Arc Setup

[jackdim]

Hi all,

I'm Jack, 22 from Bristol and disappointed with my current domestic welding setup. I've completed a level 1 city and guilds course in Arc and Mig welding so wanted to buy myself a little Arc welder for general home use and small motorcycle repairs and fabrication. So bought myself a fan cooled Arc Powercraft welder from Aldi, when it works its ok but it seems to run out of steam very quickly and blows my domestic 13amp fuse after 5mins or at anything above 65amps.

It's obviously really frustrating, so talking to other people they said what I could do is run a higher amp fuse off my spare in my fusebox with a higher amp fuse in my plug and that should solve the problem. However I understand this can make the rest of my house system vulnerable??

Other people believe it's actually down to the welder itself and something of a higher quality will stop the fuses blowing and allow higher amp use for longer period if so necessary.

So my question to the forum is, whom is right? Will I have to alter my dosmetic power supply and will I need to pack in my current welder and get something better?

Thanks in advance for your time,
Jack

P.s. Any other Bristolian forum members?

 

[madkayaker]

hi there adding a dedicated supply from the fuse box is what i would do but then I am a professional Electrician! If you do not know what your doing don't do it! The welder is probity power hungry as most of the buzz boxes are but should go to more than 65 amp before blowing fuse are you using a long extension lead or small cable to the garage by any chance?

 

[jackdim]

if the work was to be carried out it'd be done by a friend of my farther's who is a professional sparkie. this is what he suggested to do but speaking to others they have raised doubts about the vulnerability of the rest of the system. but you'd think that'd be ok to do?

its running directly from a garage socket which gets it supply from the house, no extension cables.

ta,
jack

 

[madkayaker]

the best option would betoget your mates dad in for his idea's

 

[Drains]

Jack - You should consider fitting a blue 16A or 32A socket off the spare mcb in your garage box, with the mcb and cable rated to suit. So long as the total power consumption of the garage box cannot exceed the wiring/mcb capacity from the feed from the house, then there are no issues about your house wiring. At worst, you'd have to fit meatier cable between main consumer unit and garage.
Replace the 13A fused plug on the welder with an unfused blue plug, to fit the new socket.

Your dad's mate will fill in the details.

Most single phase arc welders, transformer or inverter, will blow 13A fuses pretty easily on anything over 90A, as the fuse gets hot and finally blows, after a minute or two.

Hmm - maybe someone should invent a plug incorporating a little fan to keep the fuses cool and unsweaty?

 

[madkayaker]

not that bad an idea then you would need one to keep the socket cool

 

[wallopadonkey]

my inverter 150 amp runs off an extension lead and has run up to 120 amp with no problems (only running 3mm rods)

cheers dave