So I actually finished work on Christmas Eve, but the video took 14 hours to upload, because of the horrible upload-speed at my parent's house :D. So it really is Christmas by now! So I wish all of you a a Merry Christmas and I hope that all of you are having a good time no matter if you're with friends and family or all by yourself, maybe in some dorm room somewhere. (I've had some of those Christmases myself). So my thoughts are especially with those of you who have to spend the holidays alone. One thing that always helped me to keep my spirits up, was to watch Al Bundy getting through his holidays all by himself (after his family had left him to eat at Denny's without him) :D th-cam.com/video/gDuYI0Td_rw/w-d-xo.html (In better quality: www.dailymotion.com/video/x6a01rn)
Merry Christmas and I praise you for repairing this beast of a transformer mig, what brand is it and by the way the wire feeder is supposed to be vertical not horizontal but you preference
Merry Christmas from a Split-phase 240v 100A guy here in Canada! (supporter EEVblog TH-camrs List). Compared to the blue machine, wow! That unit kicks butt! I'm looking forward to the next video's to be sure!
The Post Apocalyptic Inventor theres no shame in labelling connections, ive been a auto technician for 35 years, and I STILL label or take cell phone pictures of connections, hoses, wires, and brackets/spacers.
It was so good today to see a wonderful new TPAI in the classic style. I'm sure it takes ages to produce each one of these full-length, detailed TPAI gems - there is not just the work itself, but all that thought which goes into scripting, and hours worth of editing after that - but the results speak for themselves. I hadn't realised how much I have missed the real TPAI until watching this first new one in a very long time. If it takes many weeks to produce each work of this quality, so be it. It is always well worth the wait.
You do some of the best informative commentary I've ever encountered on TH-cam. The natural progression from one aspect to the next coupled with explaining components and sections that i naturally was already curious about all outlined with diagrams or drawings that are done to a professional standard, All of it is simply fantastic . I even find the extra tid-bits of historical changes made overtime or the extra time taken interesting in their own right and believe that info could vary well be extremely helpful to someone who may have a similar model or the same model of a different year as it's pretty rare for people to have the exact same identical product. Don't worry or stress much if a segment you're doing is turning out longer than you think it should. Many subscribers like myself enjoy learning about the "how" and "why" as much or more than the "what".
franganghi , thats exactly what I thought! He would make a great tutor/lecturer at a technical school or university. I just saw his video and I am subscribing as I have a lot of interest in engineering.
Honestly you have such a fantastic youtube channel! I came across you the other week and have been watching video after video. I am very grateful for all of the details you add into these videos which really helps with understanding the function of the machines / tools you are fixing. I have gained so much information from you and especially from your scrap yard episodes. As soon as lockdown is lifted here in the UK I will be heading to my local yard and trying to follow in your footsteps😊. So please continue your hardwork and I will be awaiting every upload!!!
I like your movies! For me, you are an archaeologist of forgotten electrical and electronic devices. With your enthusiasm, you bring them back to life using new solutions and technology. Bravo! ..and Merry Christmas!
14:00 explanation of phases and volts is AWESOME! I now have a much better understanding of the phases, which is not really saying much because I'm an electro-idiot. :) Working hard to increase my understanding of electrical systems and circuits, especially DC because I own a motorcycle, and do my own work on it. Keep up the great teaching!
im an electrician in the US i find your videos fascinating. i had no idea your 220 used a neutral. we usually assume its 220 phase to phase like 220 in the US... i work at a 120 year old steel forge, you would love all the old stuff we still have. i took a motor off of a crane a few years ago that was dated 1919 and it still worked up until then
i wish you had an USB 3.0 output in your head n i had one in mine as well so i can stream all the knowledge you have .. i don't know how to thk u for sharing all these precious knowledge in ur videos . keep up the good work ☺
Ein großes Lob für Deine Arbeit! Ich schaue mir seit längerer Zeit auch Deine Videos an und tue dies in zunehmendem Maße, da Du immer interessantere Themen hast. Sehr angenehm ist Deine Art, die komplizierten Dinge auch für den Laien verständlich aufzudröseln. Der heilige Abend ist nun zwar schon rum, aber eine besinnliche Zeit wünsche ich Dir dennoch. LG André
Three phase is great, my grandpa used to be obsessed with three phase stuff. Almost every tool in our garage has a three phase motor in it. The bench grinder is three phase and when you press the on switch it speeds up instantly and is impossible to stall out. Ps: sweet welder, my three phase arc welder can only do 180A@100% but i got it for 80 euros so i'm not complaining :D
the bonus with a separate PSU and eire feeder like this is you have a great high current low voltage DC PSU.. my dad built his own mig welder from scratch (yes that right from scratch and its about the same power as this machine!!) and we have used the PSU to directly start cars when the battery was flat!!
One of the greatest welding breakdown videos I ever saw. Thanks for making it understandable. Your talent is the ability to explain clearly and in a very logical order. I'm taking apart a welder right now, and hoping to get back welding again, so this is an inspiration to me. I must say those German units are very much to be admired for their solid construction. Wishing you peace and grace and a new year full of prosperity and good cheer. Aloha!
I often wondered if a toroidal transformer would ever have a place in making a good welder. Perhaps cooling could be accomplished by circulating oil, air or water through its center? Never seen one used this way however. As far as 3-phase, it's pretty sad we missed the boat on that while the rest of the world enjoys those benefits. Compared to mine this appears to be the stradivarius of welders so to speak.
Great video, really enjoyed it. Three phase welders are very common finds at scrap yards here in Aus. I don't have three phase but still had to pick one up. A Kemppi 400amp synergic pulse mig.
I now think I understand transformers. It's late on xmas day here in NZ and I got education as present from Germany. Thank you and Merry Xmas to you too :-)
I was cleaning out my shop today and found a box of parts from printers, scanners, and a fax machine I think. If you need or want these parts I would be happy to mail them to you, as long as the postage isn't outrageous considering that I live in Texas.
i learn something new every time i watch one of your vids. all of my life i have tried to learn at least one new thing every day, and you are most assuredly helping me with that. vielen dank!
