I'm going to build an arc welder for around the house stuff. The recipe you see all over the net is to hook up a bunch of old microwave oven transformers, modifying them to step-down. The rewinding on the low side looks really sloppy in the pictures--doesn't look like it needs to be particularly elegant. So I got to thinking, I don't have 10 old microwaves, I wonder if I could just make a big step down transformer to run off house current and generate a jillion or so amps. I know that's plenty of current to kill an elephant, and I plan to be scrupulously cautious about it, but here's the question: What's the difference between just using steel bars for the core versus the laminated plates that they use to manufacture a real one?

Emily

 

It's because of eddy currents. Laminated plates for a core help reduce the heating effect. Try getting silicon steel, if you're not going to use laminated sheets. Use laminated sheets of silicon steel for best results.

 

We've discussed this before.


http://www.electro-tech-online.com/c...ety-first.html

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