I overclocked my Miller arc welder

actually, I just installed an old computer fan in there, because the original "gave up the ghost" after only 23 years of service. and because I had a dozen of those big ol' 115 volt AC computer fans sitting around doing nothing. you can SEE this project, illustrated in it's full glory, at

formatting link
call me a space cadet, but that's what I did... :-). I also considered cutting a big square opening into the case rear, and installing a big squirrel cage blower sticking OUT the back of the welder, but decided I didn't want to "kill" the shop space, or mangle-up my 'fairly new' welder that much...yet

have a nice day,

toolie

== replies by e-mail, if any, should remove the weirdstuff from my address before clicking send ==

Reply to
dave
Loading thread data ...

I am on my second Miller Thunderbolt, these to me are by far the cream of the crop when it comes to little stick welders for the home. I agree that the fan is the most problematic issue. The welder I have now developed a horrible screech some years ago which turned out to be the fan. I found that simply tightening down the mounting screws fixed everything.

If you blow these out every so often and lubricate the shunt like it says in the manual, they last a long long time. Well, you do have to keep to the duty cycle, which is of course their biggest drawback.

I don't use either the stock/standard wheel mount, the original power cord, or the original welding leads. I surplused the wheel mount kit, replaced the original power cord with 10-SO3 with a proper welder plug (although for many years I ran it using a 30/50A dryer plug), and replaced the too-short ground lead with a longer one with a 200A Tweco spring clamp, and replaced the too-long stinger lead with one the same length as the ground clamp. I tried using a twist-type rod holder but went back to the original Miller clamp type, works for me and it's easy to change if I ever want to.

I made a little cage for mine out of 1" square steel tubing. If you look at the bottom pan of these welders you will see that they are designed for bolting down, but the holes aren't quite punched out. I made the bottom frame for my cage, then set it on the ground and put the welder (sans cover) onto the frame where it would go, then drilled through the bottom pan using a small bit in a hand drill. Then I removed the welder from the cage, used the small holes to locate on, and drilled and tapped the cage bottom frame in 4 places 1/4-28, then drilled out the welder base plate for clearance and then it was easy to bolt the welder down to the cage bottom frame. Then I took the welder back out, finished fabricating the cage (which has casters) and painted it, then bolted the welder down and it's been in there ever since. You can see it in the back in this pic:

formatting link
(not the best pic, but you get the idea).

Were I to make that cage again, I'd add an electrical junction box on the side, with 2 outlets, and I'd wire the welder to the Jbox and run a 4-wire 220VAC power cord out of the Jbox. If you call the two 220V leads L1 and L2 and the neutral lead N, I'd wire one outlet from L1-N and the other from L2-N, and run the ground to the welder frame. I might even add a second box and use some power factor correction capacitors (run caps which would make the welder look less inductive, lowering the imaginary component of the current to it, allowing more margin on the wiring running to the welder). I'd also use bigger casters. This little welder is very portable on wheels when you have the top of a solid cage to grab onto, and a piece of plywood cut to fit the top makes a handy table in use. The outlets would be for 4½" grinder/sanders or anything else, just because I seem to always always run a 117V extension cord whenever I weld, so why not make it a little easier?

sorry for the long post, I like my Miller too ..

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

I can't tell from the picture if there is a hole under the fan in your "mount" or not. If not the fan isn't going to do much. Also you have about

1/3 of the fan that was there air, airwise. Not good.

Clif

Reply to
Clif Holland

I had a very similar tablesaw once (60's sears).

I have a feeling that the new fan is smaller than the original and has a lot less flow. Am I mistaken?

i
Reply to
Ignoramus28822

I have a minor quible about hooking the 110 fan to the neutral. In this case it IS neutral, newer machines will have the third wire as ground.

And i'd agree some other posters, looks like the airflow is a bit marg> actually, I just installed an old computer fan in there, because the

Reply to
RoyJ

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.