A TIG/STICK welding power supply is a constant current supply. A MIG/MAG welding power supply is a constant voltage power supply. The TIG/Sick supplies have a higher open circuit voltage a relatively large voltage droop (voltage drop when welding). The output choke (coil) helps control the droop. You can wire weld with a CC type power supply if you use a voltage sensing wire feeder. With this type of feed control as the output voltage drops the wire speed does too. With a CV power supply the feeder would be a constant feed type control.
Nice drawings and explains ! If you would consider to add a diagram with the 3 phases waves (or a link to a video about it) it could be even brighter for those (like me) who need to see how it works from inside the inside. The help of 3 phases in rectifying electricity is so important... During my studying period in college I worked on a project in which I ordered a single phase inverter. This machine had the capability of supplying 3 phase and of course had PWM support. Might be interesting if it works for powerful machines like a welder...
In the US, a great deal of used 3-phase equipment goes directly to the scrap yard. My local yard has 3 giant MIG welders like this, a surface grinder, and a warehouse of other equipment.
Now I am subbed once again. Excellent upload. There was other welder work that was wanting before you left the old digs and never completed. I was always looking for the finishing off on those projects buddy. But now we are back in the saddle!
Nice work. A monster episode! It was very well presented. One note to add for the common core transformer: Since each winding shares the common core. when one phase is active or conducting, the magnetic field in the core induces current in the "non-active" phases. This results in smaller overall ripple amplitude but at a higher frequency. This is important in EMI, but I'm not sure if it matters in this case. And it's "Ah Loooooh Miiihhh Nuhm" (4 syllables). The extra I after the "N" does not exist and should not be pronounced, even though every English person does that!
This is a great topic, I'm so IMPRESSED by that wire feeder and the general construction... but can't stop thinking: "You have three-phase power IN YOUR HOUSE?"! Suddenly I feel like a peasant. Here in the US, this is only in commercial situations, and not always then! 440Volts will really knock you down.... We all agree, if you want a bunch of DC, three-phase is the way! You're covering a lot of ground here. I have most of the STUFF we see in your videos, but nothing like the expertise and overview. I am surprised to hear that you want to stick (MMA) weld with a Constant-Voltage supply, but I haven't finished the video yet. This is very dense, and I'm watching some parts several times, or pausing to look at the drawings. It's like TH-cam Polytechnic!
Thanks for making me seem so intelligent to my wife as I showed her the video and she just wandered off muttering about not understanding anything you were talking about. What she didn’t know is that I didn’t either, in fact my brain had turned into scrambled eggs. Typical German over engineering, 3 phase to every house and let’s build a welder the best way possible so it can do what ever users need it to do. So many other places have an attitude like let’s build a welder as cheap as possible, put ridiculous claims on it and hope that will do. Where I live in Australia we are 230-240 volt with 3 phase to the pole but it costs a lot to put it into your house. Have you ever thought of working for NASA? Cheers Stuart 🇦🇺
Beautifully explained. Also, a good clip on why a modern welding machine is so crap compared to the old stuff. One thing: You can just call it a MIG welder - we know what you mean!
25:00 Every secondary transformer winding leads to its own full bridge rectifier (3x2 terminals), later connected at the DC side, I guess. Grüße aus dem südlichen Zipfel Niedersachsens!
I love the fact that most of Europe have 3 phase power. Very very smart of the utility company to implement. 3 phase power delivery is more efficient because using a 3 phase motor is far more efficient than a single phase using a running capacitor. Too bad US did not take that on for the residential. To have that done some utility company charge you an arm and a leg to implement and setup for use in residential.
Priced a Lincoln Mig welder for use in the EU, they wanted almost $3800 for he machine, three phase of course. A bit out of my budget. Not the massive machine you have but a decent size. Settled for a small inverter for use here in the EU.
It would be interesting to know what this welding machine has made over the years. Do you have any idea what it's use would have been, in which industry?
You might find the Haas Kamp Three Phase to Single Phase Conversion method for welders interesting. An internet search will turn up lots of info about the method. i know Dave Kamp, one of the creators of this process, and he is a very friendly, and helpful guy. He and his partner, Haas, developed this method for the same reason you bought the MIG/MAG welder you did; the industrial duty cycle. They are freely sharing the method, hoping to get future welders into 'real' welders, instead of what is sold at home improvement stores. An internet search will turn up loads of information about the process. Dave posted the conversion on Practical Machinist, originally, and that is the best way to reach him, through that site. They have done lots of testing, and have shown the converted welders weld as well with converted single phase as they do with three phase. When I first talked to Dave about the conversion, 3-4 years ago, the cost for converting a welder was about $150, for new components. The majority of the cost is the large capacitors necessary. A very simplistic explanation of the process is a capacitor is used to store the 'third phase', then, the stored current is released at the appropriate time to create the 'third phase'. The key, for me, to understanding how this could work, was to understand that 240v single phase is not an accurate term. Conceptually, it is two phase; two legs of 120v, 180° out of phase from each other. By storing, and delaying the release of a created third leg, you end up with three legs of 120v, 120° out of phase from each other, which is, three phase. When Dave first explained it, he told me several times, what makes this possible is a welder is different than a motor, in that there is no rotation. Rotation makes timing of the three phases more critical; welders are more forgiving. Since I learned about the method for conversion, I have since learned of a device sold as a Phase Matic. I bought one from a machinist a year ago. It is simply several relays and a capacitor. Conceptually, it does the same thing, creates a third phase. The relays are responsible for the control of the third phase. You use the Phase Matic to start a three phase motor, then once it is running, it will continue to run on 'single' phase, and also generate three phase. This allows you to start additional three phase motors, as long as no single motor is larger than the first motor started. Once you get other, smaller motors started, the original motor can be shutdown, and the smaller motors will continue to run. Quite clever.
