in a previous video I used a modified
microwave oven transformer as an
electrical metal melter in this video
you’ll learn step by step how it was
made and what I’m using it for now
[Music]
in a previous project I found an old
microwave in a dumpster and hacked it
open to see what components I could
salvage this power transformer was one
of my favorites and got used in many
other projects like high voltage
electrical arcs making a homemade stick
welder and melting metal in its current
condition the transformer produces a
deadly high voltage that’s enough to
kill a person on contact but it won’t
melt metal to do that we have to modify
the transformer by rewinding the coils
looking at the sides of this transformer
you can see that these shallow welds are
the only thing holding this together I’m
gonna use my bench vise to secure this
in place with one end of the welded
sides facing up and try using a hacksaw
to cut it open this is a fairly weak
weld and a hacksaw will work but a quick
buzz with an angle grinder works a lot
better now that that’s ground off a
hammer and chisel can be used to crack
the gap and pry the pieces apart the
rest can be removed by hand with the
bottom off I’ve got access to the three
coils of wire wrapped around the core
the top coil is the primary winding and
I want to take very good care of that so
I’ve wrapped a cloth over my chisel to
protect it as I pry up on the winding
it’s in there pretty snug but frying it
slowly and gently from both sides gets
it to the point where I can put the
chisels down and pull it off by hand
these metal shunts can get knocked out
now and amazingly this is the only form
of current-limiting this transformer has
the middle coil is junk and it all comes
out then to get the secondary coil off
I’m setting it with the coil resting on
the jaws of my vise and then hitting the
middle of the core with a rubber hammer
until the winding is free this got
pretty beat up but that’s okay because
luckily I don’t need it a chisel works
great for scraping off any excess paper
and glue stuck on the sides and now
we’ve got ourselves a naked transformer
core you’re looking at the E and HI
sections of the core and at this point
we’re ready to reinstall our primary
coil this coil has about a hundred turns
of insulated copper wire and needs to be
replaced gently to avoid damaging it or
scraping the wires that’s why I’m using
a rubber hammer so I can still get it in
nice and
okay it’s looking like it’s supposed to
so now we can add a secondary winding
made from this thick 2 gauge copper
cable I was lucky and got this from a
scrap pile my brother had at work
looking inside you can see it’s made of
stranded copper wire insulated by a
thick rubber coating my brother got me a
heavy-duty copper lug and crimped it in
place on the end of the cable next he
added a little shrink wrap to protect
the connection and hit it with a heat
gun to shrink it down and finish it off
alright so with the cable bent in half I
can move it up next to the transformer
and tuck it down into the gaps the wire
is so thick it’s a pretty tight fit and
probably couldn’t be any bigger I’m
pulling one end of the cable back around
the transformer and I decided to switch
the positions of these two so that it
forms more of an ascending coil now I
compress the other side into place and
the secondary coil is wrapped as easy as
that
the last step is to put this back
together I don’t have anything to reweld
the scenes I broke apart so I’m gonna
try using this two-part epoxy glue to
see if I can make it work both the
components get mixed equally then I’ll
add the glue to all the exposed surfaces
at the top here and find a way to clamp
this down it turns out my bench vise has
a gap wide enough to fit the entire
assembly and after double-checking the
alignment on the connection I’ll cinch
it up tight I’m adding the leftover glue
to the gaps on the edges and everything
is looking as expected so that could be
left to set okay it’s 2 hours later and
our modification is complete there’s
actually no physical connection between
the two coils yet this will pump out
around 800 amps to bench test the device
I’m carefully hooking clips to both
leads of the primary winding and then
adding power using my multimeter I’m
showing just over two bolts now which is
a lot lower than the thousand volts this
used to throw out but instead of putting
out one amp
now I’m getting closer to 800 what can
you do with that mini am
I thought it would be fun to try melting
some metal which you can see this does
easily the metal melts because it’s not
as conductive as copper wire it acts
like a resistor and heats up from the
electrical friction until it reaches its
melting point or until the insulation on
the lead wires melt and the system
shorts out well not only was this a fun
modification but I found a practical
application for it in making a spot
welder like this one the high current
can be directed to few sheets of metal
together at one precise location look
for how to make that in another project
well now you know how to build the metal
melter if you liked this video perhaps
you’ll like some of my others check them
out at the king of random calm
[Music]
