Build A Microwave Transformer Homemade Welder
Build A Microwave Transformer Homemade Welder
Build A Microwave Transformer Homemade Welder
Table of Contents
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
step 5: Schematic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
step 7: Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
step 8: Weld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Microwave-Transformer-Homemade-Welder/
intro: Build a Microwave Transformer Homemade Stick/Arc Welder
I had no idea making a DIY welder would be so easy to do. And, it's pretty much FREE!
Additionally, the stick welder you get is definitely better than anycheap commercial welder you can buy.
Why is this homemade thing better than something you can buy? Because when you factor in shipping and labor and the little bit of retail markup - the companies that
make typical cheap buzz boxes will skimp on copper as much as possible. Whereas you can use enough copper in this to make something really juicy, and still spend
less, to nothing, compared to a store-bought arc welder.
People throw out microwaves all the time, if you keep your eyes on the curbs.
Or, you can get microwaves at the local thrift store for $10 each.
Try the warehouse that processes donations - they have to pay to get rid of tons of broken ones.
Disclaimer: High Voltage ELECTRICITY and lots of CURRENT! Heat, electrocution, and DANGER! You could die and you could go blind.
Here are the really good how-tos that this project is informed by:
build a 70 amp welder
the tiny tim welder by tim williams
home made welding machine (via afrigadget)
And here's the quickest way to make a DC welder with a bunch of 12 volt batteries.
Image Notes
1. sparks! The good kind, from the weld, not the bad kind from the welder.
2. me welding
3. call me Flashdance.
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step 1: Dissect the Microwaves
Invite your non-hardware oriented pals over to help help dissect your donor appliances.
They'll love it. David Grosof donated one of these microwaves under the condition that we take it apart together.
Image Notes
1. microwaves are full of surprises - smelly sneaker surprise!
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Image Notes Image Notes
1. microwave guts! 1. Big Cinder: earth after global warming?
2. transformer: save this and use it! 2. very long screwdriver
3. front panel electronics: recycle! 3. five-bit switcheroo screwdriver
4. MAGNETRON: coolest name ever! 4. Star Simpson's dismantling-microwaves face
5. AC power cable: save this and use it later!
6. fan: recycle!
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Image Notes
1. this is the magnetron. it's good for tronulizing magnetoids. by which I mean, it
produces 2.4GHz radiation.
If you do, you could create shorts where two windings conduct to each other, allowing electricity to bypass certain parts of the coil, making effectively a smaller coil, and
creating something different than what you expect at the output. Or, you might chop the connection entirely, ruining the primary. So do your best to keep it intact.
Image Notes
1. Primary windings - powered by the gods of walljuice. Don't harm these in
any way.
2. Low-voltage winding for filament current or somesuch thing to feed the
magnetron. Remove this.
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Image Notes
1. use a sharp chisel to cut the copper winding
Image Notes
1. after chiseling, pound the wiring out. be really careful to keep the primary
intact, with no nicks.
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Image Notes
1. the disemboweled remains of the transformer secondary coils. This is at least a
few pounds of pure copper. Sell it to the scrap yard for $4.50 a pound and take a
nice trip.
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step 3: Get some 24 foot chunks of ten-guage wire
We scavenged some heavy wire from an old powerboat the owner was scuttling.
We stripped the outer jacket off and separated the inner conductors to wind new secondaries
on our transformers.
Video
Image Notes
1. Star is skinning the 24 foot anaconda
2. this bike innertube creates tension for stripping away the wire jacket. the other
end of the cable is C-clamped to the table.
3. Screwdriver pounded into the pavement temporarily.
4. Mr. Fireface is mobile now. A cozy glow whereever you're working.
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step 4: Wind the new transformer secondaries
We wound 20 turns of 10-guage wire on each transformer. That's just about how much wire would fit into the available space. It took a little over 20 feet of wire each.
tip: draw tally marks on your table to keep track of the number of windings.
OUTPUT VOLTAGE = INPUT VOLTAGE * (NUMBER OF SECONDARY TURNS) / (NUMBER OF PRIMARY TURNS)
Our primary has 100 turns and gets connected to 100 volts AC. We're winding 20 turns on the secondary, so we'll get about 20 volts out.
The available POWER STAYS THE SAME regardless of what the output VOLTAGE is.
POWER (WATTS) = AMPS * VOLTS
If the primary is made take 1000 watts (100 volts * 10 amps) out of the wall, we'll be able to take 1000 watts out of the secondary. With 1/5 of the windings, we can draw
50 amps out of the secondary.
Let's just say we're going to pull a whole lot of amps, which is why we need to wind our secondary with such thick wire.
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Image Notes
1. use a flat bar as a wedge to make space for more windings.
step 5: Schematic
It's a pretty simple circuit.
In fact there's nothing in it except wire!
We'll take two transformers and wind low-voltage secondary windings on them with thick wire.
We'll put the secondaries in series with our welding rod and workpiece.
We'll plug the primaries into the wall.
