Feed rate, stick-out and the quality of the wire itself have a major effect on how smooth the weld will be. I use (and really like) Hobart 0.30 flux core. It produces more spatter than the Lincoln, but seems to flow better and penetrate deeper.
Also with these type off welders cleaning the surface as much as possible is a must, starting to weld on rust with these welders does not weld easy at all
The main thing that helped with my cheap welder was a good ground clamp. I bought one from harbor freight a tweco style one and it made all the difference.
I have heard countless "You can make it better by..." from people who may or may not know that of which they are expounding. It was marvelous to see you actually try some experiments to see how well this "improvement" worked, and then to publish your results. Many thanks.
Cheap welders often use the same transformer for the arc and the wire feed. The result is a stuttering feed as the arc forms, current increases, voltage drops, wire slows down and burns back, arc breaks, current drops, voltage increases, wire speeds up... The best thing I did to my cheap welder was replace the wire feed circuitry completely (I used an old laptop power supply).
I'm in the same case right now, I know the welder can give me the 170A that the datasheets says but I can only get 110 and varies depending on the kind of clamp or wire thickness i use, tip, etc. however, never really fully stable. So i was wondering that the feeding circuitry may be bad and that needs a change. Do you have any directions that I can follow?
I know next to nothing about electricity or welding. Obviously, I subscribed for the woodworking. Nevertheless, I have come to really enjoy videos like this. It's the same reason I watch the AvE channel despite not understanding anything he talks about. I feel like I'm learning something, and I really enjoy this content. Thank you for posting this, Matthias. I enjoy watching someone trying to fix a "problem," even if it doesn't work out. It motivates me.
Your welder looks wayyyyyy better quality than my harbor freight 125amp mig. 😆 I believe it's just a straight transformer inside and it's not even copper windings, looks aluminum.😬💥 Wtf it works I'm grateful...
Innit! Politicians are the very *last* demographic of persons who should rule! Self-interested, self-promoting, self-ish. Previously, I wouldn't have minded proven business leaders being added to your list, as they know how to get things done, make good decisions and at a sensible price, but funnily enough in just the last few weeks I have changed my mind.
Having a bad ground is the #1 culprit of bad mig/fluxcore welding. Put some copper wire around the ground clamp to get many more contact points and watch your cheap welder surprise you.
Matthias, i think you will find most of the difference is arc stability actually comes from inductance, it keeps the arc current more stable, as the arc length increases the inductance tries to maintain the same current, pushing the voltage up, allowing the arc to be stable over a longer distance.
I want to see how many smouldering mice he can get laying around his shed. I thought of something similar but it was to keep squirrels off of a bird feeder.
(Huge fan here!) I think you're might have wired it wrong: just after the transformer you'll have a sinusoidal (AC) wave (which these DC capacitors don't like = boom!). You have to wire it just AFTER the rectifier, both + and -, in parallel with clamp and torch leads and before the inductor core going to the 'ground' clamp in DCEN (or whatever is connected do positive). Also, it seems you're using metal plates (iron?) that are not (?) copper to connect the capacitors - that might be a problem with big currents - see MOT spot welders. The ESR of the capacitor is also important. To compare welds you should make some destructive tests (bending, cutting, cross cutting) to check and compare penetration, for example. Disclaimer: I'm NOT an expert but I do have plans to modify one of those cheap welders too...
I most probably have got something wrong but, it sure looks like the yellow lead is coming from the transformer (AC) (and not the rectifier, DC): ruclips.net/video/vM8G-JqfV1c/видео.html Well, without a schematic, is hard to tell from this side of the monitor...
Note the negative side of the capacitor goes directly to the center tap (CT) on the transformer, for this two-diode/full wave rectification design. The positive side of the capacitor is wired to the tied diode's cathodes.
My recipe for machines and tools in general is always a quality brand bought 2nd hand. I don't even own a MIG though, I find a stick and TIG DC only combo to be far more versatile.
I don't use innershield much, but DCEN is for hard wire with shielding gas. DCEN will work on innershield, but you get a crappy looking weld. DC electrode positive is for innershield. Most of the welders out there have a switch or a easily swappable set of taps in the wire feeder area.
Hey Mathias, just a little safety tip: don't point around with your fingers at capacitors of that size, even when the appliance is unplugged. Those suckers pack a mean punch and can hold a charge for a couple of hours. Safest thing to do is buy a multimeter with a low impedance voltage mode like the Brymen bm 257 and discharge those suckers before you service this thing. It's also best practise to tape off your wedding ring. I know welders generally don't have very high secondary voltages, but whenever you're dealing with capacitors that can store a fair amount of energy, it's better to be safe than sorry ;)
Squeaky Dave, is that you? Brymens are not very big in North America. Looking around all I can find is a rebranded Greenlee. We're more into Fluke meters here. For three more dollars I'd much rather have a Fluke 115 too.
I just used it as an example because I know that particular one has that feature, I trust Mathias is smart enough to find a similar one he can source easily.
Those 85V capacitors were hooked up to the output of that inductor, and then an arc was struck and broken repeatedly. The voltage transients could have easily exceeded the surge voltage on those caps and potentially damaged them, before they were ever put in parallel with the welder's filter capacitor.
2 things to help. 1.) put a better ground clamp on. one of the solid brass ones from the cheap import tools stores make a huge improvement. 2.) Clean, clean, clean!!! till you have bright shiny metal.
You have no nosel on your gun. Are you not using a suppression gas? If not that would likely be the biggest cause of rough welding and would also explain the porosity I see in your final weld's.
