The famous microwave oven transformer arc welder

[MrPaulzzzz]

I have a 150amp inverter welder and a smaller 100amp buzz box but i still would be tempted to build one of these but with one transformer.I would be happy for it to weld 1.6 rods and to fix it in the smallest of box with a likewise small fan just for the novelty of it,would this work?COULD i add more turns of 10 gauge to get more power and maybe if possible find some wire with a better higher melting point of covering.I live in the UK and people do through away too readily their crap.cheers any1

[thepaashaas]

@MrPaulzzzz The amount of turn determines your output power, star explained this on her website (if this still excists...) I dont the box anymore, welded miles a weld with it in its live time, now I have 160 amp inverter, and MIG welder.

[MrPaulzzzz]

@thepaashaas I was wondering if one transformer could do the job for small 1.6 rods only, from other info i have been looking up it seems there may not be enough power.I am just starting to understand some of the principles involved in this kind of project and will not atempt to build one until i am 100% on what i am doing.I have a reasonable amount of exp with house electrics but not so much exp with certain electrical components.Iverter welder is great piece of kit but would like a mig too.thx

[thepaashaas]

@MrPaulzzzz No, just not enough power to weld...anything

[MrPaulzzzz]

@thepaashaas Yeah that seems to be the thing,needing two.I have started asking around for any person scrappiing one,i have done so myself in the past when the paint comes off inside and they rust my wife buys another one,the one at the moment is only 750 watts,would two this size be good enough you think?PS..thankyou for your help.

[TheMuslimKiller]

LMAO, the transformer overheated which melted the coating on the windings and shorted out. The sound is similar to an arc strike because essentially it is doing the same thing, instead of you completing the circuit with the rod and work peace, it completed the circuit inside of the transformer. I am sure that transformer is dead now.

[dtp5150]

the last few seconds of this video are audio greatness

sparks - shock ah ah

well? what the hell? is that nordic language and then a dot matrix printer sound

[808sexified]

what kind of rods do you use

[thepaashaas]

@808sexified

just normal 2.5 mm 6013 rods

[vistigioful]

I don't understand hand shields. Hand shields mean you are holding the welding rod with only one hand, which means less control.

[GeeksRus95]

@vistigioful High voltage rules 101= USE ONE HAND, UNLESS YOU WANT TO SHOCK THE HELL OUT OF YOUR SELF!

[vistigioful]

@GeeksRus95 OOOOHHHH like you can't shock yourself using only one hand. Using two hands your not gonna shock yourself unless you are careless.

[GeeksRus95]

@vistigioful That if your grounded to something.

[Livens]

You really need to allow for a short duty cycle for these homemade welders. The cheapo at harbor freight has a 15% duty cycle, meaning you can weld for 1.5 minutes and then let it cool down with the fan for 8.5 minutes. And fi you opened the HF one you would probably see what looks like to microwave Trans wired up :)

[Shockszzbyyous]

that's where a dead man's switch is for.

[AdelineProductions]

did it break?

[HSPrzepa]

i made an arc welder out of two microwave transformers before, spent about 40$, welded pretty well.. although my transformers blew along with my fuse box one hour into use... =\ saddest day of my life

[PhxSt0rmz]

Looks like it works good, Know whats the max thickness you can weld?

Sure is a cheap way to make a welder, if it was made under $50, It's well worth it! Not sure if I'll try to make one my self, I already got a $120 80A DC welder that does 1/4" steel easily. Nice video though =D

[thepaashaas]

@PhxSt0rmz

welding with 2.5mm rods now, can weld metal up to 4mm together with a nice sunken weld :)

[Serostern]

@PhxSt0rmz Under $50?

I made mine for ZIP. Nada. Null. Nothing.

Unless you count the welding rod and a tiny bit of solder ;P

[kittools]

I buildet such a welder too but i tried to weld with a 1.5 and 2.5 Rod.. The 1.5 Rod is too small, it was glowing. But with both Rods i dont get a usefull arc. Just only Sparks. Do you have capacitors in the welder? I'll try it tomorrow with a few starting caps.