I really like the way aaawelder put it: "do not include yourself in this circuit"
Image Notes
1. welding rod
2. ground clamp
3. workpiece
4. New 10 guage low-voltage high current secondary windings
5. electrode holder
6. To use this unit on 220 volts put the primaries in series rather than parallel as shown here
7. existing primary windings
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step 6: Wire your two transformers together
Why do we use two transformers?
Just one of these isn't big enough to make a really juicy welder.
If you happen to find a big enough transformer somewhere, feel free to use that.
Video
Video
Video
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Image Notes
1. Wire Nut
2. Three wires twisted together
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step 7: Test
Get out yer voltmeter:
Here's the test to make sure the secondaries are both pushing the same direction.
Our two secondaries in series produce 38volts AC with no load. That seems about right.
If they'd phased wrong it could have been fixed by reversing the wiring to any winding.
Where Tim says "out of phase" in the video, he means "in phase". That is, the center tap should be less than the outer two leads, and if things weren't that way, the
transformers would be fighting each other, or phased wrong.
Video
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Image Notes
1. Non conducting shoes. Not standing in a puddle of water.
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Image Notes
1. check the heat - these didn't really get warm, which is a great sign!
2. Radioshack autoranging multimeter. The best deal I know of for a little meter.
Why hasn't progress happened?
step 8: Weld
holy cow, it works!
We wanted to add a series inductor to give the unit more "inertia", but it didn't matter!
Video
Built your welder, but not sure how to weld? Check out the instructional videos on youtube - search "how to arc weld". They're very good.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Microwave-Transformer-Homemade-Welder/
Image Notes
1. scratch start technique
2. Awesome first weld bead!
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Image Notes
1. insulated glove for grabbing the electrically active vice grip
Image Notes
1. sparks! The good kind, from the weld, not the bad kind from the welder.
2. me welding
3. call me Flashdance.
We fired up our welder and I welded this bead across the diamond plate with 1/8" rod.
The arc was pretty short but it burned in well and felt pretty good once I got used to it.
I had to shove it in a bit more than I'm used to to keep the arc going, but sticking wasn't a problem. I welded a long bead and used up more than half the rod without
stopping.
That's the long weld in this photo.
Then I set the "torch" in this plastic tub so it wouldn't short out to anything.
I checked the transformers, and they didn't even get warm!
3/32" rods are less likeley than 1/8" to blow a circuitbreaker though. For your first welds get 3/32" 6013 rods.
6011 rods have thinner flux and make it easier to see what the metal of your weld is doing, but tend to spatter a bit more.
Udate 4/16/2008:
This is now my favorite welder. I made new leads for it from a pair of jumper cables. I left one alligator clamp on for a ground clamp, and added a $6 electrode holder. I've
taught a bunch of people to weld using it.
The next photo is Ita welding for the first time, making an awning frame. That project was welded with this welder by total beginners using 3/32" 6013 rods. As you can
see we have every other kind of welder, but the homemade ones are more fun.
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Image Notes
1. It burns back into the coating, making it easy to maintain enough distance.
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step 10: Welding Stainless Steel
We needed some brackets for Solara's mizzen mast.
So we went to the welding store and bought some 3/32" "Hobart Smootharc+ 316L - 16" stainless welding rods. They're only 12" long because stainless has high
electrical resistance and they get really hot.
After much designing and sketching Victor, Kenny, and I cut, drilled, bent and welded these brackets. Very easy. When it cooled the flux went "tik" and fell off the weld.
The dark area around the weld is soot from the flux.The welder could have handled much thicker rods due to stainless' high resistance and low thermal conductivity.
Important:
Use a fresh grinding wheel on stainless, or one that you only use on stainless.
You'll get rust if you use any abrasives that have been used on non-stainless steel. Same for the wrong wire brush. It will smear rustable iron on the stainless, and due to
galvanic effects it'll rust quick if it gets damp.
Hooray! Where did I get the idea you needed TIG for stainless? Stick welds on stainless are just great!
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step 11: Dimmer Control and Welding Thin Wall Tubing
The welder was too hot for thin-walled tubing frames, I kept melting holes even with the 1/16" 6013 rods. So I plugged the welder into a variac dimmer and turned the
power down about 30%.
That gave me very fine control over power. Marc Lander and I did some very nice welds as seen here. After a few we got good enough to do the same welds with 3/32"
6013 rods and no dimmer and not burn holes.
More tricks - I used my left hand to feed a piece of mig welding wire into the weld to add more metal in and soak up the heat. Here's Marc doing that. Any wire is fine for
this, coathangers are traditional for muffler work. Sand off the paint first if you don't like fumes.
Stopping to eat lunch helped a lot also. Your welds won't be good when you're shaky and tired.
I got my variac for free, don't buy one for this, they cost as much as a welder.
A solid-state dimmer that's rated for inductive loads does the same thing and costs a lot less.
If you're feeling particularly fancy, you can add in your own scr-based switching circuitry to vary the power, like this guy did.
Image Notes
1. Nice Weld
2. automobile jumper cable ground clamp
Image Notes
1. Darth Vader doing crafts with his lightsaber on the weekend
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Image Notes
1. Mr. Variac a.k.a variable center-tapped autotransformer
2. Jumper cables
3. jumper cables. How many times in your life can you pull apart a zip-cord this
big?