microwave oven transformer as an
electrical metal melter in this video
you’ll learn step by step how it was
made and what I’m using it for now
[Music]
in a previous project I found an old
microwave in a dumpster and hacked it
open to see what components I could
salvage this power transformer was one
of my favorites and got used in many
other projects like high voltage
electrical arcs making a homemade stick
welder and melting metal in its current
condition the transformer produces a
deadly high voltage that’s enough to
kill a person on contact but it won’t
melt metal to do that we have to modify
the transformer by rewinding the coils
looking at the sides of this transformer
you can see that these shallow welds are
the only thing holding this together I’m
gonna use my bench vise to secure this
in place with one end of the welded
sides facing up and try using a hacksaw
to cut it open this is a fairly weak
weld and a hacksaw will work but a quick
buzz with an angle grinder works a lot
better now that that’s ground off a
hammer and chisel can be used to crack
the gap and pry the pieces apart the
rest can be removed by hand with the
bottom off I’ve got access to the three
coils of wire wrapped around the core
the top coil is the primary winding and
I want to take very good care of that so
I’ve wrapped a cloth over my chisel to
protect it as I pry up on the winding
it’s in there pretty snug but frying it
slowly and gently from both sides gets
it to the point where I can put the
chisels down and pull it off by hand
these metal shunts can get knocked out
now and amazingly this is the only form
of current-limiting this transformer has
the middle coil is junk and it all comes
out then to get the secondary coil off
I’m setting it with the coil resting on
the jaws of my vise and then hitting the
middle of the core with a rubber hammer
until the winding is free this got
pretty beat up but that’s okay because
luckily I don’t need it a chisel works
great for scraping off any excess paper
and glue stuck on the sides and now
we’ve got ourselves a naked transformer
core you’re looking at the E and HI
sections of the core and at this point
we’re ready to reinstall our primary
coil this coil has about a hundred turns
of insulated copper wire and needs to be
replaced gently to avoid damaging it or
scraping the wires that’s why I’m using
a rubber hammer so I can still get it in
nice and
okay it’s looking like it’s supposed to
so now we can add a secondary winding
made from this thick 2 gauge copper
cable I was lucky and got this from a
scrap pile my brother had at work
looking inside you can see it’s made of
stranded copper wire insulated by a
thick rubber coating my brother got me a
heavy-duty copper lug and crimped it in
place on the end of the cable next he
added a little shrink wrap to protect
the connection and hit it with a heat
gun to shrink it down and finish it off
alright so with the cable bent in half I
can move it up next to the transformer
and tuck it down into the gaps the wire
is so thick it’s a pretty tight fit and
probably couldn’t be any bigger I’m
pulling one end of the cable back around
the transformer and I decided to switch
the positions of these two so that it
forms more of an ascending coil now I
compress the other side into place and
the secondary coil is wrapped as easy as
that
the last step is to put this back
together I don’t have anything to reweld
the scenes I broke apart so I’m gonna
try using this two-part epoxy glue to
see if I can make it work both the
components get mixed equally then I’ll
add the glue to all the exposed surfaces
at the top here and find a way to clamp
this down it turns out my bench vise has
a gap wide enough to fit the entire
assembly and after double-checking the
alignment on the connection I’ll cinch
it up tight I’m adding the leftover glue
to the gaps on the edges and everything
is looking as expected so that could be
left to set okay it’s 2 hours later and
our modification is complete there’s
actually no physical connection between
the two coils yet this will pump out
around 800 amps to bench test the device
I’m carefully hooking clips to both
leads of the primary winding and then
adding power using my multimeter I’m
showing just over two bolts now which is
a lot lower than the thousand volts this
used to throw out but instead of putting
out one amp
now I’m getting closer to 800 what can
you do with that mini am
I thought it would be fun to try melting
some metal which you can see this does
easily the metal melts because it’s not
as conductive as copper wire it acts
like a resistor and heats up from the
electrical friction until it reaches its
melting point or until the insulation on
the lead wires melt and the system
shorts out well not only was this a fun
modification but I found a practical
application for it in making a spot
welder like this one the high current
can be directed to few sheets of metal
together at one precise location look
for how to make that in another project
well now you know how to build the metal
melter if you liked this video perhaps
you’ll like some of my others check them
out at the king of random calm
[Music]
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