Flux-cored wire by itself does not produce great welds; not as good as solid wire with shielding gas. Flux-cored wire together with shielding gas produces *awesome* welds.
Have you relined the torch lead? The problem could very well be in the feed and not the power. Line the torch lead then clean and adjust the feed drive wheels. Just a thought as I have had similar problems in the past with my welder.
The inductor is far more important. There is a video of a guy showing an arc being struck with a DC power supply and a welding rod. He cannot keep a good arc, because it's just a regular DC power supply. But then the man adds a 1000 foot coil of wire on a spool, in between the electrode and the power supply, with the giant bulk spool of copper wire, acting as an air core inductor with a relatively large inductance, and the guy is able to strike long beautiful sparking arcs, that are smooth, and leaving molten metal. The inductor seems to dramatically enhance the ability of a welding arc, without any additional input power into the system, which defies our understanding of science. The test is still on RUclips, if you look up "inductor coil sparks" or something to that effect. Basically adding a large inductor, after the smoothing caps, probably is the best bet.
I'm not a welding expert, but for me sanding or filing contact surface on both that clamp and metal makes a huge difference. If these contact surfaces are dirty or rusty, the arc may behave terribly annoying(
Я не говорю по-английски, но - 1) конденсаторы в этой цепи стабилизирован уровень напряжения, - 2) в металле сварки электрическая дуга является наиболее важным для стабилизации текущего уровня, он стабилизирует поток плазмы. Мы должны найти способ, чтобы стабилизировать ток.
Wow!! That is such an awesome Welder. The components they used in that are quite awesome!! I am a chemical engineer with a minor specialty in electrical engineering and I love the huge blue 'rectifier?" Where did you wire your inductor?
When you smooth rectified AC, you end up with constant DC, which destroys the generated squarewave by the circuit(which feeds into the main transformer primary), I am surprised it welded at all with the caps.
I do not speak in English, but - 1) in this circuit capacitors stabilized voltage level - 2) in the metal welding electric arc is the most important for the stabilization of the current level, it stabilizes the plasma stream. We must find a way to stabilize the current.
I couldn't help but flinch when I saw you poking around inside the welder and around the huge capacitors. I follow several electronics channels and they go to great effort to check that 'normal' sized capacitors (i.e. smaller than an AA battery) are discharged before poking around. The potential jolt from those huge ones isn't something to be messed with. Not saying you weren't being safe off camera Matthias, but it needs to be mentioned just in case others aren't aware of the danger.
This is true for smoothing capacitors for rectified mains voltage. Ther welder might have something arround 50V no load voltage. If you touch the capacitors with 50V on it not much will happen, if you short them with metal you get a bang of course.
some of the cheap wire feeder welders have very low tech control of the feed motor. you might find that it's a combination of wire speed being highly variable plus poor contact to the feed wire in the hand piece.
Apparently one cause of poor performance in MIG welders are that the lining in MIG gun goes bad causing the wire to feed inconsistently. Since youtube abhors links I'll just recommend searching for something like "mig welding bad lining" and see if you think it matches your symptoms
if you are have trouble with weld quality try give the welder a birthday. replace the liner of the gun this can create poor wire feed which will make it feel as if the welder is cutting out, replace the tip (obviously, you should be doing the regularly) and put on a new ground clamp yours looks quite old.
your cap cables should be shorter and thicker , the caps provide all the current. if you can ,put the caps straigth after the rectifier to the same bolts . you can put a switch to turn them on or off. a great improvement is to create a separete power supply for the feed motor , so the feed motor does not take power from the main transformer (who does all the welding so it is not steady). (why you do not use the gas attachment to your torch?).
There are a couple of factors that come to my mind directly, but the very least of them being filter capacitors. The wire - Cheap flux cored wire tends to lead to horrible results. Proper industrial grade wire tends to produce better or excellent results. Might be a reason for the porosity of some of your welds. In addition to wire quality in general, how you store your wire is a huge factor. Humidity in storing is definitely a performance killer. Although good flux core wire can handle a lot of "wrong storing" before the results suffer. The contacts - clean them if you haven't, replace them if necessary and check for the right size (you wouldn't be the first person on earth to screw in too big contact tips :-D). The abilities of the machine - If I saw it right on the video, the flat bar you were welding on was about 5 mm thick. Too little "UMPF" for the material leads to lots of splatter, very flat fusion (which is then more tacking than welding) and porosity (not always but often). The tiny welding machines from the DIY superstore that I know might be able to produce an acceptable result on thin walled section or sheet metal and some of them are even sort of fun to use on cars (with shielding gas) but as soon as you run them over something that requires some power, they naturally give in. Without knowing your machine my guess is that it should improve your results dramatically if you limit the thickness of your material to 3 mm on a good day and if you have something ticker, use a propane torch and pre heat it properly before you grab the welding burner. You still won't get the prettiest results I guess but dependent on what you want to do with it this might be enough for some satisfactory results.
changing flux wire does more for a weld.even as a beginner you will notice the difference the first time you test it. and if welder it's gas capable, you can add gas then it gets even smoother.
If you have the ability and the money, switch it over to argon/CO2 gas instead of flux core. I did that with mine and like it much better. Love your videos by the way.
I don't quite understand why the waveform charging the inductance would make a difference. Especially at the low or mid level currents the inductance shouldn't get depleted.
One more question...if you got flux on those capacitors....and you had a DeLorean...would you use the flux capacitors to travel back in time and invent pocket hole joinery?
If you are doing mig and you aren't running a gas nozzle thats really going to effect your welds more than anything. I saw some porosity in those welds. Try getting your gun set up right then revisiting this. Or just switch to flux core.
