After many of these Chicago Electric DC upgrade videos, yours is the best. You are the most descriptive and you go over the entire process. Love the fact you had an actual DC welder to compare to for reference. I did this all to mine and I couldn't be more happy with the result. Thank you, sir for doing what you do! 8:01
Right? I have the Chicago Electric gasless flux core welder and was thinking of going to the Titanium Easy Weld. But if this is an inexpensive mod, I might do this because the Titanium doesn't fit the larger spools.
@@elfpimp1 nice! Just follow these instructions, looks like it should be a fairly easy mod as long as you have some knowledge of what to do. I’m thinking of doing the same thing myself.
elfpimp1: Cost of the mod depends how many parts you have on hand. Watch other mod videos as well to help decide. Could be done for under $100 with careful shopping on amazon abd Ebay. Possibly a basic MIG welder that takes large spools (like the Easwood 135 I showed) is a good investment if you have projects that need clean welds.
Great video I plan on doing g this to mine as well. How is the welder still holding up? Tip Forney, or Yes welder wire works so much better than the Vulcan wire.
Just starting my upgrade to DC on the older 90A model. You are the only person on YT I've seen use that inductor? Do you think it really makes a difference? (VS just the RC add to the circuit)? My gut instinct is that the inductance will slow the initial arc, and prolong it on the release...but...could be some other circuit magic I'm not thinking of
Hope your mod goes well. I had this large ferrite core in my parts box, purchased many years earlier at a Hamfest for a few dollars. Not sure of the final inductance since I don't have the proper meter to measure it. The inductor is a filter that, if effective, smooths the current spikes. The capacitors smooth the voltage spikes. My intent was to smooth the low frequency current ripples. Theoretically, this large inductor would help do this. Others who have done AC to DC mods have used various types of inductors. My Eastwood welder shown in the video has a laminate core inductor. The bottom line is the mod produces welds that are equivalent to my Eastwood. I can't say how much sputter was actually reduced by my inductor design.
I welded in high school shop. Miller industrial stick. Seven years ago I bought one of these HF boxes. Utterly disappointing. Lesson learned? Solid wire shielded gas machine for four times more money.
I like my gas welder. More expensive, but much better welds. Flux core is OK for hobby welding or for outside work. The mod did improve the results, but still not as good as my MIG welder. Thanks for the comment.
NICE job, I could tell the difference in sound, it also seems to have more power, check it with a Clampmeter, see what amps and volts your getting? GREAT VIDEO thanks
Today it not worth doing this with a HF90-125 welders You Can By a Nice 140amp Inverter DC Mig Welder for around $80 , Try using Blue Demon E71T-11 Wire its good stuff !
I bought the choke core for a few dollars many years ago at a amateur radio hamfest (flea market). Palomar Engineers sells toroidal ferrite cores of similar size, but they're expensive ($50-60). The axial fan is Chinese- made fan from Amazon. I think it is Arctic brand. There's many variations in size and cfm that will work.
Hard to say exactly . . . Several parts such as the ferrite choke core were purchased at Hamfests for a few dollars. The wire was approximately $40. Maybe another $40 for connectors and the upgraded clamps. Thanks for watching!
I know your already done this project and i love your project and planning on doing mine as we speak with it on my bench making a schematic first . Say if you added 1 smaller capacitor before the choke and then added the other capacitors after the choke coil you would have a really good dc with low ripple since the choke has some resistance I study power supply’s for high voltage tube amplifiers and this is how they would make there circuit Am I wrong about this I feel the capacitors all before the choke will drop some voltage and current and did you measure how many ohms your choke coil was I was just interested if you took a measurement? Thank you for your videos i hope everything is good
Thanks for the comments! I haven't tried this approach and have no way of objectively testing the choke / capacitor system. My evaluation is subjective and it seems to significantly smooth the sputtering typical of cheap AC flux welders. BTW, I've done several extensive welding projects since completing the mod and it's working well.
I have this exact welder myself. Planning to do the DC mod. The only question I have is on the stock unit, I see a white wire crimped into the ground lead from the transformer that goes to the circuit board and another white wire that goes to the circuit board from the positive lead that goes to the wire feed. Do you know what those white wires are for? I saw them on your unit but can't tell if those white wires were left on the AC side of the bridge rectifier or DC side. Does it even matter? I don't want to fry the circuit board. I'm not sure if older units have this feature. Don't know if it's a signal wire or what and will it cause harm if DC current is applied to those white wires?
