Homemade Stick Welder – From Microwave Parts!

I found this microwave in my neighbor’s
garbage can so I took it home and turned
it into an AC stick welder in this
project we’ll be testing out this
contraption to see if it actually works
because if it does we’ll have the metal
welding power to make a puzzle for
entertaining guests or build improvised
weapons for a zombie apocalypse
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I just modified these microwave oven
transformers to weld metal and made a
little container for it all to fit into
this arc welder is finished and ready
for testing so to do that I got some
pieces of scrap metal from a welding
shop down the road I switched out the
blade on my chop saw with this cutting
wheel and I’m cutting these bits of
Steel into smaller pieces the sparks are
pretty hot and fly everywhere so it’s
important to wear protection and keep
them away from anything flammable ok our
pieces are cut and resting on this
larger piece of metal this is going to
act as a base plate for the ground clip
to connect to I’ve got a sixty thirteen
welding rod that gets clipped into the
stinger and the amperage is controlled
with this device I call the scary AK
look for how to build this in another
video the amps are adjusted to work with
these sixteenth inch cellulose coated
rods and with two of our pieces butted
up next to each other it’s time to see
if we can strike an arc
they say it’s kind of like striking a
match and there we go these welding rods
are consumable meaning they get used up
in the weld you can actually see where
the end of the rod turns to molten metal
and pulls into the joint to give this a
little more strength let’s flip it over
and do the same thing to the topside the
UV radiation from stick welding is
enough to give you a pretty bad sunburn
so if you try it make sure you’re
protected from head to toe
alright the weld is cooled so now we can
knock off the layer of slag that’s
formed on the top then clean it up with
a wire brush now it looks good to me but
I’ve never really welded before so I’m
not sure how to tell if the weld is good
or not so let’s break it the piece gets
clamped in a bench vise and these
channel lock pliers should give us the
leverage we need I’m actually expecting
this will snap in the middle but it
didn’t
i weld in another piece and tried
bending it back and forth multiple times
to snap the weld but the joint never
broke just for fun and a bit more
practice let’s weld all the scrap pieces
together I’ve also got these framing
nails we can tack on in random places
and a link of galvanized chain we can
weld to the end well I think it’s safe
to say this welder is working and I’ve
got my first piece of metal art to prove
it it’s a little rough and probably not
the kind of decor I’d want to put on
display but in a weird way I kind of
like it
now I’m amazed that even with all this
welding the transformer coils are only
slightly warm to the touch
I tried welding some larger 3:32 rods
and that was a different story they work
alright but the welder heats up fast to
cool it down I have a fan that was
salvaged from one of the microwaves and
it slides right up to the vent hole on
the left when it’s turned on air flows
over the transformer coils and exhausts
out the other side in the case of
extreme overheating the whole top lifts
right off for maximum ventilation this
welds metal pretty good in my opinion
but I took it to another welder to get
his thoughts on how or he tried some
welds on pieces of his own scrap steel
nan seemed pretty impressed with the
results
he said the weld penetrated the metal
completely and probably wouldn’t break
so he tried some more destructive
testing to break the weld but even with
good leverage and quite a bit of force
the weld held strong and the metal broke
first to finish this project up let’s
try making something a little more
useful this time I’ve got a horseshoe
and some chain and I’m welding links in
line with the tips of the shoe this two
inch steel ring goes over both of the
chains and the remaining links are
welded on to another shoe
we can clean up the welds in the usual
way and look at that we’ve got a
horseshoe puzzle ready for entertaining
the challenge is to get the ring off
which seems impossible because the ring
is way too small but it can be done and
my wife just proved it why don’t you
make your own and see if you can figure
out how it’s done well there’s a MOT
stick welder that works and my first few
experiences with the world of welding if
you liked this project perhaps you’ll
like some of my others check them out at
the king of random calm
you
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