Resistance-No Resistance wire welder

[dsy5]

I think I may have figured out what is going on with the silver...

On my attempt to finish the coil, I could not even draw an arc. I thought I had something wrong with the leads, but no. Then I wanted to measure the R to NR and I got infinity. What the hell.

What I did is take fine emery and cleaned the silver. Voila, perfect join! I think our silver is tarnished and we may be getting a bad connection, at least at the lower volts I'm using, and not a good weld with the higher volts most everyone else is.

Guys, try cleaning up your silver and see what happens...

 

[Sovran]

OK I have to know. Why is everyone trying to use silver if both silver and nickel are NR. 0 is 0 in math or any other language. It isnt taking extra batt power, and nickel is much cheaper.

 

[dsy5]

OK I have to know. Why is everyone trying to use silver if both silver and nickel are NR. 0 is 0 in math or any other language. It isnt taking extra batt power, and nickel is much cheaper.

Maybe because some have a boatload of silver wire previously purchased?

 

[comptechltd]

Maybe because some have a boatload of silver wire previously purchased?

I second that. This stuff goes in cycles. I bought my silver wire (quite a bit) when everyone was saying how silver was by far the best (better than nickel) and you had to use kanthal over nichrome. Things change.

Steve

 

[Sovran]

OK. I wasnt sure if there was some little detail about silver that made it worth the hassle and price to use.

 

[Lentulusbatiatus]

My component knowledge is that of a caveman lol and was wondering why people are opting for large caps, the ones i've used from cameras were only 80uf but they're welding very well in a very simple camera board set up.

Edit: using .2 kanthal + .2 Nickel.

 

[dsy5]

My component knowledge is that of a caveman lol and was wondering why people are opting for large caps, the ones i've used from cameras were only 80uf but they're welding very well in a very simple camera board set up.

Edit: using .2 kanthal + .2 Nickel.

The only reason for large caps is to be able to use a lower voltage to weld with; I wanted to see if a lower voltage would create less of a spark, thus avoiding the "tacking" that occurs. I figured its much the same as a real DC welder used for arc welding - you seldom see voltages much outside of the 40 - 80 volt range used to weld large pieces of metal. 'Course they're used with welding rods, so I dunno...

 

[gdeal]

340uf @ 75v = 956.25m Joules
2200uf @ 27v = 801.9m Joules
1000uf @ 35v = 612.5m Joules

The first unmodified camera welders were about 2 Joules and obviously a bit too much without a bit of tweaking. They do work though, and I made a month supply of great wires with it. 35v with the lm2577 is just going to be easier to build for people not wanting to start adding parallel caps and such.

I linked this earlier in the thread but will put it here again because I think it is useful in designing a working setup with salvaged parts: Electronics 2000 | Capacitor Charge / Energy Calculator

I did some energy range calculations for Pure Silver wire. Using gsa's calculator above and the calculated ranges below, you can target a specific voltage for a cap to get around the right level of energy required for a weld. There are probably other factors that need to be worked in to my calc but the math got a bit complex. The working voltage/cap combinations indicated by Breaktru appear to fit within my model. (My numbers are in joules, so just move the decimal point to match gsa's calc numbers). Someone may want to confirm....

Estimated Range of Energy in Joules
For Length of Wire Overlap
.999 Silver
Gauge	28	.
mm	Low	High
1	0.360556	0.686013
2	0.721112	1.372026
3	1.081669	2.05804
4	1.442225	2.744053
Gauge	30
mm	Low	High
1	0.200881	0.354586
2	0.401763	0.709171
3	0.602644	1.063757
4	0.803525	1.418343

 

[Sovran]

gsa, I cant find it now(thread size) IIRC you added another cap to the lm2577. can you point me to that post? I am waiting on last parts for the cam mod and want to build the LM mod to compare.


Follows directions easily if I can find them again.

 

[bapgood]

gsa, I cant find it now(thread size) IIRC you added another cap to the lm2577. can you point me to that post? I am waiting on last parts for the cam mod and want to build the LM mod to compare.


Follows directions easily if I can find them again.

Sovran, I'm not ragging....One of the features I use all the time is to search a thread by member name. Because like you I know that a specific user had posted a link/other in a thread and its usually faster than waiting for a reply.

 

[Sovran]

Sovran, I'm not ragging....One of the features I use all the time is to search a thread by member name. Because like you I know that a specific user had posted a link/other in a thread and its usually faster than waiting for a reply.

I will give it a try. So many forums I have been in you need to be a rocket scientist almost to use the search function, or get back 10,000 results.

 

[Sovran]

yep, just as I thought. It brought up this thread, I just dont know where. I have already done a quick scan twice and not found it. I guess I will have to wait for a response. Thanks anyway bapgood, it was worth a try.

 

[TomCatt]

This thread only (search thread at top of page - just above the first post on the page) searched for 'gsa'
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/search.php?searchid=14458007

 

[Sovran]

This thread only (search thread at top of page - just above the first post on the page) searched for 'gsa'
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/search.php?searchid=14458007

You lost me there TC. I tried your link and got no results. I went to the first page and tried the search box and was routed back to first page of this thread. Now I am wondering if it was this thread I saw the LM welder info in. My brain going into TMI overload. I dont want to be a burden just trying to find the post to know if he added another cap and what the specs of the cap are.

 

[bapgood]

Just trying to help...not overload

Try this...top of the page click search thread then click on advanced search

Then select search by posts and then the member name and then search

 

[bapgood]

You lost me there TC. I tried your link and got no results. I went to the first page and tried the search box and was routed back to first page of this thread. Now I am wondering if it was this thread I saw the LM welder info in. My brain going into TMI overload. I dont want to be a burden just trying to find the post to know if he added another cap and what the specs of the cap are.

I'm pretty sure its a 1000uF 50v capacitor...but not 100% sure

Edit....100% sure found this using the above method http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...-no-resistance-wire-welder-4.html#post8270323

 

[jmarkus]

You lost me there TC. I tried your link and got no results. I went to the first page and tried the search box and was routed back to first page of this thread. Now I am wondering if it was this thread I saw the LM welder info in. My brain going into TMI overload. I dont want to be a burden just trying to find the post to know if he added another cap and what the specs of the cap are.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...-no-resistance-wire-welder-8.html#post8382692

 

[Sovran]

@bapgood and jmarkus, TY, TY I really wish I had some 8 year old here to show me how you did this. ( not saying you are 8, just the old saying if you need to program your VCR, talk to an eight year old... You guys do know what a VCR is right? Anyway I should be the one getting teased not you. Thank you both, I can now complete my last parts order.

 

[jmarkus]

@bapgood and jmarkus, TY, TY I really wish I had some 8 year old here to show me how you did this. ( not saying you are 8, just the old saying if you need to program your VCR, talk to an eight year old... You guys do know what a VCR is right? Anyway I should be the one getting teased not you. Thank you both, I can now complete my last parts order.

haha, im an 8 year old boy in a 40 year old body...i may still have a vcr somewhere!

 

[gsa]

gsa, I cant find it now(thread size) IIRC you added another cap to the lm2577. can you point me to that post? I am waiting on last parts for the cam mod and want to build the LM mod to compare.


Follows directions easily if I can find them again.

Looks like you got the answer but I have updated the first post of this thread with the link to the BOM and schematic so it should be easier to find. Once everyone agrees on the "perfect" setup for a camera welder with BOM and schematic I will add that to the first post as well.

I have a 24v power supply here and a 2200uf cap, according to the calculator and breaktru's test, this should work as well. While it may not be the cheapest setup, it will certainly be the easiest. I will test it when I get a chance......