Been a while since I've had the unit open and and I don't recall what the while wire you're referring to is for. Might be for the wire feed motor or the control board. Best to trace the wires and test them with your VOM. Hope the mod goes well. My unit has been very reliable after the mod.
@@fixtinkerreviewrepeat3074 I did get it figured out. I think the white leads going into the cables just past the transformer are signal wires of some kind. I cut the cable past where those wires intersect so they wouldn't be intersecting past the bridge rectifier and cause the control board to burn up. Thanks.
Hi Bill. The single 2 Watt resistor may not handle the heat. Give it a try and see if it heats-up too much. The 10 watt value will handle the load better. Resistance generates heat and the 10 Watt resistor will handle more heat. The best resistance value (Ohms) for your system may require some experimentation.
I have 4 capacitors @ 560 Microfarad and 400 volt. Would that work? I saw another guy working with only the bridge rectifier so I wonder if my capacitor will make any difference or they will just explode. Thank you.
Your capacitance value is 4 x 560uF =1240uF total, correct? They should be wired in parallel with the output DC on the rectifier. The caps help to smooth out the welding voltage. I have 86,000 microfarads of capacitance in my mod and this works fine. This is slightly more than the 72,000uF used in my Eastwood true DC MIG welder. The voltage value is the max voltage the caps should be used with. Your caps can tolerate some hefty voltages. They shouldn't "EXPLODE" if hooked-up correctly. However, 1240uF is too little capacitance to make much difference and help smooth out ripples in the output voltage. The welder would still function without the caps. The end result might be additional sputtering and splatter that produces those ugly beads near the joint.
I would get some can capacitors on evil bay you can get some 75v 10,000 mf for about 5 dollars each The big caps are about 50-100 dollars not in my budget since I’m on a low budget I would do whatever you can get I honestly wouldn’t use 400v caps it’s kinda the wrong application for this project I ordered 5 10,000 mf can caps I think that would be plenty since there is no way this pulls 120 amps it’s more like 80 amp and also you can just use a 150 amp rectifier with the heat sink and grease I have used them before and don’t get too hot also on this transformer you shouldn’t weld for a long time or the transformer will get piping hot and could fail
Thanks for watching! Think I paid about $5 at the Dayton Hamfest a decade ago. Finally had a use for it. #31 and 43 toroids in this size range sometime get posted on Ebay for a reasonable amount.
The choke core helps to smooth out variations in the current going to the welding electrode. The goal for the mod is to have as pure a DC (Direct Current) as possible. The winding on the ferrite core creates a magnetic field that produces the filtering effect. The frequency of the household power line from the wall is 60 Hertz Alternating Current. The rectifier in the mod converts from AC to DC, but there is some remaining AC noise. The choke helps to filter this out. In a perfect mod the choke should be quite a bit larger, but the size I used was a good for this project. It worked well.
Can I use capacitors off of a RV air conditioning unit I have 6 of them biological no PCB 25 point us microfarads 330 volt AC 60 HZ I believe it's a run capacitor and then I have a 23.5 us 250 volt 50 to 60 HZ and I have another 10 microfarads 370 volts 60 HZ and then two that are on labeled one is a double capacitor I got them out of old air conditioner. I took a part of plasma TV and I got I got three of the coils out of there one has two terminals in the others have four and I also got some capacitors out of that plasma TV that are 450 volt 220 UF they're rated at 105 Celsius I've got five of them in this box right here also have on the breadboard a few more capacitors in a row on the motherboard I was thinking maybe I can cut the motherboard and leave them chained up on the motherboard and just sold around together but I'm wondering can I use these little alerts
The capacitors you have are way too low in value to be useful. They are not sufficient to filter the AC ripples present after the rectifier changes the AC to DC. Watch 4:30 for the values I used. Consider 50,000 to 75,000 UF as a target range.
The value you specified is way too small to be useful. Watch 4:30 to see what values I used. The capacitance needs to be sufficient to filter the AC ripple voltages still present in the rectified DC voltage.
