HF add on box

Geoff -

Give us a hint - what does your addon box have on it - 400A cables, 400A terminals ? or is it two winpy wires or two wimpy terminals...

Looking at my Miller 180SD Diagram - the HF is a LC osc with spark gap in the primary of a transformer - the secondary it the high current line to the Electrode / torch.

Do you have any documentation ? Or company name?

Martin

it is

- hasn't turned up yet and I am away from home for a while so I won't able to have a look at it until I get home again. Geoff (New Zealand)

Geoff, this might be of some help.

kept getting an error message, maybe you will have better luck. I couldn't see any mention of current ratings. Regards, John Crighton Sydney

That looks like the info. I have downloaded it to have a look at over the weekend. I will be home in a few weeks to have a play with it (it is sitting on my desk apparently) so it will be an interesting Christmas project. The seller seemed to think it was up to 400A - more than enough for me, as I only have a 150ADC (Lincoln SAE150 Top hat ) and a 300A buzzbox I can't turn up any more than 200A due to my 440V, 20A/phase limit Geoff

A 440V three phase supply at your house! Now that is a gloat if ever I saw one! Lucky you! Have Fun, John Crighton Sydney

Hum - 440 20 A sounds like a turned up one to me. A 220 motor driving a another that makes 3 phase. I would think any 3 phase branch circuit would be more than 20A to me.

Martin

Hello Martin, I think we are at crossed purposes. Geoff is one of the lucky people to have a 3 phase electricity supply at his house. I say "lucky" assuming he lives in a residential area in New Zealand

Even if it is "only" 20 amps per phase that is still good.

I live in an outer Sydney suburb in Australia and the local electricity supply company refuse to give me a three phase supply because I live in a residential area. I would love to be able to run 3 phase machinery.

I often read on this group about people only having

115V to run their gear. Compared to them, I suppose I am lucky to have 240V single phase on every regular power point in my house. Geoff is laughing! He can buy all that lovely used 3 phase welding equipment cheaply and run it without the motor stuff you were talking about.

Regards, John Crighton Sydney

I wasn't aware that 20 amps a phase was very high or there. 800VA a leg.

For a number of years, I worked at a company that used 3 phase 100 amp legs on 200 amp leg service. Consider 400 machines running in one plant!

I would love to have 3 phase, maybe in the next house. I suspect it would be generated from two phase, often used in rural areas.

Martin California on the left coast of the U.S.A. Living on the pacific plate.

3phase stuff is cheap - and being industrial, it will last the rest of my life. Tiki Tour at When we moved into the current house (workshop is in the basement) I was concerned that the I might have to sell my gear or change motors to run on single phase (or with a convertor). I previously had the whole workshop on a farm (where the Edifice still lives) had 3ph. Since I was putting in new wiring anyway, I rang up the power co - no problems and no extra line charges. Yes! This varies - friends of mine can't get 3ph with their power co, and another only because he told them he wanted to put in a 3ph heat pump air con system. It was really so he could run his 1cwt forging hammer... and yes, he has been getting noise complaints from the locals... If I wanted more than 20A per phase, I would have had to go onto an industrial plan for a lot more money. This lets me run pretty much everything, it is only the big welder that pops the fuse once in a while. The additional cost of putting in the 3ph (plugs, wiring, switchboard) was about the same as buying a 4kW converter bearing in mind we had the house in a million bits anyway, with new wiring being done, trenching and so on. It was money well spent. Geoff