Welding Tips and Tricks

So, can you tell which one is made in China and which one is made in Germany?

Yeah I know. I know some say whats the point, does the same thing blah blah blah. But I can tell you which is much nicer to use.

Heel rest keeps your foot in place and the general weight of the thing means it doesn't slide around.

Now that's one hell of a pedal

Nice pedal! They even put tamper sealant on the screw heads. But they didn't turn the screw slots all in the same direction Just kidding. The evident quality just shows that the Germans are innovators and the Chineses....are just a bunh of hacks...laughing all the way to the bank.

Where'd you get it?

That is a typically German looking device. Really nice! I'll bet it has a German device price tag as well. I get what your are showing here, but it is sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison. You can buy products made in China that are every bit as well made as any from Germany (or anyplace else for that matter) but they won't be any less expensive than the German stuff. You get what you are willing to pay for in most cases.

Chinese companies market cheap, low end tools here because people buy them. It really is almost that simple.

Very nice pedal there, I like how they have all the small details covered, sealant on the screws, the sealed cord grip and the fact that all the internal parts are in a sealed box. Clearly a top shelf tool.

Being all cast metal, you will be handing that down to your grand kids.

Clavius, that's my point exactly.

The Chinese can create any quality you like from total garbage to absolute top shelf. I'm not knocking them. I just hate the wasteful mentality that says lets not make something properly, lets get it made in China/India etc and screw them down on $$$ as much as possible so they cut every corner possible. We can sell the customer a new one when it breaks out of warranty. It's not China or India or another country to blame, nor is it the wholesaler its the end user that's to blame for it.


It wasn't cheap, its an EWM pedal for a tig that I bought second hand last weekend of a guy who did food service stainless. He's going back to the UK and I got a bargain.

In my workshop being used once a week or so it will just about last forever.

Is that a welding pedal? Interested to see its guts and how it moves. That thing looks like it could give you amps to 2 decimal places.
I've got the same cheap pedal, the first click is nice, everything after that is a bit like riding a bike down a set of stairs.

tonij wrote:Is that a welding pedal? Interested to see its guts and how it moves. That thing looks like it could give you amps to 2 decimal places.
I've got the same cheap pedal, the first click is nice, everything after that is a bit like riding a bike down a set of stairs.

Best thing about it is the weight. All that cast aluminum is over 4kgs so it doesn't move around everywhere.

I'm temped to open it up, both of them actually and have a peek.

You can open the black one using a pen to press the spring loaded pins. Not much to see inside. I recently opened mine up to solder an 8 meter replacement cable.

i must be blind or work is not letting me see them
I feel restarted

CanMoulder wrote:i must be blind or work is not letting me see them
I feel restarted

Restarted?

Opened it up. Nothing out of the ordinary, no magic but decent engineering.

Pedal slots onto the square shaft on each side with the 4 bolts and 2 plates retaining it. Square shaft rides on delrin bushes.





Microswitch activated by a small nib on the shaft



There is a positive stop limiting travel of shaft so when you step off the pot is at 0 position. So the pot isn't copping load off the spring. Now the other pedal has something different, in the middle of Tonij's pic and at the blue arrown on this one is a piece of 2mm sheet metal, maybe less? Has a bolt in it with a washer and spring washer. Mine was hanging half way out as well as being pretty loose pointing up about 20 degrees under the force of the spring. I wiggled it out all together and it made no difference as the mechanism travel was being stopped by the potentiometer shaft. I though maybe this bolt was meant to have a nut on the other side of the sheet metal but now I"m not so sure, may have just been tapped into the sheet metal. So now ever time you take your foot off the pedal I think it springs back against the pot.

Looks like a fairly obvious failure point. Put a decent nut and bolt in there will fix it. It was 45C in my garage so I didn't tinker too long but maybe Tonij can confirm on his one, Moto has the same pedal too I believe.

Heres a pic of mine.



The limit screw you mentioned just threads onto the steel plate there is no nut and mine hasn't worked loose.. yet

Alignment of the teeth and gear isn't great and mine wasn't meshing nicely causing alot of binding. I loosened the nut holding the potentiometer which helped the gear to better follow the imperfect alignment through its travel. Added some extra grease too.

In your new pedal I see the teeth that rotate the gear are heaps more narrow than the gears teeth, that design would help poor alignment in cheaper pedals however I don't see that being an issue with your german product

My one pretty much comes out without unscrewing now and is bent up enough that the internal stop inside the pot is taking the load. That might damage the pot, I reckon just drill it out and stick and M4 nut and bolt on it will fix it.

Rupes wrote:Clavius, that's my point exactly.

The Chinese can create any quality you like from total garbage to absolute top shelf. I'm not knocking them. I just hate the wasteful mentality that says lets not make something properly, lets get it made in China/India etc and screw them down on $$$ as much as possible so they cut every corner possible. We can sell the customer a new one when it breaks out of warranty. It's not China or India or another country to blame, nor is it the wholesaler its the end user that's to blame for it.


It wasn't cheap, its an EWM pedal for a tig that I bought second hand last weekend of a guy who did food service stainless. He's going back to the UK and I got a bargain.

In my workshop being used once a week or so it will just about last forever.

Agreed. It is unfortunate that the market (and sadly that's "us"!) drives things in this direction. I guess the flip side is that if it weren't for some of these low cost (and by design, low-end) tools and machines, there are lots of us who would simply not be able to afford to buy any sort of welder. The upside, if there is one, is that once folks get something, even a cheap low end something, they soon realize its limitations and low quality and often see the value in getting better stuff. I think lots of us, myself included, have been down THAT road at some point. Lesson learned...

Anyhow, that thing is awesome. Nice score!