Wire Welder from camera flash.

[Lee]

Hi all, Having seen the tsaf, sparkomatic, zapper, etc I thought I'd have a go myself. I don't suggest anyone tries this unless you fully understand what you are messing with. These can give more than a tickle. You have been warned! Buy a properly made one is the best advice I can give.

It took me a while to find the flash unit but after getting one, tearing it down and setting it up was pretty simple. It's not pretty but it works. The way I use it is by timing the charge and I seem to be fairly good at guessing the right amount. The first try I just gave it full whack, my resistance wire just exploded into nothing. Through trial and error I finally figured out a method for a nice weld.



Here is a wire I was practising with. You can see it has joined better on the left weld. I just need to stop jumping at the short. I'm planning on a trip to Maplins to get some proper parts for it as I just cobbled it together with bits and bobs.



All in all I'm pretty pleased with myself, I plan on refining it and adding all the various extras that will make it easier and safer to use.

[Lee]

I remade the whole thing properly with another flash and managed to stuff it all in a box.

It works quite well but I need to spend a bit of time finding the right level to do the weld.

[Greigster]

Hi Lee, well done it is looking good. Our own Mev here on AAE-C has been doing these for some time now and with his great advice, I managed to make this using a disposable camera flash unit along with the insides of a multimeter. The best voltage for my welds were about 110ish volts.

You could count the minutes on two hands that I had ever held a soldering iron before making this

[Mev]

They both look pretty damn good I have to say..

[Moggy]

Just getting into the modding side and have been looking for advice/inspiration. I've got a few old multimeters and small tool-box I was going to turn into a workstation for "zapping" and measuring coils. Any details of what you've done Greigster and Mev would be fantastic.

Cheers

[Greigster]

Hi Mono,
The advice and help came from Mev and as he makes them, it would not be right for me to give out that information, sorry

You could try here:- breaktru.com/smf/index.php/topic,733.0.html

I hope this helps.

Regards

greigster

[Mev]

Use good quality plugs/sockets + wire, some decent gauge leading from the caps about 2.4mm will do. Use a DPDT for power and add a resistor to the second switch to discharge the cap when turned off. If you were to add a meter you could also add a momentary switch with a smaller resistor to discharge the cap at a slow rate to fine tune your voltage. Use decent large-ish croc clips and fill them with solder and file flat for best contact with your wires. There is some flat clips available but they are very small and flimsy the ones I've seen.

[Moggy]

Thanks guys.

I came across the breaktru site a couple of hours ago and have been flipping through the modifications people have made to the original TSAF concept. I've got most of the components knocking about the cave to get started tonight. I'll post some pics of my progress, week off starts Thursday so can really get down to it then.

Any suggestions for a source of 510 connectors ? Want a few for a stand too.

[Mev]

what type of 510 connectors ? i just bought some with a nut the other day but can't remember where from lol, i'll dig out the email invoice and post the link if those are what you want.
I've had some wired 510 before from madvapes too which were good and saved time.

[Moggy]

Apr 29, 2013 18:53:00 GMT Mev said:

what type of 510 connectors ? i just bought some with a nut the other day but can't remember where from lol, i'll dig out the email invoice and post the link if those are what you want.
I've had some wired 510 before from madvapes too which were good and saved time.

That would be great Mev thanks. Just basic 510's, 1 to mount in the case to screw an atty on so I can connect it to the multimeter for resistance reading, and the rest for using when I make a stand.

[Mev]

it was alba i got the last ones from they do standard, sealed standard and ones with nut for mounting alba-vapours.co.uk/accessories

[breaktru]

Nice going Lee. It came out quite nice.

[Lee]

Apr 29, 2013 21:54:45 GMT breaktru said:

Nice going Lee. It came out quite nice.

Thanks. I used the original thread on ECF and on your website for inspiration. I have to say though that the wiring is probably not up to code.

My knowledge extends to -plug in-charge-wait-zap! That's as technical as I got. I wanted a discharge post/button but couldn't get my head around it. Maybe next time.