Weird. Maybe try running dual shield? Or it really could be that the welder is just that bad. Or possibly the wire. I have found the cheap harbor freight flux core to not be very good. I know you aren't in the US so harbor freight isn't a thing but I know you guys have some places like harbor freight.
Probably had a good spark after welding if nothing else. Cheap 110 migs are halfbridge.. Try it with a full bridge setup. It's interesting as it really penetrates deeply.
Surplus capacitors may need to be "reformed" before they are put back into service. Look up how to reform a capacitor in the usual place. It is pretty easy.
Yeah, I finally figured out, the adding of caps to an existing machine is a waste of time. Your machine is capable of switching polarity. Next machine I buy, I will look for that. I will spring for modern inverter type.
Hey a tip for you that use flux core wire. Visit a real welding shop and pickup nozzle dip and anti spatter spray. Apply to the metal before welding and youll have less spatter sticking to the steel.
dude, by comparison standards your welder is older but I definitely wouldn't call it a cheap welder, when people talk about cheap welders they are generally referring to all the cheap under $150 AC flux core welders like the ones you get from harbor freight and amazon ect... they don't have rectifiers, capacitors, or inductors and they don't have any capability to switch the output between AC and DC. you can tell your welder has been used hard but it's still far better then any of the cheap welders you can get today, in fact, seeing what i could of the way your welder was built I'd put it in a class above what you get today from Lincoln for $500, none of the low end Lincolns I've seen opened up even had capacitors which surprised the hell out of me. My personal opinion judging from what I saw in the video, the factors that will clean up your welds the best are to first start using better wire, I use personally like Forney but any quality brand flux core wire is better then that crap HF sells then hopefully by now you've got the other factors like stick out and wire feed speed figured out, for a DCEN welder with good wire to produce a lot of splatter it usually means the wire speed it to high. just some of the things that stood out to me from your video, I know I wished I could find a welder like yours, especially now that my son has burned up my older good welder.....
Buying capacitors from a surplus store indicates to me that they are not brand new. I would find a way to have those capacitors you purchase tested to see if in fact they're actually contributing to the effort. Notwithstanding how you hook them up, I've been watching videos for a couple hours a day for the past week and almost to a man each has seen improvement by improving the capacity of the Harbor Freight Chicago Electric welder.
The amount of dust inside the welder could of done some damage to components or even a connection made that should not be made. First really clean the machine, spotless, second check all connections especially the grounds. Would bet you that there will be a major improvement for you fella.
No offense to your welding skills, but I would probably get an experienced welder to try with and without the capacitors to eliminate other variables as Mr. Heisz said. Distance from tip to material, travel speed, welding angle, welding wire (actually makes a big difference), etc.
The reason why those capacitors don't make a lot of difference, is because the quality factor of the filter formed by the inductor and capacitors is also influenced by the quality factor of the inductor. You can combine a capacitor with a great Q-factor with a crappy inductor all you want, your total Q factor will always be limited by the Q factor of the inductor.
What leads you to believe the quality of the inductor is an issue? Do you have personal experience with this exact model welder, and have made measurements?
retrofitter the reincarnation of Tesla you're not. Tuning only pertains to capacitors across coils, not in line with them. This is not a LC tank circuit. This is a DC circuit, so there is no tuning going on. As you cannot tune 0 Hz. We're done with you!
No, you're not dealing with an LC-tank circuit, you're dealing with an LC low pass circuit. And yeah, now I come to think of it, the filter probably isn't operating in its resonant region. The main point of my argument however still holds true: if the inductor is crap, there's only so much you can do with improving the capacitors. The series resistance of that inductor will always be a limiting factor in how well the low pass works, especially if the inductor gets hot. Because I was thinking in terms of the series resistance of the inductor, I abused the term quality factor, shoot me for that :P And no, I don't own this welder, but I do have the audacity to hazard a guess at something. Being wrong and corrected isn't a shame, it's how I learn.
LReBe7 in this application the choke is there for additional filtering, and stability. Now if the choke is inadequate for the current being passed, and that's a big _if_, then yes, you will have reduced output. But so far I've seen no evidence to suggest that is the case. It looks like a fairly substantial component to me.
You're a lucky boy, it works out about 2500UF per Amp, people like you or anyone else shouldn't be doing this, try using that welder for a longer period of time and see what happens, BOOM! would be the correct term.
Matthias, you need that tubular cover on the end of your welding torch. You must to get that shielding gas around actual weld. This way (without the cover) the gas is escaping to the sides and not going forward to weld. (sry my bad english)
Enjoyed your video ! Recently I bought a fluxcore mig and now have a 100-amp rectifier to convert it to DC. My question has been how effective filter capacitors would be if I added them. Your video answers that for me, at least for now. :) :)
Conversion to DC Electrode Negative, will put 70% of the working current from the ground clamp into the work. The remainder 30% then going to the electrode. Use Electrode negative wire. Bridge install will also double the output in Hz from the line input.
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Would be interesting to see what the voltage and current waveforms look like on an oscilloscope with and without the added capacitor bank. Compared also making a more cost effective MOT core custom wound inductor to smooth the current that I'm guessing might have the same effect on the potential waveform/field.
If your welder already has a capacitor from the factory adding more won't do anything. Manufacturers don't install undersized capacitors. Very cheap wire welders weld with A/C instead of DC. These welders don't have capacitors, reflector bridge or a choke. The best tip I can give you to improve your welds is to buy quality flux core wire. Cheap no name wire sold at places like Harbor Freight Tools produces crappy welds no matter how good your welder.