All it would take is to connect the same capacitors to the rectifier output. Simpler to understand, maybe, since it’s a circuit that’s common as dirt. The function of the capacitor is the same, but at the output of the rectifier. What you have with a DC three-phase welder is an AC-AC step-down transformer followed by a rectifier. Normally in constant voltage DC supplies you’d have a smoothing capacitor at the output of the rectifier. The welders don’t have it, since the 3-phase supply provides enough overlap at the rectifier output that the voltage never drops to 0V. With typical US and Canadian split-phase supplies, the phases are 180 degrees apart and both phases go to 0V at the same time. So all you need is a smoothing capacitor at the output of the rectifier, and it’ll be as good as with a 3-phase supply or even better. A certain minimum amount of capacitance is necessary since below it, the capacitors you have will carry way too high of a ripple current and will overheat. So the ripple current rating is the primary driver of cost here: once you got enough capacitors in parallel to handle the several hundreds amps of ripple current, you also got enough capacitance to keep the DC voltage quite steady - probably smoother than the output of a 3-phase rectifier. With some care put into overvoltage shunting, 50V electrolytic capacitors could be used when the rated no-load output is 30V or so.
Super cool! Your explanations are amazing. Only thing I'm curious about, though. You're using the same power supply for both MIG and stick welding... MIG requires constant voltage and stick requires constant current for any degree of success. The transformer setup appears to be for CV, just wondering if you could elaborate a bit more on that
I was wondering about this! It seems like the current would be varying wildly... But if it's just for an amazing test, to burn up a lot of current.... Maybe that will be discussed later. Maybe that was ALREADY discussed, a lot of information went by here, will probably watch this several times, and show it to some students as well!
19:30 I actually did that with an 80V 100.000µF cap (huge thing) and a big bridge rectifier on my old welding transformer, that was a hell of a bang, the tip of my 3.2mm electrode was just gone xD Actually it was quite a lot of fun so I did it a couple of times more until the whole electrode was gone :D
That 'heat sink' rectifier reminds me of a selenium rectifier. I ran into one a few years ago repairing an old shop size battery charger, and learned about them. The plates are coated with selenium and were used before diodes were available/used. When they get old, the selenium coating wears off the metal plating. When that happens, a funny thing happens. When you put electricity to the worn selenium rectifier, and there is an arc at the worn spot, make sure you have fresh air, or are outside. It is a HORRID rotten egg smell, quite similar to already eaten eggs, if you get my drift! LOL MY thought was, oh, it's probably not that bad, and it's 30°, outside right now, so I'll work on it, inside. Bad move. very bad move. Glad my wife was out of town, or I would have been sleeping alone, because she would have been at a hotel... LOL I was able to remove the stinky selenium recifier and replace it with a modern, full bridge rectifier, and had great battery charger. I also added a resettable circuit breaker for overload protection. Most battery chargers have circuit breakers, but they typically die.
Thank you Great video . You gave me the motivation to go and make some modification on my Lincoln DC welder. I look forward to more videos . Merry Christmas!!
Amazing difference between modern hobby welder and Retro Industrial welder, while hobby might well have alloy coiled transformer and very low duty cycle, those industrial units are pure copper coiled and you can literally run that at full chat all day long on heavy steel plate and you'd burn the welding tip out and over heat the shroud long before the transformer even gets warm at the end of a long day. The only problem I have found with industrial MIG welders is the amount of dust that gets sucked into the base unit that needs to get blown out regularly with air line at least every few months at least.
Had to look up a new MIG welder. Not sure how this one performs at peak but trying to buy this new, it probably costs north of 4kusd. A 7kusd machine gets you 300A at 60% duty cycle. Peaks at 400A, 30% duty cycle and can maintain ~240A. Meaning this is an amazing buy if you can reliably make a set of 'one time' repairs. (Netting another 10 to 25 years for only a few hundred as an investment)
We had to pay arr. 500 Euros for getting the 3 phase 440V power for our apartament and basement workshop . Then an additional 300E for the thick insulated cables to our distribution panel inside the house. Not cheap, but very convenient, considering the requirements of 3 AC's, oven, induction stove and so on. Added benefit : I have 440V3ph in my workshop. Funny thing, my wife insisted we are getting this after I explained that the maximum 4.5KW supply for an apartament (acc to the national code) is insufficient even for the stove
Love this kind of stuff! We have in Serbia too 3 fase power.Old things are build to last not to be trashed when broke, and keep the good work I want to learn where do you live in Germany, would love to see your shop, I myself have gathered trough the years enough equipment and stuff. Would love to get more into understanding and doing electronics, but turning 50 next years is old
So glad i went for a used industrial 3 phase mig welder. However, there was a little gamble, my shed does not have a neutral. So if the machine needed a neutral for example motor steering....... Thank you for this informative video, merry mig mag ;-)
My shed is build about 150 meters away from a normal power source. I have made a tap from a nearby waterpump, this pump only needed l1, l2,l3 and ground/pe there was no neutral in the cable. Single phase is done with a transformer, 400 volts to 230 volts.
(regarding the part around 19:00 ) I thought that the capacitor connected straight after the bridge rectifier and then came the choke to smooth the current out and give a better DC output. At least that's how I plan to convert my cheapie LIDL 100A buzz-box to DC. Will it work? Mal sehen...
24:18 if i was engineer in the 20th century i would connect all the secondaries in Y configuration, use the center tap as a ground and connect 3 diodes to the 3 wires (anodes to the 3 phases, cathodes in parallel output positive voltage) this way i save on diodes (which were rare and expensive back then)
but you'd get half wave rectification (half the power) only with star configured secondary and 3 diodes only. also for welding you need high current => delta configuration of secondaries is the way to go for high current.
each wave would be chopped in half but when combined they will overlap good enough. On average it would give almost half the voltage of full bridge rectifier, so if that is a problem you can wind twice as much windings on the secondary and also star configuration is better, because your coils use shorter wires therefore are cheaper to wind
it's not about voltage... google for half wave and full wave rectification. with half wave you are using half of the sine wave only => half of the available energy/power. to utilize the transformer to max available power rating you simply have to use full wave rectification.
yes this would make 50% of the secondary copper inactive, but everything else stays the same, except that you have less voltage drop on the diodes, you cut the price of 3 diodes and most importantly the chance of diode burning are lower (more reliable). depending on the copper vs diode price i think in some situations (such as the early 20's) this would be a better way to do it
You are lucky that most or all of the homes in Germany are supplied with three phase. In New Zealand where I live single phase 230 volts is standard it's vary rare to get three phase unless when your house was being built you asked for it but it's not cheap. But my grandparents place is supplied with it because when it was being built we asked for it but it certainly helps when you have high loads. Also I think is a great idea because you can distribute lights power and heating evenley.
