MOT Welder: 03

I finally got the welder working thanks to stasterisk of instructables telling me HOW to weld ;P... unfortunately the 10 gauge wire on the secondary decided to start melting... and smoking...

I got a few welds that looked like this:
From the machine that looks like this, you can see how the secondary is sorta gooey looking :-/
That's it for the MOT welder, I'm not sure what to do next, I do have another 50+ feet of 10 gauge wire, I don't know if rewinding would be a good idea.

Oh yeah, here's the first test (and failure!)

MOT Welder: 02

Here we go again, I wound the 10 gauge wire around the transformers. With one of the transformers I was able to wind 20 turns, the other I could only fit around 17 turns. The odd thing is that the 20 turn transformer put out around 15 VAC versus the 18 VAC from the 17 turn one.

I wired both of the transformers together and got 33.8 VAC. The next step will be getting my dad's welding equipment, an electrode holder, a case, and some pieces of scrap metal to practice welding on.

Here is a video of the very first test, I believe the multimeter's leads weren't touching the copper wire and it arced and scared me. Notice how I automatically cover my crotch.

MOT Welder: 01

Captain's log:
Build a Microwave Transformer Homemade Stick/Arc Welder

Today I received my 10 gauge wire and I popped the secondary windings out of a couple microwave oven transformers (MOT).

Tomorrow I will wind the new secondary. Wish me luck.

* END TRANSMISSION *