Matthias, do you use flux core wire of good quality? Also, check your machine settings... Your welds are really ugly. It almost look like if you run solid wire instead of flux core... And yes, it do make an huge difference.
when that welder finally dies get yourself a used name brand machine like hobart, miller, or lincoln. then get a bottle of 75% argon 25% CO2. I bought my lincoln 140 for $200 and it's paid for itself several times over
NOTE: Capacitors go bad. So try replacing the capacitor. Also, try soldering the connections, upgrading the wire to larger wire, replacing the ground strap with a copper braided strap, and also try testing or replacing the rectifier diodes. Also, try a different brand of wire. Every wire is a different alloy, and there is no "standard" alloy, they are all different. Every wire is an experimental prototype metal alloy, so try different brands of wire until you like what you see.
Best bang for your buck will be cleaning the material well, including under the ground clamp. Possibly a different ground clamp - brass or copper with more surface area. I have a 2x4" brass plate that I clamp to the clean work. It looks like porosity in the welds, are you sure you are clean ? no oil paint or rust contamination ? 2:42 Gun angle looks low www.wcwelding.com/images/work-angle-travel-angle.jpg Try more straight to the work, with some side tilt that pushes the slag back from the direction you are traveling in. If that shop is cold try preheating the steel on top of the woodstove or with a little propane torch. A little extra heat makes a difference. www.amazon.com/Wall-Mountain-Flux-Welding-603DVD/dp/B0006ZFRVG www.wcwelding.com/flux-core-arc-welding-dvd.html If you message me, I'll send you one. There are lots of internet tutorials on using scavenged microwave transformers to build arc welders. Maybe more experimentation fun there ?
ah, well that requires adding plumbing to the welder and new gun. Enough changes that it would make more sense to get an actual MIG welder. And then I have to worry about gas and such. So decided to just live with it.
Matthias Wandel Flux core welders are just fine for the small work I do (as you have demonstrated in a few of your previous videos). Old cheap wire caused me lots of problems until I got some nice new Lincoln wire and my welds were 200% better, even though I don't weld much anyway and need more practice - haha. I wish I could easily change mine to DC+ as yours does.
Feed rate, stick-out and the quality of the wire itself have a major effect on how smooth the weld will be. I use (and really like) Hobart 0.30 flux core. It produces more spatter than the Lincoln, but seems to flow better and penetrate deeper.
Can't forget cleanliness of the wire. ;D
John Heisz Another point to highlight and check is condition of the contact tip as it can make a huge difference too.
Also with these type off welders cleaning the surface as much as possible is a must, starting to weld on rust with these welders does not weld easy at all
The main thing that helped with my cheap welder was a good ground clamp. I bought one from harbor freight a tweco style one and it made all the difference.
Carpentry is to wood carving as machine settings are to welding.
When I first saw the title I was half expecting a large bang and the words "well I guess I need a new welder now" lol
Same - I was really expecting capacitor pieces to be flying around the shop
Matthias and Electroboom collaboration when?? haha
.. and Photonicinduction, would be perfect
I was more on the line of "BANG, well i guess we need a new matthias now" when i saw the title
I have heard countless "You can make it better by..." from people who may or may not know that of which they are expounding. It was marvelous to see you actually try some experiments to see how well this "improvement" worked, and then to publish your results. Many thanks.
That's the problem with not buying cheap enough, it's harder to improve it.
Adamast brilliant
Cheap welders often use the same transformer for the arc and the wire feed. The result is a stuttering feed as the arc forms, current increases, voltage drops, wire slows down and burns back, arc breaks, current drops, voltage increases, wire speeds up... The best thing I did to my cheap welder was replace the wire feed circuitry completely (I used an old laptop power supply).
In another video I saw a guy purposely buying an AC transformer for this. Is the motor AC or DC?
Brushed DC in my case.
I'm in the same case right now, I know the welder can give me the 170A that the datasheets says but I can only get 110 and varies depending on the kind of clamp or wire thickness i use, tip, etc. however, never really fully stable. So i was wondering that the feeding circuitry may be bad and that needs a change. Do you have any directions that I can follow?
@ Sorry, I don't - it's going to vary a lot depending on your welder anyway. I started by finding a schematic for my welder online. Good luck!
@@KaloyanDobrev most are dc i have 3 welder dc wire feed motors
I know next to nothing about electricity or welding. Obviously, I subscribed for the woodworking. Nevertheless, I have come to really enjoy videos like this. It's the same reason I watch the AvE channel despite not understanding anything he talks about. I feel like I'm learning something, and I really enjoy this content. Thank you for posting this, Matthias. I enjoy watching someone trying to fix a "problem," even if it doesn't work out. It motivates me.
Your welder looks wayyyyyy better quality than my harbor freight 125amp mig. 😆 I believe it's just a straight transformer inside and it's not even copper windings, looks aluminum.😬💥 Wtf it works I'm grateful...
You're just an awesome engineer! Engineers and scientists are my idols... I wish that all the leader of this world be either scientists or engineers
Innit! Politicians are the very *last* demographic of persons who should rule! Self-interested, self-promoting, self-ish. Previously, I wouldn't have minded proven business leaders being added to your list, as they know how to get things done, make good decisions and at a sensible price, but funnily enough in just the last few weeks I have changed my mind.
Having a bad ground is the #1 culprit of bad mig/fluxcore welding. Put some copper wire around the ground clamp to get many more contact points and watch your cheap welder surprise you.
Right-o, heavy flat braid copper always does the trick, even when the surfaces lacked optimal prep.
ScrewDrvr It looks like he could benefit from replacing the ground clamp itself too.