Pins 22000uf 22000mfd 50V 35*70 Electrolytic amplifier Capacitor CD13 series So my question I guess is can you use capacitors that are essentially for a guitar amp cuz it seems to be a lot of them for sale there's capacitors that say audio capacitors and capacitors that say amplify capacitors on eBay and what do you think . Moreover I'm just curious if the word audio amplifier are just added on terminology or if they correctly state a function
2pcs 63V22000UF Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor 35x50m. ?? So I think my shopping list must get but tedious for you to go through so I'll just stop at these capacitors and you could just if you choose to answer just say the first second third or fourth on your list will work or not work just to make it easier on you thanks for your time regardless
I dont know why old Harbor Freight AC are still sold well after 20 year people stil waste money on AC junks, also here in Europe there are some AC junks but started to disapear. When for 200, you can by inverter flux core welder.
After many of these Chicago Electric DC upgrade videos, yours is the best. You are the most descriptive and you go over the entire process. Love the fact you had an actual DC welder to compare to for reference. I did this all to mine and I couldn't be more happy with the result. Thank you, sir for doing what you do! 8:01
This is a really thorough video I've watched a bunch but nobody really mentioned the resistor on the Cap, thank you.😎👍
Glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate the comment!
You did an amazing job for your first RUclips video 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 thank you for your knowledge
Thanks for the compliment! The welder has performed flawlessly since the mod. Checkout my other videos.
It would be nice to the output on an oscilloscope. Both with and without the coil, would be interesting to see the difference. nice work.
Agree. Would be interesting to see the actual level of filtering by the choke coil.
I don't know much. How do you see output on a scope?
Wow professional looking job! It’s amazing how well these Harbor Freight products are
Thanks!
Right? I have the Chicago Electric gasless flux core welder and was thinking of going to the Titanium Easy Weld. But if this is an inexpensive mod, I might do this because the Titanium doesn't fit the larger spools.
@@elfpimp1 nice! Just follow these instructions, looks like it should be a fairly easy mod as long as you have some knowledge of what to do. I’m thinking of doing the same thing myself.
elfpimp1: Cost of the mod depends how many parts you have on hand. Watch other mod videos as well to help decide. Could be done for under $100 with careful shopping on amazon abd Ebay. Possibly a basic MIG welder that takes large spools (like the Easwood 135 I showed) is a good investment if you have projects that need clean welds.
@@fixtinkerreviewrepeat3074 thanks!
Nice job with the video and modifications! 👍
Thanks!
Awesome job, thanks!
Appreciate the comment!
Great video. What value capacitors did you use? Nice to see HF made a lot of improvements to the welder compared to the blue 90 that I have.
Great video I plan on doing g this to mine as well. How is the welder still holding up?
Tip Forney, or Yes welder wire works so much better than the Vulcan wire.
Just starting my upgrade to DC on the older 90A model. You are the only person on YT I've seen use that inductor? Do you think it really makes a difference? (VS just the RC add to the circuit)? My gut instinct is that the inductance will slow the initial arc, and prolong it on the release...but...could be some other circuit magic I'm not thinking of
Hope your mod goes well. I had this large ferrite core in my parts box, purchased many years earlier at a Hamfest for a few dollars. Not sure of the final inductance since I don't have the proper meter to measure it. The inductor is a filter that, if effective, smooths the current spikes. The capacitors smooth the voltage spikes. My intent was to smooth the low frequency current ripples. Theoretically, this large inductor would help do this. Others who have done AC to DC mods have used various types of inductors. My Eastwood welder shown in the video has a laminate core inductor. The bottom line is the mod produces welds that are equivalent to my Eastwood. I can't say how much sputter was actually reduced by my inductor design.
I welded in high school shop. Miller industrial stick. Seven years ago I bought one of these HF boxes. Utterly disappointing. Lesson learned?
Solid wire shielded gas machine for four times more money.
I like my gas welder. More expensive, but much better welds. Flux core is OK for hobby welding or for outside work. The mod did improve the results, but still not as good as my MIG welder. Thanks for the comment.
NICE job, I could tell the difference in sound, it also seems to have more power, check it with a Clampmeter, see what amps and volts your getting? GREAT VIDEO thanks
Thanks for the tips! Been working great since the mod. Use it often.
