We have all seen cheap welding machines and very attractive small inverter welding machines sold from the usual online sources. But are they any good? When my local supermarket had one on its discount shelf, I took the risk to put it in my shopping cart along with Marmite, which is usually available for a week. That was a period of time at the beginning of this year.

I bought Workzone WWIW-80 from the local Aldi, an 80 A unit that cost me more than 60 pounds (approximately US$75), equipped with welding leads and a rather poor quality mask. The discount supermarket chain in Germany specializes in offering a variety of interesting goods on a regular basis, so there is also a very similar unit that is sold together with the competitor Lidl's Parkside brand. 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. The cheapest one I have seen is about 35 pounds or 44 US dollars, but this price only includes the inverter, not the welding wire.

As a working blacksmith, my father has owned a high-quality inverter welding machine since the 1990s, so my frame of reference is based on this. In the past ten years, when the first batch of microinverters first entered the market, he tried one of them, but it could not meet the requirements of professional welders and packaged away. Therefore, I don't have high expectations for this unit, but I need one of my own, and the price is worth a try. I occasionally use it for general heavy welding tasks, repairing agricultural machinery and accessories, and rebuilding some steps on narrow ships with 7 mm plates. It does a good job in these tasks because I am not a skilled welder and my job is not the neatest, but it allows me to complete satisfactory work.

It has been a long time since the advent of inverter welding machines, so there may be fewer readers using AC rod welding machines than before. For me, comparison is a kind of smoothness. My relative lack of welding skills shows that the inverter is not as prone to arc as my father, but once the arc starts, it is much easier to draw and control it. I can use inverter welding It’s easier for the machine to fill holes with welds, and better control of the current means that I can handle lighter jobs more easily, and people of my ability can usually use MIG welders better.

To prove this, I decided to push the limit a little bit and try to use a Workzone welder to cut some 1mm thick square tubes from my makerspace scrap box. These come from office desk legs, a stock that can break the boundaries of any bar welder. Because this is a relatively small welder, I use it with a 2.5mm electrode, and as you would expect, it will happily make a hole in the 1mm pipe wall at higher currents . This is why you usually use MIG for such tasks, but in fact, at 80, the reward for AI is closer to cutting than welding. Adjusting the current back to 40 A, I can easily rebuild the hole, and when trying to connect the two pieces at right angles, I can produce a smooth weld with good integrity. For me, the ability to weld this material is simply amazing, because I have never done it on such a thin metal with a bar welder. This is almost the thickness of the body, and I never thought that even the inverter could be close. It is worth mentioning that keeping the arc at only 40 A is more challenging.

I once described my Workzone as a capable little welder. It has provided me with a very good service in the work where I use it, and its capabilities even surprised me. Where are its shortcomings? Welders like it. If they are so good, why are there better welders?

In terms of structure, these units are often sturdy enough for serious casual users. Sturdy sheet metal housing with nice cooling holes and fans to prevent overheating, and brass locking connections for leads. If you are accustomed to other switch mode power supplies, they are nothing special: the usual electronic devices and toroidal transformers. The leads are very sturdy, the inspection proved to be copper conductors instead of the aluminum conductors I was worried about, and because it was sold through European distributors, everything was marked with European standards. If you buy a similar welding machine from online channels, it may not have these certifications, so please pay attention to equipment with lax safety standards.

They differ from professional welders in their work cycle, and in some cases may also be in their claimed capabilities. This is not the welding machine you use for mass-manufacturing or building ships, it is the welding machine you stay in the workshop for short-term welding tasks, or you may use it as a lightweight and portable backup for the work of the workshop welder is just too big. If I were to risk guessing why my father’s small inverter welding machine failed, I would put my fingers on the work cycle: the blacksmith may have too many requirements to install a work on site. So if you are a temporary welder, that would be great, but if you keep using it, you may need to invest a little bit more.

Then there are the sometimes optimistic specifications quoted on small inverter welding machines. The 80 A capacity of the Workzone unit is relatively moderate, but it is not uncommon for similar models to claim to be able to reach 200 A. Price, it is not unreasonable to assume that exploring its limits will accelerate its demise. You get what you paid for, and maybe if your needs become greater, it will reward you for paying a little more.

Among Hackaday's readers, there are not only people whose welding skills are far better than mine, but also many who have experience similar to cheap inverter welding machines. I hope that sharing my experience will help you decide whether to try one of these devices and, as always, it would be great to hear your opinion in the comments.

