Resistance-No Resistance wire welder

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tobarger

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awsum140

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No one has posted in this thread for quite a while. I finally got motivated and finished my "super duper, whizz bang" CD welder. It's got everything I wanted in a CD welder for coils and, maybe, some other capabilities as well. There is a total of 5800mfd of capacitance available, 330mfd, 470mfd, 2x1000mfd and 2x1500mfd. All switch in or out independently. The LM2587 module provides up to 60 volts and I brought the trimpot shaft out with a 1/4" shaft and a knob. There are five-way binding posts for the welding connections and a separate banana jack for the "high" side of the ohm meter as well as a 510 and 808 connector permanently wired to it. The ohm meter and volt meter are separate, independent, modules. Polarity of the welding terminal can be switched for convenience and the positive terminal is indicated by a pilot light to prevent mistakes with the ohm meter.. The input will take 6-18VAC or 12-20VDC and is not polarity sensitive. The input is fused and the output of the LM2587 is also fused.

If I had it to do again I'd skip the 1500mfd capacitors and only use one 1000mfd capacitor. I would add a 220mfd, and if I could find one, a 100mfd to provide more granularity for capacitance. All of the capacitors I used are rated at 250VDC, kind of overkill but a nice safety margin.

I've been using it for about a week and really like how it worked out. My previous welder was only capable of about 35 volts and produced welds that were rather unreliable. This one is doing a fantastic job at 48 volts with 800mfd on 32ga Kanthal to 30ga nickel. Rarely does a weld fail when winding a coil, a really big plus!

I did make a few, minor, changes from the schematic I posted previously. I'll post an "as built" later this week when I get time to revise it.







 

fogMann

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Nice job! I'm an electrical engineer (maybe you are too) and you designed this just the way I would have. I will, once I have the time to do so. I look forward to pics of the guts and schematic. Thanks for doing all the R&D and heavy lifting. I know that a project like this takes more time and effort than it seems.
 

awsum140

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Thanks, fogMann. I will post an updated schematic but the guts are kind of messy. I used point to point wiring other than a small piece of perf board for the bridge rectifier on the supply input, a filter cap and two fixed voltage regulators that run the meters and even that was point to point. I also used mostly 16ga and 18ga wire to minimize losses in the wiring. Assembly was a pain because I do things on the fly. Cutting the holes for the meters was a bit of a pain and fudging the shaft to extend the trimpot on the booster was a little tricky as well. I asked the designer of the boost board about using an external pot and I guess there's a problem with impedance with that idea, so I just extended the shaft for my own convenience. Actually a jewelers screwdriver would work through the same hole, just not look as nice.

One other note...if anyone is into coil building and rebuilding tanks check out rayon for a wick material. It is made from cellulose, not a polymer of plastic, so it is basically inert. It wick better and faster than cotton and there are no microscopic shards like happen with silica and fiberglass. Because it wicks so much better the coil stays wet even when hot which reduces gunk build up but does result in a higher consumption of liquid.
 

fogMann

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Someone please educate me here. I completely understand how these flash welders work. {experienced welder here} But what is the reason for having NR leads on a resistance wire coil? I scanned this thread with no real conclusion as to why this is done!
:):vapor::)

If you don't use NR lead-in wires, then the lead-ins will heat up (steal some of the power) as well. With NR lead-ins, all the power is delivered to the coil. If your setup has very short lead-ins to the coil, then it probably doesn't make any difference.
 

awsum140

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Someone please educate me here. I completely understand how these flash welders work. {experienced welder here} But what is the reason for having NR leads on a resistance wire coil? I scanned this thread with no real conclusion as to why this is done!
:):vapor::)

Basically what fogMann said, but in addition you don't want resistance wire where there are silicon washers and such, as in inside the base of a tank style atomizer with a "non-replaceable" wick. Even a replaceable/rebuildable head, for example a Pro Tank head, has a silicon washer in the bottom that will not do well with the high heat produced by bare Kanthal or nichrome. The overall improvement in efficiency by delivering as much power as possible to the coil is also a big plus.
 