Today it not worth doing this with a HF90-125 welders You Can By a Nice 140amp Inverter DC Mig Welder for around $80 , Try using Blue Demon E71T-11 Wire its good stuff !
Where can I buy the 5in choke? Also what is the model for that axial fan? I was planning on upgrading the older 90amp model. Thanks in advance.
I bought the choke core for a few dollars many years ago at a amateur radio hamfest (flea market). Palomar Engineers sells toroidal ferrite cores of similar size, but they're expensive ($50-60). The axial fan is Chinese- made fan from Amazon. I think it is Arctic brand. There's many variations in size and cfm that will work.
I would like to know the difference with and without the toroidal coil.
Kinda tough sourcing a big arse ferrite core like that.
Cool Job! Subbed...
Thanks for the sub!
Hi! How much a project like that cost approximatively?? thank you
Hard to say exactly . . . Several parts such as the ferrite choke core were purchased at Hamfests for a few dollars. The wire was approximately $40. Maybe another $40 for connectors and the upgraded clamps. Thanks for watching!
So the gun should be neg and the clamp pos?
That's correct. Direct Current Electrode Negative. DCEN. Thanks for watching the video!
I know your already done this project and i love your project and planning on doing mine as we speak with it on my bench making a schematic first .
Say if you added 1 smaller capacitor before the choke and then added the other capacitors after the choke coil you would have a really good dc with low ripple since the choke has some resistance
I study power supply’s for high voltage tube amplifiers and this is how they would make there circuit
Am I wrong about this I feel the capacitors all before the choke will drop some voltage and current and did you measure how many ohms your choke coil was I was just interested if you took a measurement?
Thank you for your videos i hope everything is good
Thanks for the comments! I haven't tried this approach and have no way of objectively testing the choke / capacitor system. My evaluation is subjective and it seems to significantly smooth the sputtering typical of cheap AC flux welders. BTW, I've done several extensive welding projects since completing the mod and it's working well.
@@fixtinkerreviewrepeat3074 I would like to get a schematic for a Miller dc welder or a Lincoln and see how exactly there power supply is made
I have this exact welder myself. Planning to do the DC mod. The only question I have is on the stock unit, I see a white wire crimped into the ground lead from the transformer that goes to the circuit board and another white wire that goes to the circuit board from the positive lead that goes to the wire feed. Do you know what those white wires are for? I saw them on your unit but can't tell if those white wires were left on the AC side of the bridge rectifier or DC side. Does it even matter? I don't want to fry the circuit board. I'm not sure if older units have this feature. Don't know if it's a signal wire or what and will it cause harm if DC current is applied to those white wires?
Been a while since I've had the unit open and and I don't recall what the while wire you're referring to is for. Might be for the wire feed motor or the control board. Best to trace the wires and test them with your VOM. Hope the mod goes well. My unit has been very reliable after the mod.
@@fixtinkerreviewrepeat3074 I did get it figured out. I think the white leads going into the cables just past the transformer are signal wires of some kind. I cut the cable past where those wires intersect so they wouldn't be intersecting past the bridge rectifier and cause the control board to burn up. Thanks.
Did you add that fan also? How's that doable? that's an AC connection to the stock fan. Those CPU style fans are DC right?
Can one 2 watt 100 ohm resistor be substituted for the (2x) 10 watt 50ohm resistors you used ?
Hi Bill. The single 2 Watt resistor may not handle the heat. Give it a try and see if it heats-up too much. The 10 watt value will handle the load better. Resistance generates heat and the 10 Watt resistor will handle more heat. The best resistance value (Ohms) for your system may require some experimentation.
2 watt won’t last long a 10 watt is perfect you can figure this out by using ohms law they have a app you can use to figure out voltages
I have 4 capacitors @ 560 Microfarad and 400 volt. Would that work? I saw another guy working with only the bridge rectifier so I wonder if my capacitor will make any difference or they will just explode.
Thank you.
Your capacitance value is 4 x 560uF =1240uF total, correct? They should be wired in parallel with the output DC on the rectifier. The caps help to smooth out the welding voltage. I have 86,000 microfarads of capacitance in my mod and this works fine. This is slightly more than the 72,000uF used in my Eastwood true DC MIG welder. The voltage value is the max voltage the caps should be used with. Your caps can tolerate some hefty voltages. They shouldn't "EXPLODE" if hooked-up correctly. However, 1240uF is too little capacitance to make much difference and help smooth out ripples in the output voltage. The welder would still function without the caps. The end result might be additional sputtering and splatter that produces those ugly beads near the joint.
