Resistance-No Resistance wire welder

[Lentulusbatiatus]

Nilbog.. when you change around to do the second join are you also swapping around which connectors the wires are in ? What I mean is it seems to weld better if the no-res/nickel is in the positive clip, so if you're having success one way stick to that when doing the second weld.
Personally I only use .23 Nickel for my no res with either .16 Nichrome or .20 kanthal and sometimes ribbon kanthal for the res wire.
Hope this helps.

 

[nilbog]

Nilbog.. when you change around to do the second join are you also swapping around which connectors the wires are in ? What I mean is it seems to weld better if the no-res/nickel is in the positive clip, so if you're having success one way stick to that when doing the second weld.
Personally I only use .23 Nickel for my no res with either .16 Nichrome or .20 kanthal and sometimes ribbon kanthal for the res wire.
Hope this helps.

ive tried everything. 1-7 seconds. different combos of res and no res. tried with the res in the stationary clip and with no res in there. swapping and not swapping.....even when i think ive got a good weld when i go to wrap a wick the welds break no matter how gentle i am. it's surely user error but i just cant get it been trying for days. whats crazy is it worked great when i first got it but now i just cant seem to get it

 

[Firestorm]

Here's what I do - try this:

Attach your alligator clips to your resistance and non-resistance wires. Make sure they are tight and holding the wires in place. I leave about a 1/4in to 1/2in of the wires sticking out from the very center of the clip - sometimes a wire may weld to a clip if it's too close. When you're all ready to join, lean one of your palms on the button and hold it there long enough to build up a charge. You can wait a few seconds or up to eight seconds if you want to make sure. Hold down the button and use it and the box as leverage to keep steady while joining the wires. IDEALLY, you want to overlap the wires about a mm or so, so they are touching completely (parallel and touching at all points). This is hard to do and you are likely to make some bad joins. Once they are joined, hopefully with a spark and a pop, you can release the button and inspect the join. Bending the wires at the join may reveal a bad join - you should try to see how good the join is so you can try again if necessary. You should be able to tug on the wire a bit, if not, try to rip it, maybe clip it, and try again.

FWIW - I've had welded wires fall apart when winding my coil, but probably not as often as when I was using knots.

 

[keighles]

Nilbog...
The only thing no one has asked is your power source. Not sure what the zapper uses, but is it fully charged?
Just trying to eliminate the easy things before advancing to more troubleshooting.
And +1 Firestorm ...I will have to try that myself.

 

[nilbog]

Big thanks to Firestorm and my buddy keighles for their help. By using FS's advice I was able to get a perfect weld on my first wire. I think that getting the wires perfectly parallel and thus getting a 1mm solid weld between the two wires has been one of my problems. But, after getting my first weld the second never seems to stick. If I get a bad weld, I will cut off the bad weld and try again. It's crazy I don't know what I'm doing wrong!

And keighles, not sure what you mean about fully charged. It uses a AA battery, and when I hold down the button for more than 1 second I get a huge pop and spark. Funny thing is my best welds seem to come from holding either for a very short time (about 1 second) or a very long time (about 6-7 seconds). I'm not giving up! Surely I will get it. Here are some things I've done/noticed:

1.) Cleaned the alligator clips with alcohol to make sure they are clean
2.) When welding, I find put my resistance wire in the stationary clip in the zapper. After I weld the two non resistance wires and go to remove from the clips, it seems that the resistance wire has welded to the alligator clip most of the time.
3.) I've also tried switching things up and putting the no res wire in the stationary clip and going with res wire in the "loose" clip. Doesn't seem to weld any better.
4.) I always get a huge spark and pop but I'd say in the past week I've tried 30-40 times and have only gotten about 3-4 good welds. And on these good welds only my first non res wire. When I go to do the second it won't stick. So yeah, I haven't made a single usable coil with this thing

Here's a pic of the zapper hope this is okay to post:

 

[keighles]

Glad to hear your getting your wires right, I was just wondering if your batteries where good. that is all.
The one I use, I have a 18650 in it.

 

[kingpin0089]

Hey guys. So I just finished building one of these little welders using the instructables link. I got everything from Digikey except the board, which I found at Amazon. I've got it to work a few times fairly well. But I can only get it turned up to 33.5 before it maxes out, and I'm having to hold the button down for around 15 sec to get any weld. Can anyone maybe shed some light on why I'm having this trouble?

