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Welding ? - Has anyone here converted a Lincoln 225 A AC buzz box to DC?

This topic can be found at:
https://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/320601935/m/8130030464

December 07, 2019, 06:04 PM
FiveFiveSixFan
Welding ? - Has anyone here converted a Lincoln 225 A AC buzz box to DC?
I've seen several conversion options, some using a single full bridge rectifier and others using multiple rectifiers. Several also included adding Dinse connectors on the front of the welder.

It seems like it can be done fairly economically. It's certainly much less expensive than buying even a beat up Lincoln 225 A AC/DC.

Has anyone here tried this?
December 08, 2019, 09:38 AM
dynorat
My Dad did this year's ago, I'll send him a link to see if he recall's any details about it. I remember he had the twist lock cables on the welder, cables, and the box had in/out connectors to put it inline, and change polarity. It would really crank the garden tractor engine over when the battery was dead.


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You never know...
December 08, 2019, 09:53 PM
FiveFiveSixFan
Thanks, dynorat. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
December 09, 2019, 10:14 AM
c1steve
Yes, I did this. I built a full bridge rectifer with surplus heavy duty diodes and heat sinks. This was individual diodes arranged as a full bridge rectifer.

Worked pretty well, but it needed a "choke". The choke is a circular magnet that a cable runs through, that smoothes out the pulses. Probalby need a choke on each cable, and put these inside the box.

I built most of an entire 36' sailboat using this system. However I switched to wire feed for the lighter steel after a while.


-c1steve
December 09, 2019, 10:46 AM
FiveFiveSixFan
The conversions I've seen seemed pretty minimalist with just the full wave bridge rectifiers and that is one of the concerns I had. I was hoping to find one which included some form of filtering such as a choke and filter caps. I'll have to continue researching this. Thanks!