I just checked these for completely different reasons...I was on a main solar homestead that was off-grid, but then it was February-and generators were used fairly commonly. The charger that will consume a few kilowatts of power and put it into my nominal 24v (but requires up to 28v to fully charge) battery is very expensive. I want to know if I can get rid of one of those "200 amp" $40 models-youtube tests show that they are suitable for about 100 amps and the voltage I need, but no one seems to have tested both models at the same time. I already have "real" welders-TIG, MIG, welding rod, oxyacetylene. But I put them indoors, not in the energy shed... because it's easy to pay almost 10 times the price for the RV's 40 amp 24v battery charger... well.

"Because it's easy to pay almost 10 times the price of a 40-amp 24v battery charger for RV... well."

When I read on the 20th century welder, I thought the same way. I bought a battery charger accessory for $50. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3333883423340103&set=pcb.3333877926673986&type=3&theater

I'm considering using another transformer to step 24V to 12V, maybe another inductor can balance the current better, about twice the current should also make the car starter good enough...unless you have a 24V equipment.

I was just looking at the $44 eBay plasma cutter. Amazing...the price point of these modern systems.

Where have you seen a $44 plasma cutter on eBay (link)? As far as AI can find, the only thing you can get with the money is the torch of the plasma cutting machine (ie, just a torch set with cables/hose, but no actual plasma cutting machine equipment that provides power)

I strongly avoid using a welding machine to charge the battery. The battery needs to be charged under a chemistry-based profile. The welder cannot work safely.

From the experience of using a welding machine to charge car batteries, it is really good at rejuvenating them. The good stimulation of the inner tank and ripples can desulfurize the batteries and charge them quickly. Charging in this way will extend the life of lead-acid batteries compared to tickling charging.

The low duty cycle of these can be a problem.

Some people are better than others. I am a pipe welder, chiller, boiler, etc. I used maxstar 160 to test 6G and welded 8 inch sch40 pipe in the field for 6 years. The bucket of a 320 cat excavator was recently repaired. The inverter was placed in 1/8 7018 like the Bobcat 225. Some Chinese machines are also very good, but start at $300

You might want a used forklift charger...

I have two. Too weak and too sensitive to frequency-at least I have those with ferromagnetic transformers. I have a 2500 ampere hour battery that can be charged here. The current of the forklift charger is about 20-30 amperes and gradually decreases. EG, you need a generator runtime which is indeed very expensive.

I understand the relationship between battery profile and chemistry and temperature better than you think. I have been here-since 1980, there is no power grid, I am EE, and compared with other and supplier forecasts, the normal life of a set of batteries is about twice the normal life.

It seems that you can handle the duty cycle problem by...running things at its duty cycle or less. There will be no problem with temperature sensing. I already have a raspi to record things and provide drawings for my internal system, and an arduino to control the large diesel generators (for water pumps and fans) I currently use in real time...but because of the inverter/charger It’s because driving requires AC power to charge. I can’t do electronic work with sensitive things — generator AC — it’s a noisy slip ring AC from 1930.

Many forklift chargers here are 100A at 24V, 100A at 48V, and many more similar values. Some inverter chargers run even higher currents.

I don't know the type of transformer used in the large transformer type charger.

Have you studied the "flow battery" setting? Vanadium technology is the most mature, but other technologies—such as the zinc-iron version—are under development. I'm not sure what your needs are, but it is the most environmentally friendly energy storage medium I can think of.

I have a modified ATX power supply and I can adjust the 12v rail voltage. It comes from an old general-purpose PC, which can drive 40 amps at 14 volts, and it is only a 300 watt model. I would consider server power supplies because they are built for a 100% duty cycle and are usually very powerful and very cheap because they are loud and usually come in a proprietary form factor. If you can manage two 1500 watt PSUs and the like in series, and use a potentiometer to modify its sensing line, and adjust each of them to 14 volts, you may be able to power these batteries with close to 3 kilowatts all day Charge, but remember, server-grade hardware is noisy! It's as loud as a large hovering drone. Consumer-grade ATX PSU can also work, but may not like being pushed to close to 100% for such a long time. I only pushed my battery to about 5 minutes at 30 amps to charge a dead car battery. It seemed to have survived, but before that I had 2 of them that burned out even in a few seconds when overloaded . My guess is that the MOSFET cannot handle the amperage, but the third one seems to survive a basically short circuit, so I guess it depends on the model.

40 amps, 14 volts, only 300 watts? My math may be wrong, but I don’t think this is how it works

I smell a serious overload :-) Maybe a powerful fan helps blow away the smoke. :-)

Take a look at the MeanWell RSP-2000 power supply. They will use AC or DC inputs of various frequencies. They have a current-limiting output with remote sensing and remote output voltage adjustment functions. US$400 will provide you with 2kW of charging power, which you can control via Pi. They even support parallel operation, so you can increase the charging size by adding modules.

