Here's the back story, I've been working on chain Maille projects for a few years now, everything from micromaille to armor.
Recently, I decided to build a welding aparatus in order to close my links permanently. I havent begun building yet, or even collecting supplies as I am still in the 'design' phase.
I've heard of people building spot welders out of cannibalized microwave transformers as well as capacitor discharge welders.
I havent decided which type I am wanting do. i've found decent plans for building both, though I question which would work better.
Here is the link to the capacitor discharge welder i found.
http://www.philpem.me.uk/elec/welder/
I planned on tweaking the design a little bit, as some of the parts have not been easy to find.
the better looking plans for the transformer based one I found through www.instructables.com
I guess my overal purpose in posting this, is I need some advice. I'm not quite sure on all the pros and cons of using one vs the other. (I am especially rusty on my capacitor theory) I plan on using it for several different gauges of wire and for wires of different composition. I was also thinking of using different size electrodes based on the wire gauge I am welding. I know I will need to be able to vary the amoung of current being output through the electrodes, though if i go with the capacitor discharge welder, would I also be able to vary the duration of the discharge.
I appologize if my thoughts aren't entirely coherant. I am open to any and all suggestions/comments, etc.
Thanks in advance.
Mike
Recently, I decided to build a welding aparatus in order to close my links permanently. I havent begun building yet, or even collecting supplies as I am still in the 'design' phase.
I've heard of people building spot welders out of cannibalized microwave transformers as well as capacitor discharge welders.
I havent decided which type I am wanting do. i've found decent plans for building both, though I question which would work better.
Here is the link to the capacitor discharge welder i found.
http://www.philpem.me.uk/elec/welder/
I planned on tweaking the design a little bit, as some of the parts have not been easy to find.
the better looking plans for the transformer based one I found through www.instructables.com
I guess my overal purpose in posting this, is I need some advice. I'm not quite sure on all the pros and cons of using one vs the other. (I am especially rusty on my capacitor theory) I plan on using it for several different gauges of wire and for wires of different composition. I was also thinking of using different size electrodes based on the wire gauge I am welding. I know I will need to be able to vary the amoung of current being output through the electrodes, though if i go with the capacitor discharge welder, would I also be able to vary the duration of the discharge.
I appologize if my thoughts aren't entirely coherant. I am open to any and all suggestions/comments, etc.
Thanks in advance.
Mike