 

[Firestorm]

IDEALLY, you want to overlap the wires about a mm or so, so they are touching completely (parallel and touching at all points).

UPDATE: I think it works better if you overlap the wires by .5mm or less.

 

[dsy5]

Hey guys. So I just finished building one of these little welders using the instructables link. I got everything from Digikey except the board, which I found at Amazon. I've got it to work a few times fairly well. But I can only get it turned up to 33.5 before it maxes out, and I'm having to hold the button down for around 15 sec to get any weld. Can anyone maybe shed some light on why I'm having this trouble?

Use a larger cap...

 

[kingpin0089]

Use a larger cap...

How much larger of a cap?

 

[dsy5]

How much larger of a cap?

Depends on what you're using now, but 50% more would be a good start. I haven't seen the build tutorial, so I don't know what they suggested, but a larger cap will give you a bigger charge, thus more energy. And I don't know if there is a series resitor in the charge circuit, but a smaller value will cut down the charge time.

 

[kingpin0089]

Its a 1000uf and 50v cap. The resistor is 3.6 ohm and 10 watt, I believe. So if I could get a 1500uf or 2000uf cap, you think that'd help fix the problem? Thanks for your help, its greatly appreciated.

 

[bapgood]

It's been a while since I have checked on this thread. Great to see people continuing to build their own welders!

I have found that a 2200uF cap has proved to be the most versatile for me and varying the voltage between ~27v-30v

I have welded combinations of following wire with the 2200uF cap:
-32g Kanthal
-30g Kanthal
-28g Kanthal
-0.5mm Ribbon Kanthal
-0.8mm Ribbon Kanthal
-32g Nickle NR
-30g Nickle NR
-28g Nickle NR


IMHO the cap size and voltage used are just the beginning and that good wiring, soldering, clamps, and technique are the key factors for a good and reliable weld.

I plan to redo my welder with a single 2200uF cap directly soldered in and a few other items to reduce connections and sure up the weld post and touch lead.

 

[dsy5]

Its a 1000uf and 50v cap. The resistor is 3.6 ohm and 10 watt, I believe. So if I could get a 1500uf or 2000uf cap, you think that'd help fix the problem? Thanks for your help, its greatly appreciated.

Yes, that would help - I'd shoot for the 2000µF as you can always hold the button down a shorter amount of time for less charge.

 

[kingpin0089]

Thanks guys. I found a 2200uf, 50V cap at Radio Shack. Plan to stick that in there tomorrow and see what I get.

 

[kingpin0089]

Just wanted to report back that I located the problem within my Zapper box. It ended up being the junk LM2577 board from Amazon. It was the red one. I received one of the blue/black boards from ebay today, installed it with my larger cap and I'm golden. Thanks to all who helped me along the way. I'm off to make Term coils for the rest of the night.

 

[Tezcatlipoca]

I got a Zapper and I've been having the same issue that Nilbog has been having -- I can get a perfect res/no-res join on the first pair, but when I try to add the second no-res wire section, it won't seem to attach. I'm using 30g Nickel and 32g Kanthal A1. I've tried following all of the advice in this thread, but no dice. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going wrong here?

 

[Lentulusbatiatus]

I really can't understand why there would be a problem with the second weld if the first is fine. Other than as I said earlier in the thread that the no-res was in the negative connection on the first weld and in the positive on the second weld. Apart from that there is nothing I can think of that would cause any difference.

 

[Tezcatlipoca]

I finally got it to work with 30g Kanthal and 30g Nickel after several tries. I'll keep at it -- maybe it's just a question of finding the right amount of time to hold down the button.

 

[bapgood]

I got a Zapper and I've been having the same issue that Nilbog has been having -- I can get a perfect res/no-res join on the first pair, but when I try to add the second no-res wire section, it won't seem to attach. I'm using 30g Nickel and 32g Kanthal A1. I've tried following all of the advice in this thread, but no dice. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going wrong here?

Try quickly cleaning your contacts with a file or some sand paper between welds.

I have experienced this phenomenon. While keeping the contacts clean and tight is important all the time, sometimes touching them up between welds helps and other times it doesn't and sometimes it welds consecutive welds fine with no dressing. I usually chalk it up to my lack of consistent touching skilz