I hope Aldi and Lidl stores in the United States have something like this!

If Aldi in the United States has one of them, I wouldn't be surprised. I saw something strange there.

I didn't notice, but I would keep my eyes open.

I almost bought a huge tool cabinet in Aldi in Texas for $100.

They have some strange random things, but I really didn't expect a stick welder. It looks like this week in the United States, special items include a gasoline generator and a cordless chainsaw.

I once joked that ALDI is the only place where you can buy a MIG welder and a pack of bacon in the same place. Then, a few years ago, a respite weekend with my wife in Exeter, I think it happened. I suddenly went to nearby ALDI to buy another bottle of red wine, and found a guy walking to the cash register, holding a bag of bacon in his hand and putting it on the arc welder. Not MIG, but um, close enough :)

I got one of them. I am very impressed: https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-240v-portable-bandsaw/p/086075229503400

One of our local Aldi has shelf labels for these items, but they are sold out.

They are like this. Well, at least Aldi. I just saw this exact (or very similar) welder advertisement at my local Aldi last week. If I didn't buy one from Amazon about a week ago, I would get it.

I also just invested in a "cheap" inverter welding machine, but in my case, I bought a gas/non-gas MIG welding machine for £180. Of course, this is three times the cost you pay for the rod welder, but its function is much more than that. My welding skills extend to a course I took in high school more than 20 years ago, but I can use this thing to make a decent looking weld.

The changes in this technology are surprising. I remember the first time I bought a MIG welder on the farm where I grew up; it was a very serious investment. Just a few years ago, you had to choose between the cost of maintaining a gas system and the cost of gas-free equipment. Now you can buy a cheap welding machine that can be operated with or without gas and a 60-liter disposable gas cylinder for less than £15. All the discussions on the Internet are whether you will use carbon dioxide or use the more expensive argon, but in my case the difference is 14 pence...

Disposable gas cylinders? I can't say that I have heard of these.

I will buy a new cylinder on the market soon. A nearby place needs 300 US dollars (Canada) to buy a new gas cylinder, and it takes about 100 US dollars to fill it up (approximately 40-60 cubic C25 gas feed).

I have never heard of 60L disposable gas cylinders, so I searched online. Most of the links that appeared said "unavailable". For example... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Langley-Pure-Argon-Disposable-Bottles/dp/B00GAX741O

Available: https://www.toolstation.com/disposable-gas-bottle/p35286

Why? The filling cost of 10 kg is about 20 Euros, and the bottle will never lose its value...

When I have a contract gas cylinder, the gas cylinder rent is 7 pounds per month (regardless of whether I have used it or not), and then each time an additional charge of 38 pounds and 15 pounds is a management fee. So even if you don't use gasoline at all, you will spend £99 a year. There are now some plans where you pay 155 pounds to fully own the cylinder and 45 pounds to fill it. If you do not weld often, then disposable gas cylinders make sense. (If you use a motorcycle to transport welding equipment, they also make sense :-)

@DooMMmasterR: Do you really mean 10 kilograms or 10 liters? 10 kg of argon is 5600 liters or approximately 28 liters @ 200 bar. Where do you live? In Austria, I only know the price of 39 Euros for 10 liters/200 bar (Hornbach).

Here, a 1 liter/60 bar (60 liter) bottle costs 19 euros,-there are also 2 liters/110 bar (220 liters) bottles priced at 39 euros on Amazon. Only 39 Euros-also available in 10 liters/200 bar (2000 liters) refills. One bottle costs 119 Euros,-

I'm not sure yet how many uses I will have in the near future.

interesting! Do you know any American sources?

The problem with disposable cylinders is that carbon dioxide lasts longer (especially double-pressure cylinders in the machine market, please pay attention to your situation in the UK). Just like you are in the UK, SRS auto parts and other factors make rent-free gas cylinders, which are very suitable for people like me who are not very welded, but it is useless to weld enough disposable supplies.

A handy tip is to look at the mechanical auction of old heavy MIG units, your wheel type. They are neither fashionable nor bulky, so they are usually purchased for relatively pennies.

Carbon dioxide and argon? My father uses carbon dioxide because he can have his own cylinder. It's good for blacksmiths, not so good for thin bodywork. Except for my father, I have never seen anyone use carbon dioxide to weld the rusty "steel" of Austin Allegro in 1978.

