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wrote:

Anyways..and annealing..do I simply put the clamps fully apart, or?
before annealing. When they are fully apart and a 1/2" blade is
resting all comfortable in there..it turns an interesting shade of
blue, but never goes red. Iffin I bring them together a bit..then it
will glow red as long as I hold the Anneal button down.
actually In..it being on the the side and all..but again I
digress..sigh)
I'm not familiar with this model. I have used a Do-All built into
the saw at work. It is a fantastic welder, and produces a weld that
outlasts the rest of the blade, and with as little flash to be ground
off the weld as could ever be possible.

I lucked into a German blade welder on eBay. It is not quite as
good as the Do-All, but it does work. More sparks, way more upset
and flash, so it takes a fair bit of grinding to get it back to the
same thickness as the blade. Some of these welds last a long time,
some fail after a few minutes of cutting. So, I'm still getting all the
settings right.

But, anyway, the welder I have has a multi-position knob that sets the
weld current, in about 6 steps. It also has a knob that sets the jaw
pressure for welding or annealing (2 pos). It also opens the jaws about
1/4" wider when in the anneal position. Both welders can easily get the
blade up to dull red in about 5 seconds when annealing. Only the very
center gets red, as the jaws draw heat off at the sides. Both of these
welders, as far as I know, use a mechanical latch that allows one weld
cycle until the jaws move together a certain distance. You then hold
the weld button until the weld has cooled. If you take your finger off
the weld button too soon, the jaws pull the weld apart. So, they don't
"time" the weld, they zap it until the springs "upset" the blade.

Jon