High Voltage Episode 17 - How to use big transformers with parts from an old welder.

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[@richardmyhan3369]

"I'm sure we can get it to by asking nicely..." *Starts whacking it with a hammer* sounds like my dad's idea of asking nicely. 😂😂

[@Kc8qdq]

My new favorite channel. It’s so cool to have someone who does the same stuff I’d do.

[@mathysgobeil1592]

this week im going to have an old industrial buzzbox welder, i have it for free at my job 😀. im gonna post some pics/ videos on the tesla coil and high voltage facebook group

[@aaronreash814]

Never welded until I got a job at a steel mill slitting coiled steel. Got tossed a stick welder that we mostly kept at 130A AC well above the rods 110A and told to have at it, was a fly by seat of your pants. Took some time to learn that basicly everything was grounded and somehow you don't kill your self in the process. Stick gives you the slow puddle formation and heat effect zone to learn. But It also teaches about burn through as in how you need to speed up or turn down the welder if you move from 250ga down to 90ga and you have to stick weld them together

[@SamSitar]

you should also have seen photonicinduction varying voltage in that manner. that welder is a HUGE dimmer switch.

[@PeregrineBF]

I started with stick. Stick is great for cost: the welders are cheap, the sticks are cheap, etc. And it's more portable, no bottles to mess with. It's not as hard as it's often made out to be. You've really only got one setting on the machine to care about, and most of the technique transfers to other arc welding processes (obviously not striking the arc, but monitoring the puddle, movement speed, judging penetration, etc). Flux core is almost as easy as MIG, with a lot of the portability of stick, but holy shit does it make a mess! MIG is hot glue for metal. Easy once set up, quick, but more pricey and does have more settings to care about. You've got to set up the wire speed, the gas flow rate, and the amperage. But most of that you're just reading off a table so it's not a big deal. Oxy-fuel is super versatile and very cheap. You can cut! You can weld! You can braze! It's just two bottles and a torch or two, a couple of nozzles, and some filler rod, and it tends to come on a nice portable cart. But my favorite process is TIG. It's so clean. So controllable. Able to weld all kinds of stuff. And for dissimilar metals that can't be properly welded, TIG brazing works great. It's more fiddly, more expensive, and less portable than the other processes, but it's just so fun to use.

[@computerkiller1494]

As a guy that welded mostly with a stick welder, i can say that it is very easy to control and it is cheap to do. I've only once or twice welded with TIG so i'm not very good at it, but i liked it because there was no sparks/splatter to be scared about.

[@SomeTechGuy666]

More ! Great content.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

It's already in preproduction :) The High Voltage series is about to go nuts. :)

[@SomeTechGuy666]

@@ChaoticGoodChris Can't wait to see it.

[@motersickel]

I've got a welder just like that but mine actually works good welds really well👍👍👍

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

If it works and it's useful there's no need to change that. But everything gets replaced eventually, and then it can have a second life in high voltage. :)

[@motersickel]

@@ChaoticGoodChris I bought these two welders they are commercial type three phase one of them 500amp and is electronic... has some really powerful mosfets in it that drives a Transformer...I tore it apart and kept the mosfets diodes.. and everything I think I could use for Tesla coils and such.....the other one is a 450 amp 3-phase it's an analog style... has a gigantic Transformer and these very big diodes and capacitors... but it to works.. but I don't have three-phase other than a 40kw generator...I'm thinking of rewinding the secondary to where it will put out 120v AC on the three legs...because I have a 3-phase generator that is 40kw... I figured I could use that welder as a step-down where I could run my house with it... what's your thoughts on that..should work?

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

I would suggest, no. There are much more simpler and easy ways to convert down to power your house. That's a very easy and common transformer solution. If you want to dig deep into this, hop in the Discord on a Fatman Friday and we can really work through the engineering. discord.gg/KhTKWE3gCC

[@captainmidnite93]

That's a lot simpler than the one my neon guy neighbor had on his pole pig. It was a Frankenstein rope and pulley slug/winding that got lowered into a cylinder at his bombardment table.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

I so want to see pics of that contraption. Neon guys do terrifying things with HV.

[@captainmidnite93]

@@ChaoticGoodChris Bernie passed 6 years ago @ 86. He was a retired scientific glass blower from GE in Syracuse. He bequeathed me the lab but I was losing my house to medical vampires to pay off my dad's bills and passed the whole lot off to a teaching neon guy in Utica. (The pole pig was suspected of being PCB filled) . It was a moving slug of iron that dropped into a 2+ foot cylinder with a lot of #10 green THHN windings. I recall seeing a video of a very similar contraption 10 years ago when I was researching my coil build. Sorry lost to history.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

That sounds like a large GE welder transformer from the 50s. I watched a vintage video of arc welding and they had a large welder that had a transformer like you describe, by moving the secondary coil up and down the current could be modified. I wonder if he used one of those welders as his ballast. If I find the video I will link it.

[@geterdnboy]

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