Homemade Welder ...

[DanarchyCustoms]

Anybody in the market for a new welder?

Craigslist - Homemade Welder

An added bonus... it works!

-or-

What about an air pump?

Craigslist - Old Air Pump


I, in no shape or form, am sponsoring this ridiculousness or advertising it.

 

[RedneckWelder]

I don't know quite why but you know what I think I'll stick with my Hobart Stickmate instead of this fine piece of machinery.

Also same goes for my Porter Cable 60 gal compressor I just brought.

 

[zkling]

If you were a true redneck, you would rather have the homemade job.

 

[AceofSpad3s]

What could possibly go wrong!?

 

[Farmall 1066]

The wood frame would be your thermal limiter!

 

[redmondjp]

Make fun of that homemade welder all you want, but have any of you ever taken apart a consumer-grade arc welder? I'd say that the homemade one is actually better constructed and probably has a higher duty cycle to boot.

 

[DanarchyCustoms]

I'll only buy it if someone wound all that wire by hand.

 

[paulsomlo]

All it needs is some blue paint.

 

[Super Mech]

Don't laugh. I actually made a stick welder out of old microwave oven transformers following the videos on youtube. I was curious after watching the videos a few years ago and i decided to make a project out of it. While it will stick 2 pieces of metal together, it has no heat controls. Just zap and go! Pretty cool project.

As for the DIY compressor- been there done that also. When I was about 15(now 50) I saw some plans in an old Popular Mechanics magazine. It used a York a/c compressor as a pump. I used a old propane tank from a forklift, found an electric 1hp motor in the trash. The only thing I had to buy was the pressure switch and some pipe fittings. I used that thing for years! Fun times!

 

[Jure]

Make fun of that homemade welder all you want, but have any of you ever taken apart a consumer-grade arc welder? I'd say that the homemade one is actually better constructed and probably has a higher duty cycle to boot.

+1 yep..it has higher duty cycle for sure

 

[Ign]

I know a guy here who claims to have done the microwave route for a homebrew welder. I've not seen it but as others have said, seems like a cool project but not practical for a great deal of actual use (regardless of duty cycle).

 

[John in OH]

Hey, these projects aren't as goofy as you may think!!

When I was about 14 (1964) I built a home-made welder as a 4-H project. A friend's dad was an electrical supervisor for a local mining company and provided loose wire and a scrap iron core and the instructions on how to build it. I spent HOURS insulating the wire and making the coils.

It actually worked OK! Output was about 90 amps AC and I could reduce this somewhat via a laminated iron block that could be moved inside of the main core. Got a blue ribbon for the project!!

About that same time I salvaged an old piston-type refrigeration compressor from a junk yard and built a compressor similar to that described by Super Mech above. Tank was an old air tank my grandfather had. That compressor would pump up a tire OK, but the capacity was low and I could never get the leaf-spring valves to seal tightly so max pressure was also limited.

Well, in hindsight maybe they were goofy projects, but for a 14 year old boy down-on-the-farm with his own welder and air compressor I thought I was really hot stuff!!!

IMHO, 4-H is, or used to be, one of the finest programs a young kid can join.

 

[G_P]

In 3rd world countries, home made welders are very common. The on in that CL ad looks well built and probably works great.

 

[Ign]

York compressors are still done regularly for OBA (onboard air) on trail rigs. Alternator welders are less common but more practical than a microwave for remote vehicle use. Then again 2 batts in series works pretty damn good in a pinch.

 

[wiens80]

There's probably more then $100 worth of copper on that welder. I wouldn't have the heart to, but someone could probably just buy it and recycle it, make a few bucks.