Hiya

I have a old AC welder and plan to use this as a power source for my TIG welding. Currently I use a cheap inverter welder, but I cant switch that on or off with a foot switch ( I have a contactor I can switch on and off with a foot switch ).

I also want to try TIGing aluminum, so need AC from time to time.



This old welder is a adjusted by a crank at the top, to move the primary coil inside the transformer. It works OK, though draws about 150 watts at idle.

The TIG part is a HF spark generator that is connected in series with the lead to the welding torch. Its operated by a button on the torch handle.

So, I need to add a rectifier to my welder. I have a pair of 100Amp bridges on a heatsink for that. Now I have questions about the bypass / suppression capacitors I should be using. The TIG box adds energetic HF spikes to the circuit that will kill the rectifier in the welder. So I'll need a add capacitors across the welders ( new ) DC terminals to stop this spike getting to the rectifier, and I believe I should be adding caps to the mains input to stop spikes getting into my mains supply.

Any suggestions to what value and type of capacitors I should be using for this?

Glenn

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JAQ