@@GoofyGarton I use a cheap pair of vise grips
Nice to see your lighting rig. That stuff really helps us aspiring creators.
When I saw "fail" in the same title as capacitor, I was expecting something a bit more spectacular :-)
Matthias, i think you will find most of the difference is arc stability actually comes from inductance, it keeps the arc current more stable, as the arc length increases the inductance tries to maintain the same current, pushing the voltage up, allowing the arc to be stable over a longer distance.
Can you hook up those unused capacitors to...say....a mouse trap?
I want to see how many smouldering mice he can get laying around his shed. I thought of something similar but it was to keep squirrels off of a bird feeder.
I get a kick out of reading the "you should...." comments.
You should get a kick out of reading this comment. :D
Wordsnwood (Art Mulder) you should read them all
probably the liner in the wire feed path, or uneven feed at the drive wheel.
(Huge fan here!) I think you're might have wired it wrong: just after the transformer you'll have a sinusoidal (AC) wave (which these DC capacitors don't like = boom!). You have to wire it just AFTER the rectifier, both + and -, in parallel with clamp and torch leads and before the inductor core going to the 'ground' clamp in DCEN (or whatever is connected do positive). Also, it seems you're using metal plates (iron?) that are not (?) copper to connect the capacitors - that might be a problem with big currents - see MOT spot welders. The ESR of the capacitor is also important. To compare welds you should make some destructive tests (bending, cutting, cross cutting) to check and compare penetration, for example. Disclaimer: I'm NOT an expert but I do have plans to modify one of those cheap welders too...
I think you may not have understood the wiring right, based on your comment. It's DC where the caps are.
I most probably have got something wrong but, it sure looks like the yellow lead is coming from the transformer (AC) (and not the rectifier, DC): ruclips.net/video/vM8G-JqfV1c/видео.html
Well, without a schematic, is hard to tell from this side of the monitor...
Note the negative side of the capacitor goes directly to the center tap (CT) on the transformer, for this two-diode/full wave rectification design. The positive side of the capacitor is wired to the tied diode's cathodes.
you could try adding a choke/inductor to smooth out the current. Caps are for voltage smoothing.
My recipe for machines and tools in general is always a quality brand bought 2nd hand.
I don't even own a MIG though, I find a stick and TIG DC only combo to be far more versatile.
MIG certainly has its uses. Which is why it is the most used process in the welding world.
I don't use innershield much, but DCEN is for hard wire with shielding gas. DCEN will work on innershield, but you get a crappy looking weld. DC electrode positive is for innershield. Most of the welders out there have a switch or a easily swappable set of taps in the wire feeder area.
Hey Mathias, just a little safety tip: don't point around with your fingers at capacitors of that size, even when the appliance is unplugged. Those suckers pack a mean punch and can hold a charge for a couple of hours. Safest thing to do is buy a multimeter with a low impedance voltage mode like the Brymen bm 257 and discharge those suckers before you service this thing. It's also best practise to tape off your wedding ring.
I know welders generally don't have very high secondary voltages, but whenever you're dealing with capacitors that can store a fair amount of energy, it's better to be safe than sorry ;)
Squeaky Dave, is that you? Brymens are not very big in North America. Looking around all I can find is a rebranded Greenlee. We're more into Fluke meters here. For three more dollars I'd much rather have a Fluke 115 too.
I just used it as an example because I know that particular one has that feature, I trust Mathias is smart enough to find a similar one he can source easily.
Those 85V capacitors were hooked up to the output of that inductor, and then an arc was struck and broken repeatedly. The voltage transients could have easily exceeded the surge voltage on those caps and potentially damaged them, before they were ever put in parallel with the welder's filter capacitor.
2 things to help. 1.) put a better ground clamp on. one of the solid brass ones from the cheap import tools stores make a huge improvement. 2.) Clean, clean, clean!!! till you have bright shiny metal.
You have no nosel on your gun. Are you not using a suppression gas? If not that would likely be the biggest cause of rough welding and would also explain the porosity I see in your final weld's.
It would be interesting to see the effects of your cap bank once you have some argon in the mix
looked like flux core to me, so no need for shield
Flux-cored wire by itself does not produce great welds; not as good as solid wire with shielding gas. Flux-cored wire together with shielding gas produces *awesome* welds.
^
Have you relined the torch lead? The problem could very well be in the feed and not the power. Line the torch lead then clean and adjust the feed drive wheels. Just a thought as I have had similar problems in the past with my welder.
The inductor is far more important. There is a video of a guy showing an arc being struck with a DC power supply and a welding rod. He cannot keep a good arc, because it's just a regular DC power supply. But then the man adds a 1000 foot coil of wire on a spool, in between the electrode and the power supply, with the giant bulk spool of copper wire, acting as an air core inductor with a relatively large inductance, and the guy is able to strike long beautiful sparking arcs, that are smooth, and leaving molten metal. The inductor seems to dramatically enhance the ability of a welding arc, without any additional input power into the system, which defies our understanding of science. The test is still on RUclips, if you look up "inductor coil sparks" or something to that effect. Basically adding a large inductor, after the smoothing caps, probably is the best bet.
I'm not a welding expert, but for me sanding or filing contact surface on both that clamp and metal makes a huge difference. If these contact surfaces are dirty or rusty, the arc may behave terribly annoying(
Я не говорю по-английски, но - 1) конденсаторы в этой цепи стабилизирован уровень напряжения, - 2) в металле сварки электрическая дуга является наиболее важным для стабилизации текущего уровня, он стабилизирует поток плазмы. Мы должны найти способ, чтобы стабилизировать ток.