I have a MiG like the last one I gave to a friend. Its current is as high as 400A, and it uses 0.045 wires. You can tie 208, 200 or 4 things with it. It is about the size of a household washing machine. But I messed up a bit, I got a Lincoln MiG, maybe the last MiG based on a transformer. I chose 120V because I think I might sometimes use it far away from my store. If I waited for a year, I might get a universal power. Still in the ambitious plan, compared with inverters, there are far fewer problems with transformers, and the first generation units will definitely have errors that need to be resolved.

I am a welder/manufacturer. At work, I own all the company’s personal machines, a Millermatic 211, a Miller shopmaster 300 with wire feeder and TIG accessories, and a machine driven by a Miller Bobcat 225 engine. All of these machines are very good. At home, I installed 2 rod-shaped inverters in many other machines, one 80 amp and one 200 amp. 200amp is a Chinese brand, 220v, which cost me 120 dollars. What surprised me is that it runs 6010 without a hiccup. This is a real test for any bar welder. 80amp is about $150 and can be considered a brand name, but it is sold under a bunch of different names. Now its 110v and running TIG from scratch on a metal plate, so that the hot start in stick mode no longer works at all. For the money, that 200 amp runs smoother than the Bobcats or shopkeepers I use at work. The Bobcat has since become the power source for the 200-amp inverter. I still didn't reach the claimed 30% duty cycle, and I didn't even burn 1/8 inch 7018 all day.

In the 1970s and 1980s, due to the scrap steel in British cars, the use of MIG darning was an essential skill. :)

Darn welding, in my ignorance, I thought that darning was just a process of repairing knitted fabrics.

Maybe what he meant was the technique of putting the wires through the gap, then pressing the trigger, and then repeating, so that you can build a wire braid on which you can apply a primer to fool the MOT tester. Works well on the inaccessible top surface of the Land Rover chassis :-)

Is this wire mesh process really less than inserting (more or less spot welding) a metal plate? The appearance value is at least comparable.

The problem is that (at least in Europe) most of the industrial heavy MIG units auctioned are 380/400v. If you can use this power, that would be great, but most amateurs don't. (And it is usually impossible to convert them). ARE 240v ones are usually more expensive

Not really. The single-phase 240V machines around the 1970s had a sweet spot, and they were bulky and heavy compared to a large number of recent alternatives.

The best gas mixture I found for solid carbon steel wire is 75% argon 25% CO2

One of the advantages of these small inverters is their portability. I bought one so that I have a welder and I can put it in the trunk of a motorcycle. That was a long time ago, more than 20 years ago, and it is still very powerful in the hands of the friends I lent it to.

However, this does not sound like an advantage to you. The heavier machine may still be in your garage.

Ner-a-car owners do not carry arc welding machines. They carried a portable fireplace and a bunch of rivets. :)

In the mid-1980s, a friend connected two Bedford HA trucks with popular rivets. Yes, this is not a real rivet. When he showed me his handwork, I obviously didn’t leave it behind. I was too impressed because he said: "What? It works for the sbort brothers". There is really no dispute about the logic. The worst part is that the van lasted for another 18 months before the "problem" appeared. Whatever it means.

It would be nice to see some solder beads, not a bunch of grindings that didn't show anything.

In fact, you can see a few things in this polished weld: inclusions, cracks and overheating...

It looks very close to what I produced with a fairly cheap inverter (about 200 euros with TIG option) and some great products. But in my case, the reason must be that I have almost no soldering experience. :-) The last time was about 25 years ago, when a friend did some soldering and I just tried it. I have more practice with soldering iron.

I disagree. I grind it back to see what the metal underneath looks like, because that's where the integrity of the weld is. I don't care about the neatness of the weld, but more about the strength of the weld.

As you can see, this is not a perfect weld. But it was polished and did not show flux slag bubbles that looked like welds, so I was very happy.

This *is* my opinion of my welding skills. My motto is "welding, grinding, repeating"

Can't remember where I first heard it, but "grinder and paint made me a welder, I am not"

For my first 6G pipe certification on a thick wall (16mm wall, 30mm inner diameter), "G" may stand for grinding. Almost as much metal is worn away as there is in the finished weld. However, it passed radiography and physical properties, including Charpy. (Most specifications do not prohibit sanding during the qualification test...until the test supervisor, whether it is a company representative, Natn'l Board AI, an agent representative, anyone. They need to complete the work, and they need a welder to come. Finish.)

Where is a pipe with a wall thickness greater than half its inner diameter? More than 1000bar pressure?