Sorry for my bad english, hope you can understand it. :)

[thepaashaas]

@kittools

welder doenst need cap's, your welder is just lacking power, but this one also doesnt have a great arc

[kittools]

@thepaashaas i cant start the arc.. thats my problem. I tried different rods but it doesnt work :( At the time i have nothing to measure the voltage. I think i have not enough voltage. Current is a lot. The 1.5 Rod was melted... I rewound the MOTs with 10² wire. I put the primaries in parallel an the secondarys in series. Whats wrong with this shit ;)? :D

[Thetruthishere11]

@kittools

wired it wrong. wrong phase? need 20 turns on each mot for 40 volts.

go to hobbyfreight and get a 1 dollar multimeter.

[kittools]

I think i have the wrong wire... :( yesterday I got my new Multimeter :) 18 V at short circuit wtih caps :( I use the Same Phase for both Mots.. 230V if i connect my Mots to 380V they will be killed or?

[ubuntupokemoninc]

but the helmet up to your face!!! dont just hold it!!!

[thepaashaas]

@ubuntupokemoninc

Its not a helmet, the handle is broken ;)

[spitzification14]

@thepaashaas is it a hand sheild i cant seem to find one that i can buy i only have a helmet for me and a cheap hand sheild i usually get 2 visitors so il have to get two hand sheilds

[thepaashaas]

@spitzification14 its a handshield

[spitzification14]

@thepaashaas where do i buy one

[thepaashaas]

@spitzification14

Go to your local hardware store, or else go to a big-ass hardware store, if still not, order online

[spitzification14]

@thepaashaas i knd of like the hand sheild as oppsoed tot he helmet it doesent fog up in cold wether but when i need to weld for a while i wer my helmet

[gpgab971]

@thepaashaas Big asse'd hardware store, LMAO.

[SuperJuzzy123]

my eyes hurt

[unheardposablitys]

why go to the trouble buy a welder

[thepaashaas]

@unheardposablitys

cuz its free and fun to build

[monstercameron]

would we get any eye damage looking at it through the screen

[thepaashaas]

@monstercameron

No no, its the UV radiation that burns you, you know, the light we cant see ;)

[melaniew77msn]

uh alrighty then...

[JakeyCak3z]

You know. out of all the welding videos I've seen where people would show the bead when they're done, almost all of them aren't acceptable.

It's cool to make a welding machine out of a microwave transformer.. but of what use is it? Unless you use SCR's you have no current control and the best you'll get is probably around 40 amps, you can run what, 1/16th rod with that?

if you want to weld, save up and buy a real machine.. and the proper safety gear.

[tkazokas]

I new a guy who thought he was such a bad ass and that he can weld with sunglasses. Guess what.... next day comes in with his all face burned as if he layed in the beach for hours. what a dumbass

[fennecfanatic]

Protip: Keep your genitalia as far away from potentially lethal electrical arcs as possible.

[mjmerie]

1:23: Buzzzz....ah ah....oh....what the hell....buzzzzz.....click. LOL

Scrounge $100 and buy a cheap Harbor Freight arc welder before you shock yourselves.

[KateFan]

Microwave oven? Looks like a bit of regular kit to me

[mapleguy1029384756]

why do you need the mask? cant you use sunglasses?

[thepaashaas]

because its very intense UV radiation, and you cant see what your doing without a mask, The mask darkens allot

[motocrossguy199]

and if you use sunglasses, you get whats called arc eyes. thats the feeling similar to pouring sand down your eyes and it cant be fixed by a doctor

[thepaashaas]

why would you go to a doctor? it will only last one day, just put a wet towlel or washing cloth on your eyes, it helps allot, it makes it feel less painfull

[cowtowngangsta]

lol welders flash can be pretty serious

[justin76bmw]

@thepaashaas don't need a doctor? you din't have them bad enough, iv'e had a good case of flashes, around 3am i woke up in agony, i imediatly went to the emergency room, no wet towel, no waiting a day, hospital now. they gave me zylocane, kinda like cocane eyedrops, they worked imediatly.

