10 Amp Welders

[Sawmaster]

Its a case of buyer beware until more information presents itself.

G'day Grahame.

I bit the bullet and bought it this morning, set it up and turned it on. My shed has a dedicated line with a 16 amp circuit breaker in the house fuse-box. First thing I noticed was a lot of chassis vibration noise, so I decided to attach the wheels which I thought would be useless and the vibration lessened.
I loaded a 3.2 mm rod and set it 140 amps to start with.

About 30-40 seconds into the weld, it quit. I had used less than half the rod.

At first I thought the plug may have worked loose from the power-point but it was OK. Then I thought "oh my God, it's already overheated!?" I felt the chassis and the 3 metre 10 amp extension chord and they were both very warm. I waited the obligatory 3 minutes according to the manual but the power didn't return. Then I thought "oh my God, it's tripped the circuit-breaker?" I checked it and sure enough, it had.

Packed it up and returned it. The salesman was convinced that the circuit must have been overloaded with other appliances but I assured him this was not the case. Took a while but eventually my money was returned.

I've operated various 2400 watt tools from the shed circuit without a problem.

Dud welder or should I get the circuit-breaker checked? It's around 15 years old.

[Grahame Collins]

I know circuit breakers are not the ultimate answer in that they can fail,but aren't they supposed to do that before you let the blue smoke out of the machine?
The breakers that I have seen are clip ins and can be replaced if faulty.

Why not try plug in a known "good" tool and briefly give it a rev .If it works ok you can be pretty sure its the welder at fault.
Good job you got your dollars back.

Grahame

[Bloss]

Just my two bob's worth - I reckon if you are gunna weld in your shed you need a dedicated 15amp circuit no matter what welder you have. That also means that the main cable into your shed need to be large enough to take the light circuit (if you have one) a standard 10amp GPO circuit and a single 15amp circuit.

Another observation - if you buy a welder with a maximum current and you regularly need that amount for the welding you do, you will always run into problems. You can be sure that the duty cycle of that welder will be 25% or less at the rated maximum - which means to use it without problems you can weld for one minute and rest for 3 or weld for 5 mins and rest for 15.

Thats' one of the reasons for extra price - high duty cycle rating (and that comes because of more robust construction). Running the welder at maximum rating for even short periods is not advisable - most buy a welder that has a larger max-rating than they expect to need and run it mostly at 60%-70% or so with a draw on the maximum for small jobs and intermittent use.

For example I have an ancient, but well made, Abel 135A Arc Welder (stick) - most of my welding with 1.5-2.5 rods it between 85A and 110A - but I have welded 12mm thick steel girders in multiple passes at 135 - taking my time though.

[BRADFORD]

16 amp circuit breaker would indicate that the cable to your shed is not very large and if the length is quite long, voltage drop could be your problem.
Depending on cable size and length, when you operate your welder at 140amp, the voltage could drop to 200volts or below on the primary side with a corresponding increase in current thus causing the c/b to trip

[Vernonv]

arc volts should be varying between 20 and 30 though for a good weld??

Absolutely, but I guess if they manufacture to a price, weld quality probably isn't a top priority. What I was trying to demonstrate is that a manufacturer could "legally" sell a 170amp welder capable of being plugged in to a 10 amp socket if they wish ... but I sure as hell wouldn't buy it.

There's no way it will pull 170 amps from a 10 amp outlet

Yes you can (I assume your talking welding current).

[Dobre]

If the welder cut out after only burning 1/2 a rod i would not be happy. Did you try the welder at another power outlet or even at a mates place before returning it?Upgrading the circuit breaker would not hurt either.

[soundman]

If you are going to pop a 15/16 amp breaker in 30 seconds, the welder is drawing a heap more than 10 amps.

Any breaker should hold indefinitely at full rated load, depening on how it is rated, it should hold twice its rated value for anywhere up to a minute.

Now the old transarc easywelder came fitted with a 15 amp plug and they were flat out at 120 amps, and not for very long,and the terminal volts on those was recconed to be pretty baggy.

My new mig/stick/tig machine, which is inverter is suposed to do 180ish amps from a 15 amp outlet

170 amps from a tranny welder on 10 amps.......(in the voice of Dick Strawbridge) " I DON'T THINK SO".

cheers