When welding with an AC arc welder, it is usually necessary to "start from the beginning" to keep the arc running. For those who are unfamiliar, it is just as it sounds. You drag your head over something like a giant match. Some have arc stabilizers or "high frequency starters". This is preferred, but they may be difficult to find. [Bill] showed us how to make our own. Although you may easily find a large transformer, you may encounter some difficulties in finding capacitors and tungsten spark gaps. If you manage to master them, you can build one of these primers for yourself following [Bill]'s schematic diagram.
It looks nervous, but the parts are not easy to find ;)
When I made Tesla coils, I got some tungsten spark gaps and similar lids from eBay.
Is the Tesla coil useful? What do you use it for?
My first thought is that the automatic ignition coil cannot withstand continuous operation. The second thought is that my reason is why it is marked as a starter box instead of an HFHV arc stabilizer, and it seems to be a foot switch. Third, compared with my welding cable, #8 wire is very insignificant. The only other features I want to add are current sensing and time delay. This will feel an attempt to start the arc, open the box, and close it when the welder has time to establish the arc. Allow one to get rid of the foot switch
This is the basic idea behind the promotion of arc welding machines. When you touch the tungsten to the workpiece, the welder feels a short circuit, and when you lift the tungsten up, the welder feels that the circuit is now open and starts to produce a high-frequency arc.
Interesting. My only question is "Why use a tungsten spark gap?" Does an ordinary spark gap not work?
Why is tungsten? I can imagine that tungsten has a very high melting point and good arc oxidation resistance. So they last longer.
Electronics Goldmine sells 35kv capacitors as shown in the picture.
Why is there a spark gap? A good power semiconductor will not do this job, as they use in Tesla coils.
The purpose of the spark gap is to isolate the high-voltage power supply from the 200 ampere current from the welding machine. If it is connected directly, this will burn the high-voltage power supply faster than the building 7!
And prevent the voltage from rising and provide you with a good electric shock
The green coded tig electrode is almost pure tungsten. They are available from welding suppliers and come in many different diameters. The spark gap can be made of several separate electrodes.
Spark gap Because it is so simple, the spark gap will never explode like a transistor. I'm sure there may be some better reasons related to the incredibly high frequency.
Isolate the high-voltage power supply from the 200 amp power supply of the welding machine to avoid generating magic smoke...Haha
In order to be able to superimpose this high-frequency signal on the secondary of the welding transformer, you also need a high-pass filter in parallel with the secondary winding. Otherwise, the high frequency signal will be fed back to the primary.
Hi, I am very new to tig welding, and I just had an inverter tig welding machine from scratch. My question is whether I always keep the arc starter connected while I am welding, or just open it to get the arc and then close it. Thanks for the help.
On steel, we found that once the arc starts, it can be turned off. Through a very brief test of aluminum, we found that it needs to be kept on. There may be a known exception, or we need to pass a skill level to close it, but so far we don't know how.
View the schematic diagram of Miller HF-15 arc starter: http://www.yoreparo.com/foros/files/hf15.gif
Hi! The arc starter is really easy to use! You don't need to touch the rod electrode with the workpiece to start the arc. Very useful for low current welding. Thanks to Willian F. Dudley Jr. for publishing the schematic, please note that the 500 pF capacitor will be connected in series with the primary of the auto ignition coil. My assembly does not require 100 ohms. In addition, the automatic ignition coil was replaced with a self-made transformer with 10 turns #22awg for the primary and 300 turns for the secondary #28awg, from the core of the TV flyback type "c" with a cross-section of 200mm2, with interlayer insulation of 0.12mm polyester paper. Each layer does not exceed 38 turns. Alkyd (external spar varnish or spar paint) impregnation.
The buzzer terminal is connected in parallel with a 0.5mF x 400v capacitor to prevent high frequency voltage from entering the main welding machine
Hello, I made this circuit, and it works well by itself, but I burned my rectifier diode on my inverter twice after a few seconds, and I see here that you have to add a capacitor, But I want to make sure how. I understand that there should be 0.5 microfarad between the working lead and the electrode lead, right? thank you very much. Sorry for my english jeremy
By the way, replace the 500pF x 30000V capacitor with a 1000pf x 20000V self-made capacitor
Materials needed: aluminum foil for the kitchen and glass for home windows.
Newton Newton.b@live.com
How wide is the gap you set on the tungsten? If it is like a spark plug, it needs a certain amount of clearance.
What is the supply voltage of this starter box?
What amount of HF generator voltage?
Yes, it works very well. Connecting to the buzzer allows you to solder very comfortably at 30-80A.
There is an error in the schematic: 500uuF is connected in parallel with the 10-turn primary. Use the primary 10-turn coil to fix it in the SERIAL to make a 500uuF capacitor.