You always want a German in your bunker and on your side when in need or war, they are resourcefull and veery capable technically, feeling wise German women are as warm as the Iceberg Titanic crashed into :D
Merry Christmas from Denmark :) when welding thin materiel like cars. i prefer the old machines. They have a more stable and powerfull base power. makes point welding much better
Thank you for this vid, you are a very clever man. Could you help me? I have a cheap flux core welder and the current, at the lowest setting, is too high for thin sheet welding so I want to reduce the current setting. The lowest setting I have is 60 amps. When I opened it up the power goes into a switch which, on low power, sends power to a coil. When this switch is on high power it diverts the power to another coil. How can I get reduced power from the low power coil, I thought of putting a variable resistor between the switch and the coil. What do you think? Thank you so much. Kind regards, Paul.
Good video. I was given an older Harbor Freight flux core 90amp AC welder that runs on 120 volts (These are cheaper entry level AC welding machines). I'm going to convert it to a semi DC machine with a single phase bridge rectifier and large capacitor. This machine has a switch that has two settings (high and low). This switch either controls voltage or amps. Can a rheostat or potentiometer take the place of the high/low switch to give greater control of the available volts or amperage in these inexpensive machines?
I have a question, or just asking your opinion, I bought one of the new cheap arc welders, 120/240vac , 200amp, and the size of a shoebox, I also have a transformer based mig/ fluxcore welder, 120v, it has issues, it needs switches, and a new torch and leads, I was thinking of using the little arc welder to power the mig, only using the mig as the spool and feed, I would have much better current control, plus 240v possibly, I would still need the 120v for the feed, or I could make a transformer, to drop to 120v being it's only a amp or less in guessing, I would get a much better torch for the wire feed, with longer leads, around 2gauge ground lead, I don't ever need to weld with 200amps, the thickest I weld is 1/4" usually 1/8" or less, and usually thinner with the Flix wire, I also have a gas regulator with it, but haven't gotten gas yet, I have a much larger arc welder that is very capable of welding anything I would weld, seems it is 100% duty cycle, it is big and heavy , much heavier than any I seen at a local store, with a crank to raise the current, Anyway , what is your opinion, they both do around 24vdc open circuit, do you think this frankenwelder is a good idea?
WOW, YOU REALLY NAILED IT - *Great design explanation!* Three phase primary "Y" source, "Delta" secondary output. Got it! Interesting single core transformer, three phase magnetic mystery... _How day doo dat?_ *Thank you and Merry Christmas.*
they do it in a single core transformer the very same way as they do that in a single core generator or a single core motor ;) the single transformer core is not a straight line it's like an "E" core with primary+secondary winding for individual phases on each leg of the "E" core so the magnetic fluxes are not fighting against each other.
It’s not a single core but a single magnetic circuit with two separate loops that only share a common arm. Thus the flux in each loop can be controlled independently, and there’s no “short circuit” between the phases. Each loop you can draw in a magnetic circuit can have different flux through it, just as every loop in an electric circuit can have a different current through it. In fact, magnetic circuits can be “morphed” 1:1 into electric circuits that have the same properties just in different units. Eg. magnetic reluctance is like electric resistance.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too. Keep up the great work with the welder. I would have to disagree with your choice of fans as a metal fan would be much better as the original equipment manufacturer intended. Sometimes you can find one for cheap on eBay and they deliver to your door. Love your detailed explanations and understanding of electricity too.
Part II now online: th-cam.com/video/l1L0YrjWQXo/w-d-xo.html
it's so dark and lonely out here in outer space
Yu got a good hair cut . ***** 5star
What a beautiful machine man, what make is it? The Miller and Lincoln arrogant wiseguys should see this and be humbled...
Bravo
@@icyuranus404❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
So I actually finished work on Christmas Eve, but the video took 14 hours to upload, because of the horrible upload-speed at my parent's house :D. So it really is Christmas by now! So I wish all of you a a Merry Christmas and I hope that all of you are having a good time no matter if you're with friends and family or all by yourself, maybe in some dorm room somewhere. (I've had some of those Christmases myself). So my thoughts are especially with those of you who have to spend the holidays alone. One thing that always helped me to keep my spirits up, was to watch Al Bundy getting through his holidays all by himself (after his family had left him to eat at Denny's without him) :D th-cam.com/video/gDuYI0Td_rw/w-d-xo.html (In better quality: www.dailymotion.com/video/x6a01rn)
I would have thought you watch McGyver and not Married with children LOL
Merry Christmas and I praise you for repairing this beast of a transformer mig, what brand is it and by the way the wire feeder is supposed to be vertical not horizontal but you preference
Merry Christmas from 3 phase, 230V at 50Hz in Dänemark :-)
Merry Christmas from a Split-phase 240v 100A guy here in Canada! (supporter EEVblog TH-camrs List). Compared to the blue machine, wow! That unit kicks butt! I'm looking forward to the next video's to be sure!
The Post Apocalyptic Inventor theres no shame in labelling connections, ive been a auto technician for 35 years, and I STILL label or take cell phone pictures of connections, hoses, wires, and brackets/spacers.
It was so good today to see a wonderful new TPAI in the classic style. I'm sure it takes ages to produce each one of these full-length, detailed TPAI gems - there is not just the work itself, but all that thought which goes into scripting, and hours worth of editing after that - but the results speak for themselves. I hadn't realised how much I have missed the real TPAI until watching this first new one in a very long time.
If it takes many weeks to produce each work of this quality, so be it. It is always well worth the wait.
You do some of the best informative commentary I've ever encountered on TH-cam. The natural progression from one aspect to the next coupled with explaining components and sections that i naturally was already curious about all outlined with diagrams or drawings that are done to a professional standard, All of it is simply fantastic .