4. handy welding magnet
5. Handy non-vicegrip electrode holder should bring great joy to safety lovers
everywhere
6. rewound microwave transformers
7. Your pal ms. Wire Brush. Brush rust away before welding, brush flux away after
chipping.
8. Your pal ms. Hammer. Use to chip flux and peen the weld to reduce stress from
weld freeze contraction
Here's a video I got from Paul du Buf, of the Netherlands (nice case, Paul!)
Video
'
Cheyyne said:
Hey there, here's my welder based on your instructabletion. It outputs 35.5v, because the
transformers were a little smaller than yours I think (couldn't wind a single more turn). So far I
have managed to lay down gobs of metal on various steel objects in my garage, but I still suck
at welding. Luckily I rented a nice welding video from Smartflix that had good reviews, hopefully
that'll give me some insight into the process. I did manage to lay down a 1" bead though! The
whole thing is going into a tacklebox housing.
Heres another one, same basic welder, but its housed in a .50 cal ammo can. Looks pretty
sweet. Its relay controlled ( two 15 amp HVAC control board relays wired in parallel) , I
measured 24 volts ac across the output wires.its also sorta heavy, 30 pounds.
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Image Notes Image Notes
1. llamafur's welder 1. llamafur's welder
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Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 429 comments
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Microwave-Transformer-Homemade-Welder/
aaawelder says: Sep 5, 2009. 9:38 AM REPLY
I thank all that have built my welder and those that are under construction. The link above ( Build A 70 Amp Welder ) pointing to the AAAWelder site, is no
longer valid. My new address is: http://aaawelder.com where everyone is welcome.
When I first got this 'done', I took it to work to check the output. Wouldn't you know, that was the day the electrician at work spent all day on a welder that
was down (plus, I think he thought it was just plain dangerous; never got to check mine). There were quite a few comments about blowing fuses, someone
getting hurt, etc.
Today, it was a little 'sticky' at first, but then, a nice thin bead, twice. Then a friend of my son tried it. He couldn't believe you could build a welder from 2
microwaves and will now be looking for a couple of them.
This opens up SO many possibilities. I am SO thankful you posted this project and I found it. I want to build bikes, shelving, a garden gate, telescope
equipment, more. REALLY, this is impressive, saved me money, and every now and then I need a success at something, like this. Christmas comes each
year. Building my own welder, having it finally succeed for the first time is much more rare.
For the record, Tollef is my son. I used 12 gauge wire instead of 10. I have about $20 in it. Everything ran fine. Nice smooth bead. I used 5/64" E6013 rod.
Again, Thankyou !!!
I'd like to know if I can upgrade my arc welder (a small, cheap one), with this method.
What I mean is: if I Wind a larger copper wire in the "transformer" would it work?
Thank you
Miguel Guerreiro
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Guerreiro says: Aug 10, 2009. 1:37 AM REPLY
Good day to all,
Could you please informe me if one can upgrade a arc welder with this method or a symilar one ?
Thank you
Miguel
I'm not really sure if using 4 transformers with 10 would be better than 2 with 20 from an electrical standpoint because I just woke up and really
don't feel like working the math, but trying to get 20 turns of 10 ga. wire onto a microwave transformer can be tricky.
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Sorry for the extraneous information... I just think this stuff is cool.
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The Lightning Stalker says: Jul 15, 2009. 10:27 PM REPLY
You can remove the paper/mica everywhere except around the shunts. The shunts regulate the coupling between the primary and secondary. Removing
them all could possibly cause a dead short when you go to weld. Less shunts means better coupling and higher current, but the windings get hotter. If
more current is what you're after, just use more/bigger transformers.
Next step tomorrow is making the secondary winding and testing everything. I'll only make 1 transformer as 1) I only had 1 oven so far 2) I'm a real beginner
and want to start slowly/ (more) SAFELY.
I was happy I could have the help of a professional electrician today. It's a luck I could salvaged some time from him. I was told how to safely dispose of the
capacitor: I didn't discharged it, instead I unplugged it safely and I put it aside until I will go deliver it to my local hazardous stuff dump, where they know how
to take care of it. Shorting the capacitor could have resulted in it exploding, of some sort, he added. Good thing to know, not good thing to test.
I also asked him about 10 gauge wire, which he told me was safe for 30 amps but not enough for 50 amps. I thought I'd give a try anyway for my current
transformer and monitor carefully the heat. More over, I've got out my über car jumper cable (they're... huge...(thickness)) which could handle probably much
more, however I couldn't wind this in any way.
Brief, I am happy because today I learned and confirmed a lot of useful things, which will let me have a nice and safe experimenting. I think it's better to have
a welding machine that took a couple of days to build safely instead of a welding machine built on the go because I was too excited for safety as well as burn
scars.
|**||**|
To get these out, since they were stuck and I couldn't push them, I drilled through them with a cheap drill bit. You'll have to remove it often and clear all the
bits of copper and DON'T TOUCH IT, it's going to be frickin' hot.
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