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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Thanks Don; another one of those 'don't believe everything you read on the 
internet'.  It looked intereting to me, but I am someone who was talked into 
putting his wet finger in a light socket when I was about five.......

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--- On Sun, 2/22/09, Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
> Subject: RE: [Homestead] DIY home-made welders
> To: bobford79 AT yahoo.com, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Sunday, February 22, 2009, 11:55 AM
> 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