I even find the extra tid-bits of historical changes made overtime or the extra time taken interesting in their own right and believe that info could vary well be extremely helpful to someone who may have a similar model or the same model of a different year as it's pretty rare for people to have the exact same identical product.
Don't worry or stress much if a segment you're doing is turning out longer than you think it should. Many subscribers like myself enjoy learning about the "how" and "why" as much or more than the "what".
I started learning to MIG last week and remembered your videos about repairing welding machines.
I love this kind of videos like in the old days, thank you and Merry Christmas!
Isidoro Maich yup, i agree.
It was so clear! You have my admiration. You would be an amazing teacher in a technical school. Really.
Have a nice holiday time!
franganghi , thats exactly what I thought! He would make a great tutor/lecturer at a technical school or university. I just saw his video and I am subscribing as I have a lot of interest in engineering.
Merry Xmass and best wishes for the new year. That old welder is quality, and you are right to bring it back with good modifications. What make is it?
As a mechanical engineering student I love marathon watching these videos. Super creative and informative
Honestly you have such a fantastic youtube channel! I came across you the other week and have been watching video after video. I am very grateful for all of the details you add into these videos which really helps with understanding the function of the machines / tools you are fixing. I have gained so much information from you and especially from your scrap yard episodes. As soon as lockdown is lifted here in the UK I will be heading to my local yard and trying to follow in your footsteps😊. So please continue your hardwork and I will be awaiting every upload!!!
I like your movies! For me, you are an archaeologist of forgotten electrical and electronic devices. With your enthusiasm, you bring them back to life using new solutions and technology. Bravo! ..and Merry Christmas!
14:00 explanation of phases and volts is AWESOME! I now have a much better understanding of the phases, which is not really saying much because I'm an electro-idiot. :) Working hard to increase my understanding of electrical systems and circuits, especially DC because I own a motorcycle, and do my own work on it. Keep up the great teaching!
im an electrician in the US i find your videos fascinating. i had no idea your 220 used a neutral. we usually assume its 220 phase to phase like 220 in the US... i work at a 120 year old steel forge, you would love all the old stuff we still have. i took a motor off of a crane a few years ago that was dated 1919 and it still worked up until then
i wish you had an USB 3.0 output in your head n i had one in mine as well so i can stream all the knowledge you have .. i don't know how to thk u for sharing all these precious knowledge in ur videos . keep up the good work ☺
Ein großes Lob für Deine Arbeit! Ich schaue mir seit längerer Zeit auch Deine Videos an und tue dies in zunehmendem Maße, da Du immer interessantere Themen hast. Sehr angenehm ist Deine Art, die komplizierten Dinge auch für den Laien verständlich aufzudröseln. Der heilige Abend ist nun zwar schon rum, aber eine besinnliche Zeit wünsche ich Dir dennoch. LG André
Auch ich habe viel durch diesen Kanal gelernt und empfehle, ihn dafür auch entsprechend zu entlohnen. Dazu ist Patreon geeignet.
Three phase is great, my grandpa used to be obsessed with three phase stuff. Almost every tool in our garage has a three phase motor in it. The bench grinder is three phase and when you press the on switch it speeds up instantly and is impossible to stall out.
Ps: sweet welder, my three phase arc welder can only do 180A@100% but i got it for 80 euros so i'm not complaining :D
Best explanation of 3-Φ, cleared up some fogginess I had on the subject. Cheers, Mark
Love your work, and the thorough explanations fill in all the gaps with details that I got rusty on over the years.
Your explanation is so didactic! I am fixing an old ESAB LKA150 that was in the trash thanks to your inspiration.
Good old welding tool. Nice that someone appreciates. These tools can be repaired again and again and can withstand an EMP.
the bonus with a separate PSU and eire feeder like this is you have a great high current low voltage DC PSU.. my dad built his own mig welder from scratch (yes that right from scratch and its about the same power as this machine!!) and we have used the PSU to directly start cars when the battery was flat!!
One of the greatest welding breakdown videos I ever saw. Thanks for making it understandable. Your talent is the ability to explain clearly and in a very logical order. I'm taking apart a welder right now, and hoping to get back welding again, so this is an inspiration to me. I must say those German units are very much to be admired for their solid construction. Wishing you peace and grace and a new year full of prosperity and good cheer. Aloha!
I often wondered if a toroidal transformer would ever have a place in making a good welder. Perhaps cooling could be accomplished by circulating oil, air or water through its center? Never seen one used this way however. As far as 3-phase, it's pretty sad we missed the boat on that while the rest of the world enjoys those benefits. Compared to mine this appears to be the stradivarius of welders so to speak.
Great video, really enjoyed it. Three phase welders are very common finds at scrap yards here in Aus. I don't have three phase but still had to pick one up. A Kemppi 400amp synergic pulse mig.
I now think I understand transformers. It's late on xmas day here in NZ and I got education as present from Germany. Thank you and Merry Xmas to you too :-)
I was cleaning out my shop today and found a box of parts from printers, scanners, and a fax machine I think. If you need or want these parts I would be happy to mail them to you, as long as the postage isn't outrageous considering that I live in Texas.
I love your videos! We need more troubleshooters like you.
i learn something new every time i watch one of your vids. all of my life i have tried to learn at least one new thing every day, and you are most assuredly helping me with that. vielen dank!
A TIG/STICK welding power supply is a constant current supply. A MIG/MAG welding power supply is a constant voltage power supply. The TIG/Sick supplies have a higher open circuit voltage a relatively large voltage droop (voltage drop when welding). The output choke (coil) helps control the droop.
You can wire weld with a CC type power supply if you use a voltage sensing wire feeder. With this type of feed control as the output voltage drops the wire speed does too. With a CV power supply the feeder would be a constant feed type control.
Nice drawings and explains !
If you would consider to add a diagram with the 3 phases waves (or a link to a video about it) it could be even brighter for those (like me) who need to see how it works from inside the inside.
The help of 3 phases in rectifying electricity is so important...
During my studying period in college I worked on a project in which I ordered a single phase inverter. This machine had the capability of supplying 3 phase and of course had PWM support.
Might be interesting if it works for powerful machines like a welder...
