Help for first time welder

- J
- Jock
  
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posted
19 years ago

Sat, Sep 18, 2004 6:21 AM

I couldn't resist purchasing a near new CIG Compact Welder from Cash Converters the other day. I don't weld but it was a good buy and you can never have too many tools but.... when I tried it at home all would go well for a few minutes ie the welder would do its thing and i would begin my shaky attempts to weld but if i tried to run a bead for any more than a few seconds the power would cut off courtesy of the earth protect device in the main switchboard. I even tried it with a HPM earth leakage powerboard. Same result(except it only stopped power to the welder and not the whole house). Is this normal. It is rated for use on a 10 amp plug. Is it buggered and hence the reason for it being cheap or am I doing something wrong? Cheers Jock

- J
- John Ings
  
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posted
19 years ago

Sat, Sep 18, 2004 1:13 PM

Check the thread in this newsgroup starting 9/16 titled "welding vs GFI"

- B
- Bruce L. Bergman
  
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posted
19 years ago

Sat, Sep 18, 2004 6:34 PM

Do you /have/ to hook it up through a Class A (3 MA) GFCI device to get it power? there should be a regular branch circuit available, or you may have to get a local electrician to install a circuit especially for the welder. (Not difficult or expensive, usually.)

(Yes, I know you're in Oz. The voltages and equipment are all slightly different, but the theories are the same...)

Wait just a minute here, the GFCI devices in main panelboards (400A breakers and above - sometimes way above) are meant to protect against big ground faults in the panels or conductors leaking 20 to 50 Amps or more to ground before they actuate (to keep the panel from arcing over and reaching total meltdown before the breaker trips out), not at the milli-amp leakage levels that a bathroom GFCI protects against... You're tripping THAT one out?

For tripping the main, I'd check the welder out - it may be a poor design, have an internal fault, or be wired wrong at the receptacle.

Or as someone brought up, it may need some serious RFI filtering with big ferrite beads or other devices, to keep the RF Hash in the power leads from getting back to the breaker panels. Something that should have been designed into the welder in the first place...

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