I used to work in a laboratory that was able to set any triaxial stress in a tubular specimen. Through the combination of tension and torsion of the two shafts, different internal and external pressures are applied to the full thickness and circumferential stress. I noticed that the pressure control rose to 16,000 bar, although I could not find the actual working pressure by consulting the literature. (Https://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/STP/PAGES/STP36214S.htm describes the actual machine and mentions 700Mpa / 7000 bar). I remember seeing spare hydraulic lines with an outer diameter of 18 mm and an inner diameter of 3 mm (or approximately). Current common rail diesel engines use >2000 bar.

Martin: This job is a part of a high-pressure boiler. Due to the very high temperature and pressure, the strength of the material will decrease. Add in the safety factor and corrosion/erosion allowance, etc., and you will get some applications for strong heavy materials, but in this case, it is only used for welder qualification certification. This work involves tubes with larger walls, as well as thin-walled dimensions and smaller tubes (8mm walls are very typical for smaller tubes/tubes, heat exchanger, wall and superheater tubes are about 3mm Cr /Mo alloy)

Guys look at my weld> ground plane

"Grinder and paint make me a welder, I am not"

But I really can’t speak, I am a terrible welder myself...

However, it is only grounded when the clamp is connected.

Smooth it down to see what the weld underneath looks like. My father taught me to do this, because a good beat on the top can hide all kinds of annoying things below.

In other words, this is not grinding for aesthetics.

"...Because the good rhythm above can hide all kinds of annoying things below."

agree. You may also want to perform cutting and etching tests to see the penetration depth. I have laid out nice beads and later proved that they are basically solder because they rarely penetrate the substrate and do not enter the root (T-joint).

Frankly speaking, the inverter makes welding easy, as long as the weld seam is flat, anyone with two hands and common sense can weld correctly (follow the polarity and current recommendations). But when going out flat, it is another matter (angle, up, down, ceiling...)

Who buys Marmite every week?

A person who can't stand Vegemite.

According to Wikipedia, both are spreads based on yeast extract. How are they different?

Some people become ruthless because of Twiglet's addiction.

There is a British mother who is addicted to Twiglet...I will laugh out loud!

You confuse Marmite and Vegemite Mate!

You can put those Vegemite things south of the equator, thank you :)

I just went through this. I bought a rave reviews on Amazon for $115...wow. It's worth every penny. I wrote an introduction about it on my website, and the results of its work (my recumbent tricycle), if anyone would like a link and some comments about it. Duty cycle? 60%.

TL; DR: Don't get to the bottom of the bucket.

I put that TL; DR there and said don't figure out the bottom of the bucket, because there are $80 versions, or less...their work cycle reflects this. A few more dollars will add some quality.

So, when do you think the welding machine can be installed on the tricycle?

Later this year, maybe. After the tricycle is built, there will be two cargo boxes at the back, one of which has enough space for welders. 115v power supply is everywhere, so power supply should not be a problem.

Reading and reading are good (except your wife... I hope she can cure any problems. Starting from a real health investment for beginners, criticizing experts is the best advice in my experience). Yesterday I was on the farm, thinking about my recumbent tricycle. It is a tandem, freight and racing style, but it is hauled more in the saddle bag designed at the rear. I hope to have a mountain bike of a specific size. The goal frame is up to (I have a mongoose black diamond double). With the welding resources I recently acquired and reinvested, I have been working hard to complete all the projects I want to complete for the past 10 years.

So far, I have reached this point, and some tragedies have occurred, including my father's forensic examination, not just me: https://drive.google.com/open?id=13bh6_Rnt3nGF_SHeJeXDMoG1Iz7yAU5l

Similarly, there is nothing cool about Aldis in the United States. I was in one a few days ago. As always, Good Island is nothing spectacular. Mainly the usual laundry baskets, ironing boards and blankets. Some desktop kits (pens and scissors) and some boost battery packs for mobile phones. For $75, I might get one too! I have to cut and weld outside the door (fire hazard and no garage), so a welder, which you can bring back indoors after completion, will be fine. As it is now, for portability reasons, I can only use a small MIG device. Interestingly, I might pick up one on the impulse in the store, but I haven't found something online yet. ……It must be a matter of age, right? :^P

– Let's see if this comment is associated with the "Bill" comment. This feature has been failing since the site was changed to akismet.

The problem is that they don't have them all the time. Non-food products have time limits and cycles. Sometimes laundry hammers and office supplies, sometimes welders, grinders, circular saws, and hammers. I don’t know the United States, but in Northwest Europe, you can follow the website to learn about the services provided this week (and next week).

Regarding comments: We have been using Akismet for years, but WordPress recently exchanged comments to Jetpack, which seems to require some content in cookies or scripts, which can disrupt the parent-child relationship of a couple because their browser is strongly blocked .