Wow!! That is such an awesome Welder. The components they used in that are quite awesome!! I am a chemical engineer with a minor specialty in electrical engineering and I love the huge blue 'rectifier?" Where did you wire your inductor?
Still a better weld job than I could ever do.
When you smooth rectified AC, you end up with constant DC, which destroys the generated squarewave by the circuit(which feeds into the main transformer primary), I am surprised it welded at all with the caps.
I do not speak in English, but - 1) in this circuit capacitors stabilized voltage level - 2) in the metal welding electric arc is the most important for the stabilization of the current level, it stabilizes the plasma stream. We must find a way to stabilize the current.
For Flux welder : Constant Voltage required
For Stick Arc welder : Constant Current required
I couldn't help but flinch when I saw you poking around inside the welder and around the huge capacitors. I follow several electronics channels and they go to great effort to check that 'normal' sized capacitors (i.e. smaller than an AA battery) are discharged before poking around. The potential jolt from those huge ones isn't something to be messed with. Not saying you weren't being safe off camera Matthias, but it needs to be mentioned just in case others aren't aware of the danger.
This is true for smoothing capacitors for rectified mains voltage.
Ther welder might have something arround 50V no load voltage.
If you touch the capacitors with 50V on it not much will happen, if you short them with metal you get a bang of course.
Dam no bang.. That many caps there woulda been a small mushroom cloud hahaha.
Your face was right there holy hell man!!
I added a single 33,000uf capacitor to a cheap welder and it made a huge difference to the performance at low amps (
I knew there was a reason I never see you weld
and that reason would, most likely be, that you haven't watched the videos where I weld.
Matthias Wandel *I* knew there was a reason I almost never see you weld--because I've watched your welding videos.
some of the cheap wire feeder welders have very low tech control of the feed motor. you might find that it's a combination of wire speed being highly variable plus poor contact to the feed wire in the hand piece.
Apparently one cause of poor performance in MIG welders are that the lining in MIG gun goes bad causing the wire to feed inconsistently. Since youtube abhors links I'll just recommend searching for something like "mig welding bad lining" and see if you think it matches your symptoms
Your welder appears to be a rebranded Miller Cricket. Which is considered a really good thin gauge welder.
The Canox welder are all Miller welders. So it's there not a cheap offshore welders to begin with
if you are have trouble with weld quality try give the welder a birthday. replace the liner of the gun this can create poor wire feed which will make it feel as if the welder is cutting out, replace the tip (obviously, you should be doing the regularly) and put on a new ground clamp yours looks quite old.
The angel that you holding the handle against the work pice is way of.
your cap cables should be shorter and thicker , the caps provide all the current. if you can ,put the caps straigth after the rectifier to the same bolts . you can put a switch to turn them on or off. a great improvement is to create a separete power supply for the feed motor , so the feed motor does not take power from the main transformer (who does all the welding so it is not steady).
(why you do not use the gas attachment to your torch?).
My cap wires were thicker than the wires coming out of the transformer, and shorter than the transformer windings or the welder leads.
There are a couple of factors that come to my mind directly, but the very least of them being filter capacitors.
The wire - Cheap flux cored wire tends to lead to horrible results. Proper industrial grade wire tends to produce better or excellent results. Might be a reason for the porosity of some of your welds. In addition to wire quality in general, how you store your wire is a huge factor. Humidity in storing is definitely a performance killer. Although good flux core wire can handle a lot of "wrong storing" before the results suffer.
The contacts - clean them if you haven't, replace them if necessary and check for the right size (you wouldn't be the first person on earth to screw in too big contact tips :-D).
The abilities of the machine - If I saw it right on the video, the flat bar you were welding on was about 5 mm thick. Too little "UMPF" for the material leads to lots of splatter, very flat fusion (which is then more tacking than welding) and porosity (not always but often).
The tiny welding machines from the DIY superstore that I know might be able to produce an acceptable result on thin walled section or sheet metal and some of them are even sort of fun to use on cars (with shielding gas) but as soon as you run them over something that requires some power, they naturally give in.
Without knowing your machine my guess is that it should improve your results dramatically if you limit the thickness of your material to 3 mm on a good day and if you have something ticker, use a propane torch and pre heat it properly before you grab the welding burner.
You still won't get the prettiest results I guess but dependent on what you want to do with it this might be enough for some satisfactory results.
changing flux wire does more for a weld.even as a beginner you will notice the difference the first time you test it. and if welder it's gas capable, you can add gas then it gets even smoother.
I was clear on everything you said until you took the cover off, then I wasn't sure if you were still speaking English !
Is it possible that the original capacitor leaks, thus cancelling the add-on capacitors? (assuming they're hooked in parallel)
Do you have good quality wire? It makes lot's of difference. The one that comes with cheap machines is useless.
If you have the ability and the money, switch it over to argon/CO2 gas instead of flux core. I did that with mine and like it much better. Love your videos by the way.
Maybe the diodes aren't the best ones anymore ? maybe there´s ac or pulsation in the current
I don't quite understand why the waveform charging the inductance would make a difference. Especially at the low or mid level currents the inductance shouldn't get depleted.
addendum: Assuming that a light arc is a dead short and the current is limited by the inductance.
I would wonder how well this would work with a 165 Farad Maxwell supercap bank.
Looks like tne weld is a bit cold, try increasing amperage to start with.
good god you are some sort of genius! what did you formally study and what is self taught?
One more question...if you got flux on those capacitors....and you had a DeLorean...would you use the flux capacitors to travel back in time and invent pocket hole joinery?
Sheer evilness of your idea surpass Daleks by leaps and bounds!
I do what I can. I wasn't even trying on that one.
