Welding Tips and Tricks

Not much of a welding project, but more of a welder project.

I dont know, if better welders have these hour meters from factory, or if anyone even needs these, but I wanted one.
I wanted a hour meter thet counts the time of actual welding, not the switched on(stand by) time of the welder.

I made a simple box that can be connected between the wall outlet and welders supply cable. Idealy would put it inside of the welder case.

Components needed:

Hour meter:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Time-Counter-D ... 2749.l2648

Current sensing switch(set to about 1amp):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Flameproof-Adj ... 2749.l2648

Light (not really needed):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Indicator- ... 2749.l2648

The live wire is ran through the current sensing switch, and when the welder draws more than 1Amp, it switches on the Hour meter and LED light(for indication).

Clever. Lots of hoods these days have built-in timers too

cj737 wrote:Clever. Lots of hoods these days have built-in timers too

Havent heard about that. But yes. Thats even better soluton.

cj737 wrote:Clever. Lots of hoods these days have built-in timers too

so someone can up their "welding hours" by leaving it next to someone who is welding.

My TIG welder tracks active Arc time down to the second and also number of Arc starts.