The 500uuf capacitor is made of window glass and aluminum foil.
The Tesla coil has also been simplified, using simple ferrite beats found on computer monitors.
It is a very effective device that helps welding at low current.
Newton Brown, newton.b@live.com
Information gathered from the Miller HF-15 manual (TM-610A, September 1997): Can be used for other processes, such as plasma arc cutting! (Hint reminder)
The high-voltage transformer increases the voltage from 115v to 3000v (three thousand).
The high frequency generated is approximately 1 to 2 MHz.
Please send me the schematic diagram of the high-frequency starter box. thanks
I know the post about the durability of coils is very old, but I want to point out that automotive coils should do a good job of durability. On a V8 engine, a conventional coil can ignite about 400 times per second at a speed of 3000 rpm. 3000/60=50 Full engine revolutions per second. Each spark plug coil ignites once. For V8 with 8 ignitions per revolution, 50*8=400. Car coils have a service life of several years, and are inexpensive and easy to handle. Just want to point this out to anyone who comes across this information.
Each cylinder is fired every two revolutions of the four stroke, so 200 times per second at 3000 rpm, and powered by 12 volts instead of 115 volts.
I admit that this article (and post) is very old, but anyone can provide a schematic of this project. Thank you Rob.
The schematic can be found here: http://www.casano.com/projects/hfstart/index.html
Can someone build one of them for me? I like to use old old-fashioned welding equipment, which will be a great accessory for the old dinosaur stick machine I own.
What is the name of the ds part that has completed this assembly. I don’t understand the connection line. Green, black and white. Thank you
I have not seen any response to your question, so I will respond now. On the left side of the picture, you can see the back of the IBM cable connector. The green wire is the chassis ground, the white wire is your neutral conductor, and the black wire is your feeder power supply. When you plug in the IBM power cord as you would on most computers, this will provide power to the operating device.
I have a Dayton 3AC01 high frequency arc stabilizer. What is the use? ? ?
Can anyone comment on why this uses 2 gaps instead of 3 or 1 gap? What is the effect of logarithm?
Can non-resistance motorcycle spark plugs replace expensive tungsten alloy gaps? You can grind off the ground shank and install two electrodes to the electrodes. The threaded body will allow the gap to be adjusted. They are well insulated. They are heat resistant. They cost about $2 each. Just an idea.
*Can someone verify that the linked schematic is accurate? In my eyes, I see that the 500pF capacitors in the picture are parallel. *What kind of "light dimmer"? There are several seriously. *Can a flyback transformer be used instead of the ignition coil? *Someone posted a message, the unit frequency is Mhz...Is it accurate?
How to turn off the arc mma trigger?
If you need (2) spark gaps, can you screw all (2) spark plugs into the same piece of metal, and the high voltage enters the high voltage terminal of one spark plug and flows out from the high voltage terminal of the second spark plug? Remember to isolate the metal that the spark plug penetrates from any surrounding metal to prevent you from getting high voltage! ! !
Does anyone have an active link to the schematic?
Please refer to the following Internet archive reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20161127231205/http://www.casano.com/projects/hfstart/index.html
Can someone repost the schematic
It looks like the Internet Archive has a November 2016 post: https://web.archive.org/web/20161127231205/http://www.casano.com/projects/hfstart/index.html
Today we set up and ran the high-frequency startup box we built, and it worked well! Our workshop foreman is happy to add it to his tool set. The setting of the light switch dimmer setting seems to have a limited effect on the arc starting result, although we may learn other things over time and experience. His Hobart rod welder was connected to the tig welding torch and the HF box, and he was able to place a beautiful weld bead in some aluminum test material. The way the arc jumps and starts immediately is incredible. It jumps between the test material and the tungsten at a pitch of approximately 5/16 inches.
When using steel, the HF starter box helps to start easily, but it can be closed after the arc has started. In aluminum, keeping it on will make the arc more stable and provide a wider warning area to indicate that you are leaving the target interval between the electrode and the workpiece without immediately breaking the arc. It seems that it will help learners develop a sense of correct positioning faster. It is not known what effect it will have on the life of the spark gap or any other components of the system.
We used a 118X80X20mm ferrite core... it was bigger than needed. If we build another one, we will try to use 102x65x20mm or 85x55x20mm ferrite cores.
For anyone copying this content, it’s important to make sure that the ground is properly connected to your power ground...otherwise you will end up with strange electrical feedback. It caused the automatic feeding table on the workshop mill to start feeding until we found the fault ground in the power socket, and we inserted the HF box for testing. If the ground is not properly connected, some kind of bad feedback will definitely occur.
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