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I've taken apart a bunch of batteries for this step and none of them have carbon rods in them, just a nail on the negative end and some bluish powder in a cardboard cylinder on the positive. How old were the batteries you were using? I did find a rod in an old hobby battery I had but its huge
very nice, high purity/quality carbon sticks can be found here for a steal http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=16_17_69&products_id=105 but they are kind of large so i cut mine down with a scroll saw, and made an arc furnace capable of melting steel (in small amounts, I E a couple of teaspoons or so)
A couple of things. One, Oxy-fuel glasses are usually around a shade 5, and with any arc welding, a minimum of atleast shade 7 is suggested (straight from textbook.) Goggles and shaded lenses are very inexpensive. There is no reason not to be safe when it comes to your eyes.
Also, you probably should use some kind of flux on your joints. An unprotected molten pool will absorb moisture and atmosphere, causing porosity and oxidization. (This is probably where your welds are breaking)
rough science this is the PBS website. unfortunate I own the DVD so I can't send you a link to the the video and for some strange reason my computer won't let me clip it out. BTW the show is right up the alley of this site. a bunch of scientists in the middle of nowhere having to build stuff with what they can find.
Rough Science it was call I think you can watch all the clips from this guys website it linked to one of the university sites in the UK ,my be the open university.or try this link. www.creative-science.org.uk/jph.html
Hello! Thanks for the idea! Soo many things you can do with a trainset transformer.
Afew questions... 1> Are you using the ac or dc output from the transformer? 2> What concerns are there for safety? (rubber matt to stand on? don't touch the electrode? ect..?) 3> Do you think i can use a regular 3/32 e6011 electrode and still get a decent arc?
cool! this seems like a potentially cheap and non-threatening way to get an idea of what welding is about. i may have to try this! regarding the pencil "lead" for carbon rod discussion, i'm guessing that the softness/hardness of the graphite might make a difference. hard leads are mixed with fillers like clay to obtain their degree of "hardness". a harder lead leaves less on the paper, where a "softer" lead is more purely carbon/graphite and leaves a darker mark. i'm guessing that a 6B or 8B might work better for arc purposes than an HB or a 4H, for instance. might be worth a trip to the art supply store for experimenting for those so inclined. anyway, interesting instructable, LinuxH4x0r. thanks for sharing!
Not without some serious modifications. If you just plug it in, then you're as good as dead doing this. 2000 volts at 0.5 amps can easily kill. You'll need to rewind the secondary to bring the voltage down to several volts at dozens of amps. While this is less deadly, the high amps can still kill or injure you.
Ummm... yes, current kills, but you need voltage to force it through you. You can't kill yourself with a 3 volt source that can supply 20 amperes, but you can certainly do so with a 500 volt source that can supply 120 milliamperes (note that at maximal current draw, both sources provide the same power). And I believe that I did say "high amps can... kill or injure you." Can you please clarify the point you are attempting to make?
What does the carbon rod do? I know they are typically a small point of short where it causes the tab to melt to fuse but just trying to figure out why that's used. I am semi-considering replacing the batteries of a laptop and I know the tabs are arc welded on and its preferred to weld rather than solder to avoid excess heat. The hard part is finding a good power supply for this. I had an Antec that didn't have any protection on the 5v rail, first time I made a wire turn red and melt! I see 85watt, what voltage does the transformer output at?
The carbon rod creates the point of heat on the metal. Those batteries are usually spot welded It puts out from 0-16 VAC Good luck! Be sure to keep me posted if it works
Somebody made a similar instructable, it was DIY cold heat soldering. The guy suggested using some strong amperage power supply (like my old dead pc power supplay, rated at 15amp (!) ) some thick wire (obviously; same as here) and, the fun part, the carbon rods were mere thick pencil leads. Pencil leads are actually made mostly of carbon, depending on the brand I guess. Perhaps if dismantling a battery is not possible, one could consider thick pencil leads? I've bought some 0.9mm leads from Steadler, found in any decent art supply store and business supply store.
I tried 2mm leads and they didn't heat up enough but .5mm snapped too easily. Computer supplies don't work for this because they shut off if there is too much current drawn
Hey, that's the part where you hack it to remove that emergency cutoff ;P Of course, doing so will probably result in melting the supply at some point, so cooling should be considered.
This does sort of work with thin aluminum. Just make sure your transformer is powerful enough and that it has some sort of thermal shut off so it doesn't melt. Post pictures of the results Thanks!
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Also, you probably should use some kind of flux on your joints. An unprotected molten pool will absorb moisture and atmosphere, causing porosity and oxidization. (This is probably where your welds are breaking)
this is the PBS website. unfortunate I own the DVD so I can't send you a link to the the video and for some strange reason my computer won't let me clip it out.
BTW the show is right up the alley of this site. a bunch of scientists in the middle of nowhere having to build stuff with what they can find.
www.creative-science.org.uk/jph.html
Afew questions...
1> Are you using the ac or dc output from the transformer?
2> What concerns are there for safety? (rubber matt to stand on? don't touch the electrode? ect..?)
3> Do you think i can use a regular 3/32 e6011 electrode and still get a decent arc?
Thanks again! I give you stars!
I think you have got that the wrong way around Xellers, Its the ampage that kills not the voltage
They;ll let you weld metal(but only 24 gauge metal)
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