In the US, a great deal of used 3-phase equipment goes directly to the scrap yard. My local yard has 3 giant MIG welders like this, a surface grinder, and a warehouse of other equipment.
Now I am subbed once again. Excellent upload. There was other welder work that was wanting before you left the old digs and never completed. I was always looking for the finishing off on those projects buddy. But now we are back in the saddle!
Frohes Fest und Guten Rutsch wünscht Herri aus Kunming, China.
Nice work. A monster episode! It was very well presented. One note to add for the common core transformer: Since each winding shares the common core. when one phase is active or conducting, the magnetic field in the core induces current in the "non-active" phases. This results in smaller overall ripple amplitude but at a higher frequency. This is important in EMI, but I'm not sure if it matters in this case. And it's "Ah Loooooh Miiihhh Nuhm" (4 syllables). The extra I after the "N" does not exist and should not be pronounced, even though every English person does that!
This is a great topic, I'm so IMPRESSED by that wire feeder and the general construction... but can't stop thinking: "You have three-phase power IN YOUR HOUSE?"! Suddenly I feel like a peasant. Here in the US, this is only in commercial situations, and not always then! 440Volts will really knock you down.... We all agree, if you want a bunch of DC, three-phase is the way! You're covering a lot of ground here. I have most of the STUFF we see in your videos, but nothing like the expertise and overview. I am surprised to hear that you want to stick (MMA) weld with a Constant-Voltage supply, but I haven't finished the video yet. This is very dense, and I'm watching some parts several times, or pausing to look at the drawings. It's like TH-cam Polytechnic!
That‘s some big project. Congrats on mastering something like that. Switching on this beast for the first time can‘t have been easy 😬.
I really like the idea of using a G clamp for the negative
Great video! You are very talented at explaining electrical theory, one of the best on TH-cam for sure.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Nicely updated old workhorse, ready to weld all day!
Absolutely astounding content TPAI.
Can't wait for more parts.
Superb illustration of how electricity 'flows' and controlled. Well done. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Thanks for making me seem so intelligent to my wife as I showed her the video and she just wandered off muttering about not understanding anything you were talking about. What she didn’t know is that I didn’t either, in fact my brain had turned into scrambled eggs. Typical German over engineering, 3 phase to every house and let’s build a welder the best way possible so it can do what ever users need it to do. So many other places have an attitude like let’s build a welder as cheap as possible, put ridiculous claims on it and hope that will do. Where I live in Australia we are 230-240 volt with 3 phase to the pole but it costs a lot to put it into your house. Have you ever thought of working for NASA?
Cheers Stuart 🇦🇺
Beautifully explained. Also, a good clip on why a modern welding machine is so crap compared to the old stuff. One thing: You can just call it a MIG welder - we know what you mean!
Merry Christmas from "Wales". Great video explained so well, looking forward to the rest of it.
What a nice found! Love these indestructible old machines!
25:00 Every secondary transformer winding leads to its own full bridge rectifier (3x2 terminals), later connected at the DC side, I guess. Grüße aus dem südlichen Zipfel Niedersachsens!
That was an absolutely amazing video! I loved learning from this style.
I love the fact that most of Europe have 3 phase power. Very very smart of the utility company to implement. 3 phase power delivery is more efficient because using a 3 phase motor is far more efficient than a single phase using a running capacitor. Too bad US did not take that on for the residential. To have that done some utility company charge you an arm and a leg to implement and setup for use in residential.
Sehr schönes Projekt! Ein guter Rutsch ins neue Jahr sei dir gewünscht.
Merry Christmas. I'm looking forward to your upgrade to switching mode. I have actually been pondering the same update to a similar welder of my own.
Priced a Lincoln Mig welder for use in the EU, they wanted almost $3800 for he machine, three phase of course. A bit out of my budget. Not the massive machine you have but a decent size. Settled for a small inverter for use here in the EU.
It would be interesting to know what this welding machine has made over the years. Do you have any idea what it's use would have been, in which industry?
This is the "TPAI" I miss! Thank you!!!
Thats a wonderful welder you found there... would love to find one of those.
This series is starting out great! Nice work!!
Merry Christmas 🎄🎁 can't wait to see u finish the rebuild upgrading to modern solid state components .
You might find the Haas Kamp Three Phase to Single Phase Conversion method for welders interesting. An internet search will turn up lots of info about the method. i know Dave Kamp, one of the creators of this process, and he is a very friendly, and helpful guy.
He and his partner, Haas, developed this method for the same reason you bought the MIG/MAG welder you did; the industrial duty cycle. They are freely sharing the method, hoping to get future welders into 'real' welders, instead of what is sold at home improvement stores.
An internet search will turn up loads of information about the process. Dave posted the conversion on Practical Machinist, originally, and that is the best way to reach him, through that site.
They have done lots of testing, and have shown the converted welders weld as well with converted single phase as they do with three phase. When I first talked to Dave about the conversion, 3-4 years ago, the cost for converting a welder was about $150, for new components. The majority of the cost is the large capacitors necessary.
A very simplistic explanation of the process is a capacitor is used to store the 'third phase', then, the stored current is released at the appropriate time to create the 'third phase'. The key, for me, to understanding how this could work, was to understand that 240v single phase is not an accurate term. Conceptually, it is two phase; two legs of 120v, 180° out of phase from each other.
By storing, and delaying the release of a created third leg, you end up with three legs of 120v, 120° out of phase from each other, which is, three phase.
When Dave first explained it, he told me several times, what makes this possible is a welder is different than a motor, in that there is no rotation. Rotation makes timing of the three phases more critical; welders are more forgiving.
Since I learned about the method for conversion, I have since learned of a device sold as a Phase Matic. I bought one from a machinist a year ago. It is simply several relays and a capacitor. Conceptually, it does the same thing, creates a third phase. The relays are responsible for the control of the third phase.
You use the Phase Matic to start a three phase motor, then once it is running, it will continue to run on 'single' phase, and also generate three phase. This allows you to start additional three phase motors, as long as no single motor is larger than the first motor started.
Once you get other, smaller motors started, the original motor can be shutdown, and the smaller motors will continue to run. Quite clever.