Checked it, based on the spread of yeast. Sounds disgusting haha.

Beer is a yeast-based beverage. its not bad, right? !

of course not. But do you want curd or cheese drinks? Probably not, despite using some fragrance, this is the perfect base for application. So it is a bit biased :-)

For my friends in the United States, I have used the Harbour Freight 80A inverter welding machine for about ten years, and I am very satisfied with it, within its capabilities. With practice, you can lay out very beautiful welds, and unlike cheap flux-cored welders in the same price range, it actually has a certain degree of permeability. It is true that it is very difficult to make sheet metal, and finally I was lucky to find the magnetic core unit. But I hate to clean up the spatter, I prefer to cut the scale from the weld to see how much I have to wear off, hehe.

I have a Forney device that looks similar to Jenny's. You can use the TIG attachment, but I'm sure it is very rudimentary.

Catering to Forney lovers is Forney Catering! B^)

I have spent many years repairing welders, from cheap Chinese nonsense, to decent Chinese equipment, to the top ESAB pulse MIG machine worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and everything in between.

I see that cheap Chinese garbage has changed from almost complete garbage to something I would consider buying occasionally for garden sheds.

Two points to pay attention to when using cheap Chinese units are the availability and duty cycle of parts. Many of these units are clones of each other. If you are lucky, you can replace parts or even upgrade with spare parts of higher specification units (when our replacements get higher ratings, customers are always satisfied with it ) The value of the circuit board is the MOSFET and the stuffing stuff:)) But many machines have subtle differences, which may make it difficult to find spare parts, and even cause the unit to be scrapped if it is not available. The "200AC/DC TIG" machines that were almost ubiquitous at that time were all clones of each other, with slightly different internal versions and functions. I counted about 20 different changes appearing on my workbench...

Then there is the duty cycle. This is expressed as the percentage of minutes that the unit can run in 10 minutes. IE. A duty cycle of 50% means that it is turned on for 5 minutes and turned off for 5 minutes. A good ESAB, Kemppi, Lincoln, etc. equipment may be rated for full current output at 80% duty cycle (8 minutes on, 2 minutes off), but cheap Chinese equipment, even if it has the same output rating, may be The specified duty cycle is 30% or even lower.

This is the source of additional costs. In order to increase the duty cycle of high-end units, you need larger and more MOSFETs/IGBTs, larger heat sinks, better fans, etc. If you are in a production environment, the initial increase does not have to waste time waiting for the cheap welding machine to cool down, thus saving the cost of better equipment.

Nice post with a lot of information. So is it on the MOSFET board and then cooled?

The number of MOSFETs and transformers, etc. I often see lower-rated models use the same PCB as higher-rated models, but lack a few sets of MOSFETs and transformers. Adding a circuit board with a higher rating is expected to increase the output capacity. The firmware sometimes still limits the upper current limit, but because the components share the load rather than operating near their limit, the duty cycle increases with reliability.

Things must be kept cool, so if there are few things, it will run harder, get closer to the limit, and get hotter faster. You have two options, increase cooling, or increase the rating or number of MOSFETs, etc. to spread the load.

One trick I once saw on site was that the person using the machine would remove the side panel and place a workshop fan next to the welder. :D

Some cheap MIG welders do not even have a fan installed, even if there is a vent, this is the extreme cost-cutting nature of some cheaper equipment. Adding fans (power-rated axial fans are good) can significantly improve the duty cycle of these devices.

Are heat pipes used in any system? I have always wanted to know how to use more CPU-style radiators with finer heat pipes to transfer heat faster and potentially liquid cooling (I think this would be more risky).

I also assume that using more transistors in parallel to reduce the operating current load, because I found that the challenge is to find high-current cost-effective components to manipulate the waveform, and more challenges come from new electronics and RF engineering amateur radio and basic electronics background. Is this idea correct?

I'm considering not using welder transformer taps for the fan and/or cooling system to avoid adversely affecting process performance, because I saw or read information about the upgrade somewhere online, right?

I am studying some SCRs from electroplating machines, and the ratings of these SCRs cannot be tested. Any thoughts and opinions on SCR?

Thank you in advance for your time and comments... It's easy to read because I don't want to invest in new cost-effective equipment, because I found that the price of a transformer unit is $50 or less...Although I just noticed the latest 50 The price reduction of% is drawing my attention.

This is my latest discovery: https://www.facebook.com/james.analytic/posts/3343589319036180

I have never seen the use of heat pipes, but water cooling is one thing. Cooling the business side of TIG torches or MIG torches is more common in high current applications, but I have also seen water-cooled radiators inside equipment. However, due to cost and complexity, it is not as common as air cooling.

