Print PDF
Favorite
Email
how to make a welder for under 5 dollars using household items.
I discovered this by accident and learned to utilize the arcs in welding.
the discovery went like this. I tried to power a magnet with 120 volts dc
instead of 120 volts ac, I was suprized when 1 inch arcs melted the wire
so I tried it with a wrench and screw driver and I knew I made a type of welder when the screw driver melted so 2 years later I got a camera and made this guide a day later.
ps i did not have a better main picture because the arc was to bright.
I discovered this by accident and learned to utilize the arcs in welding.
the discovery went like this. I tried to power a magnet with 120 volts dc
instead of 120 volts ac, I was suprized when 1 inch arcs melted the wire
so I tried it with a wrench and screw driver and I knew I made a type of welder when the screw driver melted so 2 years later I got a camera and made this guide a day later.
ps i did not have a better main picture because the arc was to bright.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Retrive the components
find the bridge rectifier ,or buy one got mine from an old projection tv
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
The "let go" limit normally for women is about 10.5 milliamps and 15.5 milliamps for men. You feel lucky?
It's the amperage that melts metal.
This instructable shows wiring that's too thin for the amperage, no safety fuses or even an on/off switch. Is that painter's tape insulating the rectifier?
The pics look like he's been striking arcs on his transformer iron.
This is just a suicide/fire hazard machine.
I flag this as inappropriate.
You're likely to be pulling a lot more than the 7 Amps that lamp cord is rated for.
Where's the fuses? Anything plugged into the wall needs them.
Be safe.
You are absolutely stupid, for thinking this is even remotely safe. Your wires are farrr to thin to be safe to use, and you probably didn't even solder the bridge rectifier on. As well as the fact that that little bridge rectifier isn't MADE to withstand so much current. You'd need a heatsink after maybe 30 seconds of welding, otherwise you may smell smoke, turn around, and find your little ball of tape on fire.
This is a terrible instructable, and in all honesty, is no different than just trying to weld with mains. The "electromagnet" is called an inductor. And, because you haven't filtered out the mains, it's acting as a sort of ballast, and preventing everything from blowing up.
Please, for the love of god, LEARN how this stuff works before calling yourself a genius, and posting this god awful instructable on the internet. Mains is not something to be fooling around with, especially with someone who claims to make a welder when a "screwdriver melted."
You sir, win a Darwin Award for general electrical ignorance.
dc on the other hand makes your muscles grip
AC and DC will both cause heart arythmia and failure. Any current greater than about 5mA flowing through the heart has a good chance of killing you, at 20mA death is pretty much guaranteed.
Given your subcutaneous (under the skin) resistance from hand to hand is about 2k Ohms, 120V will give you a 60mA shock, easily enough to be fatal. Even tough your skin resistance is higher (anywhere from 10k Ohm to 50k Ohm, depending on a host of factors), at a typical resistance of 20k, you're still going to get a 6mA shock.
As mentioned above, you can't let go of DC, whereas AC at least gives you a sporting chance. An added complication is that as your skin begins to burn, the resistance goes down and the current goes up until the skin begins to char. get across 120V DC and you WILL die!
It will not act as a transformer, like maker of this guide said, ".the magnet absorbs most of the current"
i made it just to show the concept. i dont even weld with it because it is dangerous but if you were to rewire it safely and put it in a nice enclosure it could work. it has a small duty cycle. you can weld for10 minutes then it hast to cool for an hour. but it can work