Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey,

I recently picked up a Chicago Electric 180 Turbo AC/DC welder for $25 (for that much why not...)

I thought this was a 115v or 220 V model that could be switched (they have a current model like this). Instead this appears to be 220v only. The guy who owned it before inherited it from his Dad. When I got it, it was wired with a 10 gauge copper 3 wire power cord and didn't even have a male plug on it.

I'm trying to find out a few things.

1. How to rewire it for 220v safely
2. How to switch it from AC to DC
3. What do the lower connections do? (AC/DC?)
4. Do you think the light in the center means it is overheated, or just on?
5. Anything else that I can find out.

I took a bunch of community college classes and used to weld about 15 years ago as part of my duties at a factory I worked at; but it has been a while and I'm looking to get back into it just for fun, so this seemed like a great way to scratch that itch without going too deep financially. I'm hoping I can use this to get started and see where things go.

Thanks for your help on this and getting me started again.

Jason

Hey Jason,

As for wiring it to 220VAC safely, in North America we typically use the red and black wires to go from the transformer primary of your welder to the two live mains connections of the building. The bare wire or green wire is used as a safety ground. The white wire is not used, (but it is in other applications like a dryer, etc. The white wire would be used as a return when combined with the black wire for 110vac operation.) Typically, what happens is the secondary mains transformer of the building has three connections, the red is one side, the black is the other side, and the white is a center tap. Red-Black is 220v, red-white is 110v and black-white is 110v. The cable is designed in such a way that both 220v and 110v are available within the same cable to for example a dryer or range.

To switch your welder from AC to DC, just use the other front panel connections.
AC are the top two connections with the sine wave symbol.
DC are the bottom two connections with the plus and minus symbol.
The DC polarity for your ground connection and stick connection will have to be decided depending on what rod you are using. DCEN means direct current with the stick electrode being negative. DCEP means direct current with the stick electrode being positive. You have to configure the cabling appropriately for what the rod was designed for. The difference is that electrons move from negative to positive. If the work piece was negative and your rod was positive (DECP), the heat will be mostly on the rod (to help melt the rod). If the work piece was positive and the rod was negative (DCEN), the work piece would get most of the heat.

Not sure about the light, I guess you will have to just watch it and see what it does, and determine for yourself if it is a power indicator or an overheat indicator.

As for any other information, it looks like a product that Harbor Freight may have distributed.

kattmanj wrote:Hey,

I recently picked up a Chicago Electric 180 Turbo AC/DC welder for $25 (for that much why not...)

I thought this was a 115v or 220 V model that could be switched (they have a current model like this). Instead this appears to be 220v only. The guy who owned it before inherited it from his Dad. When I got it, it was wired with a 10 gauge copper 3 wire power cord and didn't even have a male plug on it.

I'm trying to find out a few things.

1. How to rewire it for 220v safely
2. How to switch it from AC to DC
3. What do the lower connections do? (AC/DC?)
4. Do you think the light in the center means it is overheated, or just on?
5. Anything else that I can find out.

I took a bunch of community college classes and used to weld about 15 years ago as part of my duties at a factory I worked at; but it has been a while and I'm looking to get back into it just for fun, so this seemed like a great way to scratch that itch without going too deep financially. I'm hoping I can use this to get started and see where things go.

Thanks for your help on this and getting me started again.

Jason