That's a lot of Farads!
Nice little flux core welder that can change polarity! But my dumpster diving hasn't provided me a DC+ one (yet).
this one wasn't free. Paid $70 for it at a yard sale. But increasingly, I'm thinking, this one isn't so bad.
If you are doing mig and you aren't running a gas nozzle thats really going to effect your welds more than anything. I saw some porosity in those welds. Try getting your gun set up right then revisiting this. Or just switch to flux core.
it's flux core, not mig.
Weird. Maybe try running dual shield? Or it really could be that the welder is just that bad. Or possibly the wire. I have found the cheap harbor freight flux core to not be very good. I know you aren't in the US so harbor freight isn't a thing but I know you guys have some places like harbor freight.
Probably had a good spark after welding if nothing else. Cheap 110 migs are halfbridge.. Try it with a full bridge setup. It's interesting as it really penetrates deeply.
half bridge, not half wave. Center tapped winding. A full bridge rectifier wouldn't do any better.
did on mine. Removed the pulsing. I never said it was easy to do.
Mig welding is constant voltage stick welding is constant current add that bad boy to a stick welder and you'll find the arc strikes easier
Surplus capacitors may need to be "reformed" before they are put back into service. Look up how to reform a capacitor in the usual place. It is pretty easy.
The *surplus* capacitors may not have been as "first rate" as you think. Get some new ones and shorten your lead lengths.
Yeah, I finally figured out, the adding of caps to an existing machine is a waste of time.
Your machine is capable of switching polarity. Next machine I buy, I will look for that. I will spring for modern inverter type.
Lincoln seem to have sent welders to every other maker on RUclips, give them a call!!! :-)
add an additional series inductor?
Albert Einstein Insanity: doing the same thing and expecting a different result
it certainly sounded smoother with them hooked up if you were using gas-shielded solid wire there would have been a more desirable difference
You need to reverse the polarity for Flux core wire electrode positive
Hey a tip for you that use flux core wire. Visit a real welding shop and pickup nozzle dip and anti spatter spray. Apply to the metal before welding and youll have less spatter sticking to the steel.
Without a shield gas you can't get a pretty enough weld to actually compare.
dude, by comparison standards your welder is older but I definitely wouldn't call it a cheap welder, when people talk about cheap welders they are generally referring to all the cheap under $150 AC flux core welders like the ones you get from harbor freight and amazon ect...
they don't have rectifiers, capacitors, or inductors and they don't have any capability to switch the output between AC and DC. you can tell your welder has been used hard but it's still far better then any of the cheap welders you can get today, in fact, seeing what i could of the way your welder was built I'd put it in a class above what you get today from Lincoln for $500, none of the low end Lincolns I've seen opened up even had capacitors which surprised the hell out of me. My personal opinion judging from what I saw in the video, the factors that will clean up your welds the best are to first start using better wire, I use personally like Forney but any quality brand flux core wire is better then that crap HF sells then hopefully by now you've got the other factors like stick out and wire feed speed figured out, for a DCEN welder with good wire to produce a lot of splatter it usually means the wire speed it to high. just some of the things that stood out to me from your video, I know I wished I could find a welder like yours, especially now that my son has burned up my older good welder.....
Try a different gasless wire as the cheaper wires don't always produce great results. Porosity is often a problem you'll see with cheaper wire.
touching cables in a welder is a bad idea without gloves. capacitors might be charged for some reason.
yes, those 20 odd volts are really harmful.... :)
Buying capacitors from a surplus store indicates to me that they are not brand new.
I would find a way to have those capacitors you purchase tested to see if in fact they're actually contributing to the effort.
Notwithstanding how you hook them up, I've been watching videos for a couple hours a day for the past week and almost to a man each has seen improvement by improving the capacity of the Harbor Freight Chicago Electric welder.
The amount of dust inside the welder could of done some damage to components or even a connection made that should not be made. First really clean the machine, spotless, second check all connections especially the grounds. Would bet you that there will be a major improvement for you fella.
No offense to your welding skills, but I would probably get an experienced welder to try with and without the capacitors to eliminate other variables as Mr. Heisz said. Distance from tip to material, travel speed, welding angle, welding wire (actually makes a big difference), etc.
The reason why those capacitors don't make a lot of difference, is because the quality factor of the filter formed by the inductor and capacitors is also influenced by the quality factor of the inductor. You can combine a capacitor with a great Q-factor with a crappy inductor all you want, your total Q factor will always be limited by the Q factor of the inductor.
What leads you to believe the quality of the inductor is an issue? Do you have personal experience with this exact model welder, and have made measurements?
We're talking about quality factor pertaining to tuned circuits
retrofitter
the reincarnation of Tesla you're not. Tuning only pertains to capacitors across coils, not in line with them. This is not a LC tank circuit. This is a DC circuit, so there is no tuning going on. As you cannot tune 0 Hz. We're done with you!
No, you're not dealing with an LC-tank circuit, you're dealing with an LC low pass circuit. And yeah, now I come to think of it, the filter probably isn't operating in its resonant region.
The main point of my argument however still holds true: if the inductor is crap, there's only so much you can do with improving the capacitors. The series resistance of that inductor will always be a limiting factor in how well the low pass works, especially if the inductor gets hot. Because I was thinking in terms of the series resistance of the inductor, I abused the term quality factor, shoot me for that :P
And no, I don't own this welder, but I do have the audacity to hazard a guess at something. Being wrong and corrected isn't a shame, it's how I learn.
LReBe7
in this application the choke is there for additional filtering, and stability. Now if the choke is inadequate for the current being passed, and that's a big _if_, then yes, you will have reduced output. But so far I've seen no evidence to suggest that is the case. It looks like a fairly substantial component to me.
