Fixing Welding Holes

If it's DC, it isn't jumping or cycling anywhere.

If it's an AC welder with a full wave bridge rectifier stuck on the end and no filtering it will be jumping from 0 to + or - depending on your polarity at a 120 Hz rate, with no excursion to the opposite polarity.

A poster inquired about making A DC stick welder and to this I say:

About 10 years ago I was at an auction and purchased A DC converter that was made by Century. I have never seen another like it and with Century being bought up I don't know if they are still available. I put this converter on my fathers Wards AC machine and it is still in use today. I now own a Century AC/DC machine that I purchased at auction 3 years ago and as my father passed away the day after Xmass this unit will be sold at his estate auction later this year. It's A nice unit to have as it can be turned off and on with a flick of a switch.

Good Luck. H.R.

"There is A very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

Well done George, that was a good effort, and a nice bit of lateral thinking.

Its not the point that you spent time building it, , the point is you BUILT it rather than BUY it.....and most people here will have done, or are trying to, do something similar most of the time..

Nice score on the diodes, too - something like that HAD to be used for something useful.....

I bought mine, the little cheapy one I got has all sorts of electronics on it as well as the DC business- its a LOT easier to strike, and more importantly, hold an arc with it. I also bought 20m of 15amp extension cable, wired up a dedicated 30 amp GPO as well... - it might be the new machine, or sheer pig headed persistence, and/or the new power in cables, but, one day, I noticed my welding was now going pretty good. (tested by jumping up and down on them - they didnt break, ergo, good enough..) Havent attempted vertical or upside down welds, but doing 4 units of welding at trade school this year (so I can do it...)

Oh, and the DC one has a carry strap so you can put it over your shoulder, only weights about 4 Kg. So I can cart it up the tower when I need to do something to an antenna bracket etc...couldnt do that with the old growler box...

Andrew VK3BFA.