AgentHoover

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Ok..im up to page 47 and things are getting more confusing by the moment,,,,lol.. there seems to be a lot of back and forth with regards to parts that are being used... i have a good idea on how to put this thing together with the LM board but i am totally lost on which parts to buy... could someone take that time to list the parts that i need...with UK links.. i have found the board needed and cap which i assume is correct ..maybe someone can check them for me... Board >>> 3A LM2577 DC-DC 50KHz Adjustable Step-up Power Converter Module | eBay and Cap >>> CAP, ALU ELEC, 1000UF, 50V, RAD Part # RUBYCON 50PK1000MEFCCC12.5X25 | eBay Could someone source the rest of the internal componets for me as i dont have a clue.. :(
 

Visus

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Ok..im up to page 47 and things are getting more confusing by the moment,,,,lol.. there seems to be a lot of back and forth with regards to parts that are being used... i have a good idea on how to put this thing together with the LM board but i am totally lost on which parts to buy... could someone take that time to list the parts that i need...with UK links.. i have found the board needed and cap which i assume is correct ..maybe someone can check them for me... Board >>> 3A LM2577 DC-DC 50KHz Adjustable Step-up Power Converter Module | eBay and Cap >>> CAP, ALU ELEC, 1000UF, 50V, RAD Part # RUBYCON 50PK1000MEFCCC12.5X25 | eBay Could someone source the rest of the internal componets for me as i dont have a clue.. :(

$25 bucks-- whoa might I direct ya to a maybe lower cost, free unit. I built mine at parts around the house cost. I could build 100 of em free if I did the legwork. It uses throwaway parts from disposable cameras, works great. The lm board welder is awesome if you wanna build the whole board yourself but if you just want a welder ---->


The Spark-O-Matic - Wire Arc Welding for coil making
 

awsum140

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Ok..im up to page 47 and things are getting more confusing by the moment,,,,lol.. there seems to be a lot of back and forth with regards to parts that are being used... i have a good idea on how to put this thing together with the LM board but i am totally lost on which parts to buy... could someone take that time to list the parts that i need...with UK links.. i have found the board needed and cap which i assume is correct ..maybe someone can check them for me... Board >>> 3A LM2577 DC-DC 50KHz Adjustable Step-up Power Converter Module | eBay and Cap >>> CAP, ALU ELEC, 1000UF, 50V, RAD Part # RUBYCON 50PK1000MEFCCC12.5X25 | eBay Could someone source the rest of the internal componets for me as i dont have a clue.. :(

See post #1408 for a full schematic and parts list for a fairly sophisticated CD welder. Its big advantage is that it goes beyond 35V and that the welding voltage is continuously variable, up or down. Capacitance is also selectable to suit your particular needs. It did cost me more than $25 bucks to build, but I am known for overkill and it works really well.
 

Firestorm

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Ok..im up to page 47 and things are getting more confusing by the moment,,,,lol.. there seems to be a lot of back and forth with regards to parts that are being used... i have a good idea on how to put this thing together with the LM board but i am totally lost on which parts to buy... could someone take that time to list the parts that i need...with UK links.. i have found the board needed and cap which i assume is correct ..maybe someone can check them for me... Board >>> 3A LM2577 DC-DC 50KHz Adjustable Step-up Power Converter Module | eBay and Cap >>> CAP, ALU ELEC, 1000UF, 50V, RAD Part # RUBYCON 50PK1000MEFCCC12.5X25 | eBay Could someone source the rest of the internal componets for me as i dont have a clue.. :(

Have you checked the link to the Instructables "step by step illustrated guide for building the welder" guide in post #1? There's a parts list and corresponding Digikey part #s that you might be able to use for cross reference to find them locally.
 
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