Am besten sind die Inverterschweißgeräte. Die kosten mittlerweile nicht mehr viel und sie sind gut geregelt. Da klebt dann auch nichts mehr.
You're a lucky boy, it works out about 2500UF per Amp, people like you or anyone else shouldn't be doing this, try using that welder for a longer period of time and see what happens, BOOM! would be the correct term.
Are you welding Fluxcore?
Matthias, you need that tubular cover on the end of your welding torch. You must to get that shielding gas around actual weld. This way (without the cover) the gas is escaping to the sides and not going forward to weld. (sry my bad english)
Enjoyed your video ! Recently I bought a fluxcore mig and now have a 100-amp rectifier to convert
it to DC. My question has been how effective filter capacitors would be if I added them. Your video
answers that for me, at least for now. :) :)
without any filter capacitor, converting it to DC won't give you much benefit.
Conversion to DC Electrode Negative, will put 70% of the working current from the ground clamp into the work.
The remainder 30% then going to the electrode. Use Electrode negative wire.
Bridge install will also double the output in Hz from the line input.
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Would be interesting to see what the voltage and current waveforms look like on an oscilloscope with and without the added capacitor bank. Compared also making a more cost effective MOT core custom wound inductor to smooth the current that I'm guessing might have the same effect on the potential waveform/field.
When carpenter start doing some welding 👍
That welder looks a lot like the inside of my old harbor freight
you can only smooth out the valleys so much. more caps wont help it. if the one in unit is doing its job already. overkill doesnit work sometimes ..
well, on a cheap welder, you don't know if it's doing it's job already.
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 on these the avg 100k caps should be fine. more then that probley not
i think you need to submerge the entire welder in liquid nitrogen for the electrons to flow better
Did you notice any difference in penetration?
You would have to cut, polish, and etch the beads to tell what penetrated. Matthias did none of that either.
If your welder already has a capacitor from the factory adding more won't do anything. Manufacturers don't install undersized capacitors. Very cheap wire welders weld with A/C instead of DC. These welders don't have capacitors, reflector bridge or a choke. The best tip I can give you to improve your welds is to buy quality flux core wire. Cheap no name wire sold at places like Harbor Freight Tools produces crappy welds no matter how good your welder.
0:18 Most of the electronic work I do is on computers, when I saw that capacitor my damn jaw hit the floor. O.O
what it's doing is evening out the current surges.
Oh nice i just hooked up a large capacitor bank, and now i probe with my finger around to test all the uninsulated spots.
I was thinking the same exact thing!! Waiting for the ZZAPPP!!
Why would you have two shirts on???
Shirt A is to stop sparks, shirt B is to stop the sparks coming through the new hole in shirt A
Matthias, do you use flux core wire of good quality? Also, check your machine settings... Your welds are really ugly. It almost look like if you run solid wire instead of flux core... And yes, it do make an huge difference.
when that welder finally dies get yourself a used name brand machine like hobart, miller, or lincoln. then get a bottle of 75% argon 25% CO2. I bought my lincoln 140 for $200 and it's paid for itself several times over
Where's the mig nozzle?
I usually have it on there, helps avoid accidental shorts. But had it off so I could touch the wire to the end of the torch.
Maybe trying with the nozzle -- if you're running regular gas shielded mig it's going to affect the weld.
NOTE: Capacitors go bad. So try replacing the capacitor. Also, try soldering the connections, upgrading the wire to larger wire, replacing the ground strap with a copper braided strap, and also try testing or replacing the rectifier diodes. Also, try a different brand of wire. Every wire is a different alloy, and there is no "standard" alloy, they are all different. Every wire is an experimental prototype metal alloy, so try different brands of wire until you like what you see.
try adding an inductor
As there is no shroud around the tip , the inert gas will go everywhere exept around the weld. Surely fix the fundamentals first!!!
if there was inert gas coming out of it, which there isn't cause it's not a mig welder.
Matthias! Gloves!
Best bang for your buck will be cleaning the material well, including under the ground clamp.
Possibly a different ground clamp - brass or copper with more surface area.
I have a 2x4" brass plate that I clamp to the clean work.
It looks like porosity in the welds, are you sure you are clean ? no oil paint or rust contamination ?
2:42 Gun angle looks low
www.wcwelding.com/images/work-angle-travel-angle.jpg
Try more straight to the work, with some side tilt that pushes the slag back from the direction you are traveling in.
If that shop is cold try preheating the steel on top of the woodstove or with a little propane torch.
A little extra heat makes a difference.
www.amazon.com/Wall-Mountain-Flux-Welding-603DVD/dp/B0006ZFRVG
www.wcwelding.com/flux-core-arc-welding-dvd.html
If you message me, I'll send you one.
There are lots of internet tutorials on using scavenged microwave transformers to build arc welders.
Maybe more experimentation fun there ?
the IG is missing from your MIG
that's why I didn't call it a MIG welder.
Jokingly trying to say make it a MIG for a better weld.
ah, well that requires adding plumbing to the welder and new gun. Enough changes that it would make more sense to get an actual MIG welder. And then I have to worry about gas and such. So decided to just live with it.
Matthias Wandel Flux core welders are just fine for the small work I do (as you have demonstrated in a few of your previous videos). Old cheap wire caused me lots of problems until I got some nice new Lincoln wire and my welds were 200% better, even though I don't weld much anyway and need more practice - haha.
I wish I could easily change mine to DC+ as yours does.
Its a choke, yes an inductor, but called a choke in practice.