@@fixtinkerreviewrepeat3074. Excellent explanation. Good to know. Thank you.
I would get some can capacitors on evil bay you can get some 75v 10,000 mf for about 5 dollars each
The big caps are about 50-100 dollars not in my budget since I’m on a low budget I would do whatever you can get I honestly wouldn’t use 400v caps it’s kinda the wrong application for this project
I ordered 5 10,000 mf can caps I think that would be plenty since there is no way this pulls 120 amps it’s more like 80 amp and also you can just use a 150 amp rectifier with the heat sink and grease I have used them before and don’t get too hot also on this transformer you shouldn’t weld for a long time or the transformer will get piping hot and could fail
ok this is crazy ferrite toroid cores that size cost more than the welder like 150$ where can i get a cheep one
Thanks for watching! Think I paid about $5 at the Dayton Hamfest a decade ago. Finally had a use for it. #31 and 43 toroids in this size range sometime get posted on Ebay for a reasonable amount.
i payed 40$ for a 3 inch i shoulda baught the valcan
What is the function of the choke core ?
The choke core helps to smooth out variations in the current going to the welding electrode. The goal for the mod is to have as pure a DC (Direct Current) as possible. The winding on the ferrite core creates a magnetic field that produces the filtering effect. The frequency of the household power line from the wall is 60 Hertz Alternating Current. The rectifier in the mod converts from AC to DC, but there is some remaining AC noise. The choke helps to filter this out. In a perfect mod the choke should be quite a bit larger, but the size I used was a good for this project. It worked well.
Can I use capacitors off of a RV air conditioning unit I have 6 of them biological no PCB 25 point us microfarads 330 volt AC 60 HZ I believe it's a run capacitor and then I have a 23.5 us 250 volt 50 to 60 HZ and I have another 10 microfarads 370 volts 60 HZ and then two that are on labeled one is a double capacitor I got them out of old air conditioner. I took a part of plasma TV and I got I got three of the coils out of there one has two terminals in the others have four and I also got some capacitors out of that plasma TV that are 450 volt 220 UF they're rated at 105 Celsius I've got five of them in this box right here also have on the breadboard a few more capacitors in a row on the motherboard I was thinking maybe I can cut the motherboard and leave them chained up on the motherboard and just sold around together but I'm wondering can I use these little alerts
The capacitors you have are way too low in value to be useful. They are not sufficient to filter the AC ripples present after the rectifier changes the AC to DC. Watch 4:30 for the values I used. Consider 50,000 to 75,000 UF as a target range.
@@kennethshaw8388 thank you for taking the time to let me know.
Thanks for the comments! The capacitance needs to be sufficient to filter the AC ripple voltage.
So I can not use 25.uf 330vAC 60hz protected p823 10049012 3.15010.06 capacitor. Guess it's AC ?
The value you specified is way too small to be useful. Watch 4:30 to see what values I used. The capacitance needs to be sufficient to filter the AC ripple voltages still present in the rectified DC voltage.
Pins 22000uf 22000mfd 50V 35*70 Electrolytic amplifier Capacitor CD13 series
So my question I guess is can you use capacitors that are essentially for a guitar amp cuz it seems to be a lot of them for sale there's capacitors that say audio capacitors and capacitors that say amplify capacitors on eBay and what do you think . Moreover I'm just curious if the word audio amplifier are just added on terminology or if they correctly state a function
12000uF 12000mfd 80V 35*60 Electrolytic Capacitor
Would s few of these work .
2pcs 63V22000UF Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor 35x50m. ?? So I think my shopping list must get but tedious for you to go through so I'll just stop at these capacitors and you could just if you choose to answer just say the first second third or fourth on your list will work or not work just to make it easier on you thanks for your time regardless
I dont know why old Harbor Freight AC are still sold well after 20 year people stil waste money on AC junks, also here in Europe there are some AC junks but started to disapear. When for 200, you can by inverter flux core welder.
Agree . . . DC is better.
To much mouth and no information