Connecting MOSFETs and IGBTs in parallel is absolutely the same thing. Many inverters can connect up to 10 or more MOSFETs in parallel to achieve the required current capacity.

For the auxiliary power supply, I would use a dedicated winding on the main transformer, if available, or just add a small additional transformer for work. An additional transformer may be the best way to maintain isolation and reduce interference, noise, and power loss/spikes, etc. to the equipment you add (although a simple fan doesn't care much about noise anyway).

SCRs are also used, they are very strong and very suitable for welding applications. I most often see them used as synchronous bridge rectifiers on large (1000-1200 amperes) three-phase transformers and act as various "dimmers" to change the output current. There is always a good inductor and a large group of capacitors behind them (sometimes rated at 100 to thousands of uF at about 100V, and the rated ripple current is also high) to smooth the DC output as much as possible. It is not too difficult to use several SCRs on a single-phase transformer in the same way to generate a variable DC output.

My Chinese TIG is dead. I was surprised when I saw the main PCB, it was like something from the 1980s, all the discrete logic, op amps and analog switches: https://photos.app.goo.gl/p5GN2GYZ5c5VCTPq7 or it’s really old Design, or maybe the microcontroller does not work well in an electrical environment?

Yes, this looks equivalent to the Chinese equipment course.

When you only need to replace a few through-hole components instead of discarding the circuit board, it does make board-level repairs a bit easier, because you need to reflow a new microcontroller that has no source code anyway. :)

Regarding the duty cycle. About a year ago, I saw a Horror Fraught stud welder. https://www.harborfreight.com/stud-welder-dent-repair-kit-61433.html? I was surprised to find that its duty cycle is one stud every 8 minutes! I finally drove my car to the local body shop. He said his stud welder can weld studs continuously.

It seems that with a duty cycle of 2% (wow, this is too low) and a cycle time of 1 second, it is rated for 12 studs in rapid succession. If you take a moment to let it cool down in the remaining 10 minutes, more.

Not great, but it's only $100. I would rather spend it on the stud welding equipment of my MIG welder...

"I have seen cheap Chinese rubbish changed from almost complete rubbish to something I occasionally consider buying for garden sheds."

In the past 20-30 years, I have also seen it (for many different products).

I think once the people who have signed with the Chinese manufacturer overcome the initial shock of finding their product "too cheap", they will learn to explain in more detail what they really want. If you ask them to produce your product "as cheaply as possible", they will.

Once they learned that only specifying "lead-free paint" was not enough, they knew they had to specify "no hazardous substances in products"-and then an extensive list of hazardous substances.

I believe that the dryness and quality of the electrode you are welding have a great influence on the impact and the weld bead. I use mine to weld stainless steel, the effect is very good. Very suitable for light industry and DIY enthusiasts.

Very so on the stick. Mine live in the warmest and driest place I can find and only come out when I need to use them.

I plan to put my wooden sticks in a 3d filament drying box. Damn it, this thing is going to be very heavy now...

It belongs to the same type of food as English mustard. I don’t think you know what it is with sweet American mustard. :)

Interestingly, Marmite cannot be imported into Canada and many other places. I think they have reformulated it for export, but we still have the real thing in the UK.

I eat neon yellow mustard in the United States. If it is sweet... I don't want to know what is sour.

when! If I knew that English mustard was so different, I would bring back a bottle for my friend who collected mustard.

British mustard is very similar to Chinese mustard-I heard that what is made for Chinese restaurants in the United States is usually British recipes.

U.S. residents do not need to be deprived of proper mustard: https://www.amazon.com/Colmans-Original-English-Squeezy-Mustard/dp/B004AVG4Y6 Or, for that matter, Marmite: https://www.amazon.com /Marmite-Yeast-Extract-pack-125g/dp/B011D5LEVY

No, it's not worth it, the rod welder is more suitable for higher amperage applications and heavier cross-sections. Normally, bar welders in supermarkets have low current strength and are difficult to control on thinner metals, but they mean that thin sections can be welded with it. No, unless you are a very skilled welder. MIG may be the best choice for amateurs.

Of course, others may use supermarket units for specific purposes, and they may be very useful, such as spot welding and spot welding.

This is not my experience with this welder. Of course, this is my expectation, but I am surprised and glad to be proven wrong.

100% agree. When these first appeared in the early 2000s, maybe, but they now have enough control and capabilities for thin materials, and when I started welding, they were still in the gas field. When your top-of-the-line machine bottoms out with an unstable 20A, you can't think about thin materials without a lot of skill. These machines will very stably stay below 10A and can perform decent work even on the work table. A basic valved TIG welding torch, they can also be there.

