Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello gang, today I received in the mail the first part to start the conversion on my Chicago Electric 90A Flux welder......

An AC flux cor welder? Never heard of such a thing? I'm not sure if the expense would be worth it with 90a Chicago Electric unit.

Why? what benefit do you think you will get from DC on a 90 amp welder?

Sometimes you learn a lot from doing things that aren’t profitable or efficient.

AZlink wrote:Hello gang, today I received in the mail the first part to start the conversion on my Chicago Electric 90A Flux welder......

nice.
tho try to keep all the posts in one thread as people won't see the whole story.

personally i think its not worth doing, but a project for projects sake i can dig that.

I was doing turbo conversion for almost any car, SUV etc. Now I am in disability and can't stand the free time, I have tried many hobbies no luck except 1 but it is not an every day hobby, I got this welder for almost nothing, it is used but it doesn't look it has many hours on it, I tried different welds all came out looking like pop corn, I went and bought Blu D3mon wire because I was told it was the best for beginners, welds look like pop corn again, then I did more reading and found that the HF 90A Chicago Electric is an AC when Flux welder should be DC, found lots of videos on how to do this conversion and the parts are cheap, less than 50$, I got nothing to loose, time? I got lots of time to kill (in a way I have not to much time) Next part that arrives will take photo and upload here in a some sort of tutorial for beginners, thanks for the input........remember location makes things a little different.........AZ

Might I ask, WHY a 3Ø diode package?

The horrible freight 90 maybe a turd of a welder but that's because it is AC not DC. You can't mig properly with AC, you will get "pop corn" and obnoxious spatter every time. Not to mention your weld will be very inconsistent because of the alternating current. If you don't have much invested in the project then you won't have much to loose.

Hate to say it but, your still going to have a popcorn welder after you spend the time and money trying to polish a turd.
You'd be better off saving the money and purchasing a higher quality unit.

snoeproe wrote:Hate to say it but, your still going to have a popcorn welder after you spend the time and money trying to polish a turd.
You'd be better off saving the money and purchasing a higher quality unit.

That is the plan but I preffer to practice and test with a cheap welder and get a good welder when I'm ready or think I'm ready........

Franz© wrote:Might I ask, WHY a 3Ø diode package?

One of the videos I found had the parts list to do the conversion, I used that list to find the parts on the web...........AZ

Slightly off topic, but I noticed your location. How is restoration and rebuilding coming along on the island?

Reports we get up here are less than accurate. Seem to be many people who are looking for money that probably won't ever go farther than their pocket.

I'm thinking you have a totally wrong rectifier for your project. What you want is a single phase bridge. You also want some serious capacitors.

Franz© wrote:Slightly off topic, but I noticed your location. How is restoration and rebuilding coming along on the island?

Reports we get up here are less than accurate. Seem to be many people who are looking for money that probably won't ever go farther than their pocket.

I'm thinking you have a totally wrong rectifier for your project. What you want is a single phase bridge. You also want some serious capacitors.

You are right, the information is not accurate, home internet is 89% down, electricity is 62% UP so is water, ..........one of the videos on this conversion says "learn from my mistakes" do not use the 100Amp single phase rectifier, it will die in less than a week, use 150Amp 3 Phase rectifier, I used the eb@y link provided by the video Author of the rectifier he bought after the 100Amp rectifier died............

AZlink wrote:..........one of the videos on this conversion says "learn from my mistakes" do not use the 100Amp single phase rectifier, it will die in less than a week, use 150Amp 3 Phase rectifier, I used the eb@y link provided by the video Author of the rectifier he bought after the 100Amp rectifier died............

3 phase rectifier may have been easier to get than a single phase.
it won't make any difference.
100A would have been to small which is why it didn't last long.
also pay attention to cooling of the module. heat is going to be a big limiting factor.

tweake wrote:

AZlink wrote:..........one of the videos on this conversion says "learn from my mistakes" do not use the 100Amp single phase rectifier, it will die in less than a week, use 150Amp 3 Phase rectifier, I used the eb@y link provided by the video Author of the rectifier he bought after the 100Amp rectifier died............

3 phase rectifier may have been easier to get than a single phase.
it won't make any difference.
100A would have been to small which is why it didn't last long.
also pay attention to cooling of the module. heat is going to be a big limiting factor.

I was thinking an aluminium heat disipator from a desktop CPU with Fan just for the rectifier, the capacitor found one with 50V 50,000 uf, it hasn't arrived yet.

