Tig Welder

Should I be worried about coil resistance, or will it be correct when paralleled?
 
Hi Skinner,

You need to be sure you have the coils in the right phase:

from the "start" of the 460v winding, at the 230v tap you need to wire the newly-free end that connects through to the "finish" end to the "start" wire, then the other new end (which will show continuity through to the "start") connects to the finish - so both windings coil the same way around the transformer core.

I've attached a Crap-o-CAD that should explain it better!

You can do a Proper Test to confirm if you're unsure, attach a small AC transformer to the secondary (arc) side of the transformer, not too many volts (you'll get quite a voltage increase), maybe 3v AC - 6v AC but with a few amps behind it (a good rating would be whatever the welder's minimum AC weld current is), and put the meter on AC on the mains side windings.

Connect what you think are the "starts" of the windings together, you should see little or (ideally) no AC voltage across the two "finishes" - if you see more than a few volts, swap one winding end-for-end and test again, if you suddenly have no volts showing - perfect, or you didn't join the wires up... If you have a lot more AC volts showing, swap it back how it was before!

Once you've got them what should be the right ways around, the 3v - 6v of AC into the secondary winding should deliver maybe 25 - 30v AC from the primary side as a final check.

As someone said, bear in mind that at full chat it's going to pull DOUBLE what it would on 460v, so size for 60+ amps - or keep the wick turned down!

Dave H. (the other one)

460-230.png
 
That is very useful information. That is how I thought it should be hooked up, but I'm no electrition so I didn't want to assume. I figured I needed the "start" of each winding together and each "end" together. Thank you for the help. I like the idea of the low voltage back feed test. I just need to figure out a power supply for it. I have plenty of dc power supplies but not sure about a ac, I'll figure something out. Once again thank you to everyone that had offered help.
 
Do you think I could use a dc power source? I've looked at every thing I can around the house and garage, I don't have any ac supplies. I was thinking if dc would work a 9 volt battery might work.
 
IT LIVES! I wired the coils the way David H showed. I checked the voltage on the secondary coil and it's at about 26 volts. Thank you EVERYONE, for the advice. Now to get the regulator working and my bottle filled and I can lay down some beads.
 
Can you post pics or explain how you hooked the wires up for 230? I get the basic idea but do not want to let the magic smoke loose or possibly zap myself.
 
Please note this is how I did it on my Miller Econotig that was 460 single phase. I can not guarantee this will work with all Econotig's or any other welder.

The coil had 2 input leads. We will call them A and B. It also had a center tap for the cooling fan to relieve 220 volts. We will call that C.
What worked for me is I cut the connector off of C. When I did that I found that it was actually 2 leads joined with the connector. They are now called C1 and C2.

I used my meter to determine which wire (C1 or C2) was on the same coil as lead A. And made sure that I had the proper one for lead B. The way my welder was made they manufactured the 460 coil from a pair of 220 coils wired in series. I rewired the coils (and the fan) in parallel.
When it was all said and done I (after making sure I had the correct leads selected) wired lead A and C1 along with a fan lead to one side ofor the switch and lead B and C2 along with the other fan lead to the other side of the switch.

This worked for MY welder, I can not guarantee this will work on any other welder.

If you need it can make sure short video next week showing what I did. I hope my rambling makes sense.
 
You have to make sure you wire the "beginning" of each coil together and the "ends" of each coil together. Failure to do so can result in damage to the welder.
 
Thank you. That's what I was thinking but wanted to be sure before I did it. It worked perfectly.
 
Back
Top