All it would take is to connect the same capacitors to the rectifier output. Simpler to understand, maybe, since it’s a circuit that’s common as dirt. The function of the capacitor is the same, but at the output of the rectifier. What you have with a DC three-phase welder is an AC-AC step-down transformer followed by a rectifier. Normally in constant voltage DC supplies you’d have a smoothing capacitor at the output of the rectifier. The welders don’t have it, since the 3-phase supply provides enough overlap at the rectifier output that the voltage never drops to 0V. With typical US and Canadian split-phase supplies, the phases are 180 degrees apart and both phases go to 0V at the same time. So all you need is a smoothing capacitor at the output of the rectifier, and it’ll be as good as with a 3-phase supply or even better. A certain minimum amount of capacitance is necessary since below it, the capacitors you have will carry way too high of a ripple current and will overheat. So the ripple current rating is the primary driver of cost here: once you got enough capacitors in parallel to handle the several hundreds amps of ripple current, you also got enough capacitance to keep the DC voltage quite steady - probably smoother than the output of a 3-phase rectifier. With some care put into overvoltage shunting, 50V electrolytic capacitors could be used when the rated no-load output is 30V or so.
Super cool! Your explanations are amazing. Only thing I'm curious about, though. You're using the same power supply for both MIG and stick welding... MIG requires constant voltage and stick requires constant current for any degree of success. The transformer setup appears to be for CV, just wondering if you could elaborate a bit more on that
I was wondering about this! It seems like the current would be varying wildly... But if it's just for an amazing test, to burn up a lot of current.... Maybe that will be discussed later. Maybe that was ALREADY discussed, a lot of information went by here, will probably watch this several times, and show it to some students as well!
19:30
I actually did that with an 80V 100.000µF cap (huge thing) and a big bridge rectifier on my old welding transformer, that was a hell of a bang, the tip of my 3.2mm electrode was just gone xD
Actually it was quite a lot of fun so I did it a couple of times more until the whole electrode was gone :D
That 'heat sink' rectifier reminds me of a selenium rectifier. I ran into one a few years ago repairing an old shop size battery charger, and learned about them. The plates are coated with selenium and were used before diodes were available/used. When they get old, the selenium coating wears off the metal plating. When that happens, a funny thing happens. When you put electricity to the worn selenium rectifier, and there is an arc at the worn spot, make sure you have fresh air, or are outside. It is a HORRID rotten egg smell, quite similar to already eaten eggs, if you get my drift! LOL
MY thought was, oh, it's probably not that bad, and it's 30°, outside right now, so I'll work on it, inside. Bad move. very bad move. Glad my wife was out of town, or I would have been sleeping alone, because she would have been at a hotel... LOL
I was able to remove the stinky selenium recifier and replace it with a modern, full bridge rectifier, and had great battery charger. I also added a resettable circuit breaker for overload protection. Most battery chargers have circuit breakers, but they typically die.
Really enjoy these kind of videos! Very informative, detailed and well structured just like your repair jobs!
Fantastic explanation! And when you said it was around 25 minutes it felt like 10. Merry X-mas! :D
You are having a lot of fun. Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas and frohe Feiertage
Thank you Great video . You gave me the motivation to go and make some modification on my Lincoln DC welder. I look forward to more videos . Merry Christmas!!
Amazing difference between modern hobby welder and Retro Industrial welder, while hobby might well have alloy coiled transformer and very low duty cycle, those industrial units are pure copper coiled and you can literally run that at full chat all day long on heavy steel plate and you'd burn the welding tip out and over heat the shroud long before the transformer even gets warm at the end of a long day. The only problem I have found with industrial MIG welders is the amount of dust that gets sucked into the base unit that needs to get blown out regularly with air line at least every few months at least.
Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch!
One of your best videos in a long time! Great work on the drawings and diagrams. Happy new year
Excellent video. Merry Christmas. Have a very relaxed and enjoyable day with your family. See you in the new year..
Had to look up a new MIG welder. Not sure how this one performs at peak but trying to buy this new, it probably costs north of 4kusd. A 7kusd machine gets you 300A at 60% duty cycle. Peaks at 400A, 30% duty cycle and can maintain ~240A.
Meaning this is an amazing buy if you can reliably make a set of 'one time' repairs. (Netting another 10 to 25 years for only a few hundred as an investment)
We had to pay arr. 500 Euros for getting the 3 phase 440V power for our apartament and basement workshop . Then an additional 300E for the thick insulated cables to our distribution panel inside the house. Not cheap, but very convenient, considering the requirements of 3 AC's, oven, induction stove and so on. Added benefit : I have 440V3ph in my workshop.
Funny thing, my wife insisted we are getting this after I explained that the maximum 4.5KW supply for an apartament (acc to the national code) is insufficient even for the stove
Very good video.Waiting for part 2.Merry Christmas!
Merry christmas! The welder is a beast and I look forward to seeing it come together!
Nice job my friend, you produce very high quality content that is great supplemental material for anyone interested in EE projects
Love this kind of stuff! We have in Serbia too 3 fase power.Old things are build to last not to be trashed when broke, and keep the good work I want to learn where do you live in Germany, would love to see your shop, I myself have gathered trough the years enough equipment and stuff. Would love to get more into understanding and doing electronics, but turning 50 next years is old
So glad i went for a used industrial 3 phase mig welder.
However, there was a little gamble, my shed does not have a neutral.
So if the machine needed a neutral for example motor steering.......
Thank you for this informative video, merry mig mag ;-)
My shed is build about 150 meters away from a normal power source.
I have made a tap from a nearby waterpump, this pump only needed l1, l2,l3 and ground/pe there was no neutral in the cable.
Single phase is done with a transformer, 400 volts to 230 volts.
The transformer is 2000 Va, enough for my needs.
I installed the transformer in 2003, works very well.
Well euhhh, you get used too the hum ;-)
Frohe Weihnachte!
Happy Holidays TPAI
(regarding the part around 19:00 ) I thought that the capacitor connected straight after the bridge rectifier and then came the choke to smooth the current out and give a better DC output.
At least that's how I plan to convert my cheapie LIDL 100A buzz-box to DC. Will it work? Mal sehen...