AZlink wrote:

snoeproe wrote:Hate to say it but, your still going to have a popcorn welder after you spend the time and money trying to polish a turd.
You'd be better off saving the money and purchasing a higher quality unit.

That is the plan but I preffer to practice and test with a cheap welder and get a good welder when I'm ready or think I'm ready........

Your making it very difficult on yourself to get good with what you have now.

snoeproe wrote:

AZlink wrote:

snoeproe wrote:Hate to say it but, your still going to have a popcorn welder after you spend the time and money trying to polish a turd.
You'd be better off saving the money and purchasing a higher quality unit.

That is the plan but I preffer to practice and test with a cheap welder and get a good welder when I'm ready or think I'm ready........

Your making it very difficult on yourself to get good with what you have now.

You are right and because of that is why I was suggested to convert from AC to DCEN, the positive has to be on the ground clamp and negative on the electrode, this will make a lot less spatter, I was told, and that is why I am converting the CE 90 Flux Welder..........AZ

You won't be happy. It's still a 90 amp flux welder. You can polish a turd all you want but you still have a turd.
You would have been better off buying a better quality machine right from the start.

One of the videos I found had the parts list to do the conversion, I used that list to find the parts on the web...........AZ

You picked the wrong part. that one is for 3 phase power, which the Harbor Freight welder doesn't use.

snoeproe wrote:You won't be happy. It's still a 90 amp flux welder. You can polish a turd all you want but you still have a turd.
You would have been better off buying a better quality machine right from the start.

I can't buy a 1,200$ Lincoln Flux Welder, I didn't planned to buy a welder, I found that CE for ridiculous cheap then I got interested in welding, then I thought I could weld those exhaust manifolds for turbo conversion I made where I paid a welder guy to weld together the exhaust manifold designed with boiler pipes (elbows, T) and the turbo's flange to an specific turbo.........I am sure if I got interested in welding before I got a welder, I would have save for the Lincoln or Norstar DC Welder 165 wich are the cheapest flux welders here starting @ 1,200$.
Anyway I wanted to start this thread on how to convert AC Flux welder to DC for those who already have the BIG TURD HF 90A welder.
Now, to make sure I have to order a new single phase bridge rectifier because I got the wrong part..(it will not surprise me if you are right and I ordered the wrong one, it will not be a first time nor the last lol) I will check again with the videos watched........Thanks for pointing out where I made the mistake, this is why I like to post things, corrections only lead to perfection.

Hello again, check the snapshot in case I missed the name, I checked the site's url is not visible but if I missed it please tell a MOD to delete the photo............AZ

AZlink wrote:
Now, to make sure I have to order a new single phase bridge rectifier because I got the wrong part..(it will not surprise me if you are right and I ordered the wrong one, it will not be a first time nor the last lol)

the 3 phase rectifier will work just fine. you simply don't use a couple of terminals. thats all, its still going to do the job.
a single phase rectifier will have been a bit cheaper thats all. no biggy don't sweat it.

AZlink wrote: I was thinking an aluminium heat disipator from a desktop CPU with Fan just for the rectifier, the capacitor found one with 50V 50,000 uf, it hasn't arrived yet.

i would check the open voltage of the welder, make sure its under 50v in each setting.

tweake wrote:

AZlink wrote: I was thinking an aluminium heat disipator from a desktop CPU with Fan just for the rectifier, the capacitor found one with 50V 50,000 uf, it hasn't arrived yet.

i would check the open voltage of the welder, make sure its under 50v in each setting.

Thanks for the Tip, will report back the results..........AZ

Depending on how he configures the diode pack the OCVoltage could go above 50 leaving the rectifier.

Hello gang, a bit out of topic but I have to share, I tried different flux, I was told I was better off with InWeld Fusion .030, but don't know why something was telling me to try the other size and got the Blu3 D3mon .035, found in the wire feed the neutral wheel can be fliped and each side has a different marking, .030 and .035, that I didn't know, anyway here is what I found:
Welder set to MIN with .030 dig a hole in the square metal I was welding, didn't try the MAX setting.
Welder set to MAX with .035 Blu3 D3mon same metal I could weld almost a straight line without diging a hole in the metal.....here are some photos, bare with me here, I only have a month playing with welding and first week was hard not to released the switch the instant spark (flash) was present lol.