[spitzification14]

@thepaashaas or used tea bags wrapped in cloth works good my dad used it when he got arc flash then he got me an auto darkening hood so i dont wreck my eyes

[robertgift]

@thepaashaas DON'T LET YOUR EYES GET UV BURNED.

Forget the nonsense of wet towel, etc.

DON'T LET IT HAPPEN!

Why such terrible, spelling!

[robertcastellanos]

@motocrossguy199 its also called flashburn

[DancingSpiderman]

@robertcastellanos oh yeah... lawrence flashburn was purty cool in The Matrix

[RamiAtrash]

good way to burn your cam matrix

[MacsCanfly]

can't you use a car battery jumper?

[thepaashaas]

no you cant! the dont have enough power, if you wanna weld with car batteries, connect 3 of them in series and use the negative to weld, and positive to ground

[tangnatalaga]

why not just make your own transformer? Then put two industrial diodes so you can weld aluminum as well.

[nandoGdog]

Most likely the welders duty cycle was exceeded.

[thepaashaas]

he died right on the spot :p

[twenglish1]

what size rods were you using?

[thepaashaas]

i believe it was 3,2 or one size smaller

[twenglish1]

i have only tested mine with a 1/16 rod and i am going to go up a size and try it

[SthealthRaider]

Ee hoeveel keer heb je gewonden met die 5 mm draad?? want wij hebben 230 v niet zoals die amerikanen 120 v dus ik wee nie hoeveel keer winden!!

[thepaashaas]

eentje 14 keer en andere 20, dat 120-230 verschil heeft bij deze geen betrekking tot..de 120 volt trafo's hebben een andere primare spoel, waardoor de verhouding hetzelfde blijft

[SthealthRaider]

thanks

[twenglish1]

what happened to you at the end also happened to me in my same type of homemade welder

[thepaashaas]

it gets warm....

the vinyl isolation melts of the wire

[twenglish1]

thats exactly what happened to mine

[xXxmidgexXx]

What was that very loud buzz at the end? The transfermer shorted out loud

[thepaashaas]

jups, the wire's isolation melted off and caused a short

[xXxmidgexXx]

Ah i see! I had never witnessed a transformer make a sound like that before in my life XD

[thepaashaas]

neither did i xD

[panleica]

cool dud

from kelvin

[hejbaberia]

What do you mean by "it's the transformer shorting out". Are the transformers dead?

[thepaashaas]

The selfmade secondairy coils, the pvc melted of and caused the wires to 'fuse' together.

[SthealthRaider]

hoe kom ik aan gratis magnetrons?

[thepaashaas]

Zaken waar ze witgoed doen repareren, die hebben er altijd wel een paar staan, van te voren even mailen, en dan vind je ze al, en anders even naar een milieu station, daar hebben ze er zat, en meestal als de mot er nog goed uitziet, is er niets mis mee, let wel op de condesator, dat die ontlade is, anders bijt die.

[fullrangechris]

dude why do people always say spray mist water? shits confusin me. either way, nice mot.

[AIMazing]

haha yea they tend to get hot/cut out/blow fuses if the stick sticks for more than 1/2 second or so.

nicely done though, even better than the african homemades.

[thepaashaas]

it wasnt a fuse, it was the welder that shorted out

[thepaashaas]

yes, one only gets to about 50 amps, for small electrodes this will do, for good ones it's to little amps

[TCDIL95]

and now you see why i dont let my older brother handle any of my electronics.

lol

this video says it all:)

[thepaashaas]

whahaha, your funny.

[pilopiloCH]

so the strange noise at the end.... what is it?

[thepaashaas]

it's the transformer shorting out.

[dreamyear]

spary mist water if there's any reaction to it.

[zaphodb777]

Overheat on the secondary, burnt off enamel, and internal arcing, or what?

[thepaashaas]

The secondairy coil is made of standard Vinyl something solid core wire, this can't go above 65 degrees celtius, so that's a bummer, and the cooling fan was to small, i'm going to upload a new video with the renewd version :) the more like a refridgerater kinda cooling