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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

Several problems with this welder.  For one thing he mostly skips over
phasing of the teo transformers.  Unless you hook both up with the correct
phase and wind both in the same direction you will have phasing problems
which as a minimum will not get you any output and as a maximum will have
sparks where you do not want them.

Another is the 10 ga wire.  You need solid insulated wire and the thinner
the insulation the better.

The coils are not isolated from each other so you could potentially have not
20V on the holder but 220.  There needs to be a ground otherwise you could
be the ground.

The use of a vice grip for a holder is something you only do when you just
run over your good holder with a forklift.  That puts you in the circuit.
How can you guarantee that there is not a piece of metal piercing your
welding glove?  A vice grip does make a very good ground clamp.

As a starting point you set the Amps based on the decimal size of your rod
then adjust up or down from that as needed.  A 1/8 rod is .125 inch so the
starting current is 125 amps.  I like to start under that do I would start
with 80-90.

The leads are way too short and small.  Cheap jumper cables are way too
small.  You waste much of your energy heating up cables.

I would spend the money on Craig's list or (shudder) Harbor freight which is
where he gets his tools.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html