Here in Norway we mostly have 230V 3phase DELTA system. no neutral and a local ground rail.
Three phase is common in rural properties and commercial properties in the U.K. In most urban properties the phases are split between houses.
You're great! Just fantastic with all the stuff you do. Extraordinary for sure!!! Merry Christmas!
24:18 if i was engineer in the 20th century i would connect all the secondaries in Y configuration, use the center tap as a ground and connect 3 diodes to the 3 wires (anodes to the 3 phases, cathodes in parallel output positive voltage) this way i save on diodes (which were rare and expensive back then)
but you'd get half wave rectification (half the power) only with star configured secondary and 3 diodes only. also for welding you need high current => delta configuration of secondaries is the way to go for high current.
each wave would be chopped in half but when combined they will overlap good enough. On average it would give almost half the voltage of full bridge rectifier, so if that is a problem you can wind twice as much windings on the secondary and also star configuration is better, because your coils use shorter wires therefore are cheaper to wind
it's not about voltage... google for half wave and full wave rectification. with half wave you are using half of the sine wave only => half of the available energy/power. to utilize the transformer to max available power rating you simply have to use full wave rectification.
yes this would make 50% of the secondary copper inactive, but everything else stays the same, except that you have less voltage drop on the diodes, you cut the price of 3 diodes and most importantly the chance of diode burning are lower (more reliable). depending on the copper vs diode price i think in some situations (such as the early 20's) this would be a better way to do it
You are so wrong... OMG
Wow. Sounds like English, but it's all Greek to me! Looking forward to the welding part. Merry Christmas.
You are lucky that most or all of the homes in Germany are supplied with three phase. In New Zealand where I live single phase 230 volts is standard it's vary rare to get three phase unless when your house was being built you asked for it but it's not cheap. But my grandparents place is supplied with it because when it was being built we asked for it but it certainly helps when you have high loads. Also I think is a great idea because you can distribute lights power and heating evenley.
Merry Christmas & happy new year to you !
With that inductor you can add HF start to the machine, so it will be a lot easier to start the MMA arc.
merry Christmas
I want you in my bunker when the apocalypse happens, that’s for sure!
You always want a German in your bunker and on your side when in need or war, they are resourcefull and veery capable technically, feeling wise German women are as warm as the Iceberg Titanic crashed into :D
Yes: This video was a very nice christmas gift for me. Thank you and keep up this good work!
Merry Christmas from Denmark :) when welding thin materiel like cars. i prefer the old machines. They have a more stable and powerfull base power. makes point welding much better
Thank you for this vid, you are a very clever man. Could you help me? I have a cheap flux core welder and the current, at the lowest setting, is too high for thin sheet welding so I want to reduce the current setting. The lowest setting I have is 60 amps. When I opened it up the power goes into a switch which, on low power, sends power to a coil. When this switch is on high power it diverts the power to another coil. How can I get reduced power from the low power coil, I thought of putting a variable resistor between the switch and the coil. What do you think? Thank you so much. Kind regards, Paul.
Good video. I was given an older Harbor Freight flux core 90amp AC welder that runs on 120 volts (These are cheaper entry level AC welding machines). I'm going to convert it to a semi DC machine with a single phase bridge rectifier and large capacitor. This machine has a switch that has two settings (high and low). This switch either controls voltage or amps. Can a rheostat or potentiometer take the place of the high/low switch to give greater control of the available volts or amperage in these inexpensive machines?
Haven't got a clue what he's talking about but i like his accent!!
Merry Christmas to you and the family.
What magnificent machine and your explanation is very good. Thank you.
Wieder ein gutes Video. Wäre interessant zu sehen, wie genau du zum Drehstromanschluss gekommen bist.
I have a question, or just asking your opinion,
I bought one of the new cheap arc welders, 120/240vac , 200amp, and the size of a shoebox, I also have a transformer based mig/ fluxcore welder, 120v, it has issues, it needs switches, and a new torch and leads, I was thinking of using the little arc welder to power the mig, only using the mig as the spool and feed, I would have much better current control, plus 240v possibly, I would still need the 120v for the feed, or I could make a transformer, to drop to 120v being it's only a amp or less in guessing, I would get a much better torch for the wire feed, with longer leads, around 2gauge ground lead, I don't ever need to weld with 200amps, the thickest I weld is 1/4" usually 1/8" or less, and usually thinner with the Flix wire, I also have a gas regulator with it, but haven't gotten gas yet, I have a much larger arc welder that is very capable of welding anything I would weld, seems it is 100% duty cycle, it is big and heavy , much heavier than any I seen at a local store, with a crank to raise the current,
Anyway , what is your opinion, they both do around 24vdc open circuit, do you think this frankenwelder is a good idea?
Excellent video. I look forward to the next.
thanks for the video , you will be able to run that welder all day no problems !! Merry Xmas from down under ...
WOW, YOU REALLY NAILED IT - *Great design explanation!*
Three phase primary "Y" source, "Delta" secondary output.
Got it!
Interesting single core transformer, three phase magnetic mystery... _How day doo dat?_
*Thank you and Merry Christmas.*
> How day doo dat?
That's advanced pixie wrangling... :-)
they do it in a single core transformer the very same way as they do that in a single core generator or a single core motor ;) the single transformer core is not a straight line it's like an "E" core with primary+secondary winding for individual phases on each leg of the "E" core so the magnetic fluxes are not fighting against each other.
It’s not a single core but a single magnetic circuit with two separate loops that only share a common arm. Thus the flux in each loop can be controlled independently, and there’s no “short circuit” between the phases. Each loop you can draw in a magnetic circuit can have different flux through it, just as every loop in an electric circuit can have a different current through it. In fact, magnetic circuits can be “morphed” 1:1 into electric circuits that have the same properties just in different units. Eg. magnetic reluctance is like electric resistance.
@@absurdengineering THANKS
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too. Keep up the great work with the welder. I would have to disagree with your choice of fans as a metal fan would be much better as the original equipment manufacturer intended. Sometimes you can find one for cheap on eBay and they deliver to your door. Love your detailed explanations and understanding of electricity too.