It's not that I would choose a welding machine for commercial use (I used dosh to buy Miller 150A nearly 20 years ago, and I have no regrets), but in critical or lighter applications, it is suitable from thin to thick. Of course not that I would choose the machine category for full penetration groove welding on 50 mm wall pressure vessels, but if you have time, it will do so.

What do you mean by "a basic valved TIG torch"? (I am confused about what you mean by "with valve" and vacuum tube? B^)

The manual protective gas valve on the torch handle, instead of the gas solenoid valve (automatically controlled gas valve) built into the machine. They can be used with any constant current machine (rod welding power source; MMA welding in Europe, SMAW in the United States) to scratch TIG.

You can post a picture of your fillet welding on a thin metal plate on the website; I would love to see it because the price of the welding machine is very favorable.

Okay, but with the advent of digital cameras, photography has become very cheap. I bet that you can publish both the front and back photos at the same time without adjusting your budget.

I successfully converted my welding machine into a plating power source, and must pass the minimum deception output voltage to the sens circuit through 2 diodes to deceive the short circuit and cut off. This is enough to provide a current of 100A for 48 hours at a voltage of approximately 5 V to provide an external coating for a large rocket engine.

Have you written this anywhere? A friend of mine has always wanted that power level to heat TI and other metals to change their color-he makes things like metal dice and corkscrews-basically adult male fingertip spinners: p

I don't have one, but will consider it. I will load it on my website opend.co.za and give me one month, I will have to revise it again.

One problem with DC welders is welding close to those 90-degree welding magnets. The field greatly changed the direction of the plasma, resulting in terrible welding.

If this becomes a problem, I will fix it and finish the soldering without the magnet.

Please post a picture of the actual weld bead. Grinding them will not show us anything unless you cut the weld bead and show us the penetration you get. The bottom line is to show us the actual welding performance of the equipment, not your grinding technique.

As the wise man said: "Are you a grinder or a welder?"

The grinder and paint make me a welder, I am not.

However, in this case, the picture seems to be a good illustration of how much material is connected under the weld bead. I have seen many examples where someone laid a perfectly overlapping row of nickel without any real penetration.

As I explained in detail above, a clean exterior is meaningless, what matters is the condition of the internal welds. If you look closely, there happens to be a problem with the weld. But I am not the best welder in the world.

18 months ago, I bought an 80 A inverter rod welder (operating from 120 V AC) from Princess Auto (Canada's equivalent of Harbour Freight) on a whim. I am still learning to use it for soldering, but it is encouraging to hear that they can produce good results.

Can anyone recommend some excellent beginner tutorials with welders of this size? I hope that one day I can make beautiful welds on stainless steel.

A few years ago, I bought a few welding DVDs (about $24?) from Northern Tools. They may be out of stock. They are at home, so I don't have more information, it may be provided by a company that makes electrodes or welders. Rich in information, they can let you hear the correct "hissing" of various welds, as well as showing good welds and bad welds.

These covers look familiar, so maybe that's it. Also check the video section of your local library.

https://www.amazon.com/Arc-Welding-II-Steve-Bleile/dp/B004G8BKDS/ref=sr_1_13?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpZjco9Hp5AIVl6DsCh3VLAWFEAAYASAAEgKY0fD_BwE&hvadid=241944633485&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9019667&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=727800148287591101&hvtargid=kwd-3711639277&hydadcr= 24663_10400925&keywords=welding dvds&qid=1569334160&s=gateway&sr=8-13

Go to the comments and scan the Marmite for reference. Not disappointed.

For several years, I have been lazily considering using an inverter welding machine for mobile work. My forty-something murex incident was too heavy to be moved, and I was too hungry for my Chinese generator, so I took the cowardly way out. , Bought a diesel-driven welding machine from the mid-70s. Your experience with inverters made me betray me on the inverter route of car repair, murex only eats cars.

If you don't use it for serious projects, then a cheap welder will work. For a serious project, you must take it seriously. In any case, if anyone's budget is not suitable, they can buy a cheap welding machine, but they must be fully researched before buying. You can also buy cheap and good welding machines.

For cheap leads, please purchase a car jumper lead kit; pull the two leads of the cable apart, and then put the solder connector on it.

Many inexpensive jumper wires are made of very thin wires and very thick insulation. Even cheap solder leads are unlikely to be useful upgrades. Basically copper is expensive, and you have to pay for it, so decent leads will cost a considerable amount of money. Check the website of my local electrical wholesaler, they have 35 square millimeter welding cables, 5 pounds per meter, for reference only

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