or something else though. Fortunately turned it off as soon as we saw smoke. It's worth buying a heavy duty one when you can afford it. What we do find is that our welder (Cebora 180, so a big workshop sized thing) will trip the circuit if we don't unwind the extension cable to its full length.

 

[MetalMonkey]

If you use them coiled it should give a rating, usually about 1/4 of what they are rated for uncoiled. The heating effect is significant.