Jon Elson wrote:



snipped

These welders take close to 15 A from the
wall socket during the weld cycle. (Some take even more, or need 220 V)
So, a slodering gun is hopeless, they get around 40 A output.

40 Amps sounded a bit low to me. I couldn't see that amount of current heating up
something roughly the size of a piece of number 12 copper wire to soldering
temperatures in a few seconds.

It only took a moment to stick the jaws of my Amprobe through the soldering tip
on my ancient 250 watt Weller gun.....the one with the brown Bakelite housing.

I pulled the trigger and (as Claude Rains put it) I was shocked, just shocked, to
see it displaying 460 amps.

I think that was a valid reading, but my electric field theory is quite rusty, so
somebody ping me if I used an incorrect measuring technique.

But, I still doubt that a soldering gun transformer would be ballsy enough to
resistance weld blades.

Jeff


--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place
the blame on."