If you walk around in some dark circles, you may have noticed the appearance of incredibly cheap "pocket welders" on the market these days. They are all variants of the same theme, most of which have extremely optimistic specifications and minimal accessories of the lowest quality. But their small size and matching price make them irresistible to potential welders and attractive to hardware hackers.
There is a 220-volt socket in the garage waiting to be filled, and knowing the risk, [Mr. RC-Cam] purchased one of the small welding machines. Its shortcomings were immediately apparent, and the welding machine was completely reworked. After solving the safety issues such as the lack of ground connection, [Mr. RC-Cam] added a color-matched 3D printed hood to accommodate a beautiful new LCD touch screen display. It is supported by the ESP32 with Bluetooth, which supports remote control via the remote control key. He also added a current sensing board that uses the shunt of the welding machine to measure the welding current. After conveniently calibrated with a waffle iron and milliohm meter, the sensor showed that the maximum 200A advertised by the welder was more like 100A. He tried to add some large electrolyte to solve the current problem, but no dice. With the right stinger and grounding clamp, the modified welder is enough to meet his needs and has learned a lot in the process. We call it a hacker victory.
By the way, if you want to know more details about the internal structure, [this old Tony] recently reviewed similar welders. We also recently introduced the problem of converting the buzzer to a TIG welder, if this is more in line with your style.
I just leave this here:
I need a good giggle. Thank you Will.
That person is really interesting. I have watched many of his videos in the past purely for humor.
If I were to try to weld my pockets with 100A, I think I would take off my pants first.
This is a cool electronics project, but I can't get this thing close to anything I want to solder properly.
On the other hand, put it aside or put it in a small tool bag in case you need it...
I must ask at this point, WTW? Are there any standards for electrical equipment?
Of course there is, if you pay. Think of this welder as the Uber or AirBNB of welding equipment: much cheaper than the competition because they decided to skip all expensive steps such as verification and certification.
What happened to common sense? There have been some-well, at least one-very good articles on Hackaday recently about the current proliferation of welders between $100 and $120 and how good they are (I think it was written by Jenny List).
"Hacking" is not an excuse for lack of common sense; the essence of "hacking" is to get more useful things; to be able to make "...silk wallets made of cow ears..."; and not to put whipped cream on the stool-this is The most charitable thing that can be claimed for this "hacker".
This is indeed worthy of the "NOT A HACK" warning.
Fred Brooks, the author of The Mythical Man-Month and the man who saved IBM's "tattered" IBM 360 computer program when it was on the verge of ruining the company, quoted a very good quote:
"Originality is not a stupid excuse."
It was indeed Jenny List in her very good article--
"Is the cheap inverter welding machine worth it?" September 23, 2019, by Jenny List; 133 comments.
Some quotes from the introduction...
"...I bought Workzone WWIW-80 from the local Aldi, an 80 A unit, costing me more than 60 pounds (about 75 US dollars), and equipped with welding leads..."
"...These small inverter welders are quite versatile, so if you don’t mind giving up the generous Aldi 3-year warranty, you can find their various brands and specifications online at a lower price. I have seen The cheapest is about 35 pounds or 44 US dollars, but this price only includes the inverter, not the welding wire..."
This article and review provide very good tutorials on these amazing devices.
Finally, I want to apologize for my unimaginable and unspeakable gaffe about "...a cow's ears..." and for not giving the sow the due reward.
"The essence of'hacking' lies in getting something more useful in the end"-he did. It may not be as easy to use as Lincoln or Miller, or even as good as one of the welders Jenny has seen, but it is sufficient for his needs, and it is obviously better than when he started — and safer. Sorry, but this is a hack.
Two generations before LCD.
"...The color-matched 3D printed hood can accommodate the beautiful new LCB touchscreen display."
Maybe I don’t know, but I don’t believe there is such a thing as an LCB monitor...
Very good, he added a busbar made of copper, which increased the short-circuit current intensity by nearly 20%!
I personally think this is great. But I will train it to become an old welder I have owned for about 30 years. It is a very basic type of electronic "dimmer" control. This welder has done a lot of work, but the upgrade will be fun. I also picked up a few welders who were thrown away, they needed repairs, and Megga tests to make sure they were safe at the beginning. And upgrading this "pig ear" (I believe cows do not need to apply) is wonderful. Thank you for this idea Mr. RCAM :)
(It is actually a sow, not a pig, but the pig is close enough).
"...It shows that the maximum 200A advertised for welders is more like 100A."
Yes...but it is 200A at 10% THD. :)
The link to this article has expired (the site is closed). But the project's github provides a PDF reprint: https://github.com/thomastech/Sparky/raw/master/Sparky_Stick_Welder.pdf
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