Chicago Electric M-100

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A friend of mine gave me this 120volt flux-wire welder recently. It may not be worth the trouble, but I hate to not try to use it. I have seem many videos saying this welder is AC and should be modified to DCEN. Looks pretty simple to do. The only question is "Is it worth doing?" Inquiring minds want to know-haha

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Craftsman 230/140 AC/DC   Miller HF-251D-1Millermatic 130   Linclon 40 amp plasma cutterHypertherm Max 20    O/A cutting and welding stuff5HP Ingersoll air compressor
Reply:Does it work?The problem would parts.There are off self but you how to install the parts. Contact tips are standard and can be found.  If needs a new mig gun that is about 1/3 of new machine. You can new 120volt machines for under $100.00 a dual voltage witch mush better for around $150.00.Dave

Originally Posted by hdonly0

A friend of mine gave me this 120volt flux-wire welder recently. It may not be worth the trouble, but I hate to not try to use it. I have seem many videos saying this welder is AC and should be modified to DCEN. Looks pretty simple to do. The only question is "Is it worth doing?" Inquiring minds want to know-haha
Reply:Yes, it does work. It belonged to his father that passed away. It's older, but doesn't look like  it was used much. I have a larger Miller mig but it is hard to move the welder and tank around on my property. This one is much lighter and I can carry a generator with it to do remote repairs.Craftsman 230/140 AC/DC   Miller HF-251D-1Millermatic 130   Linclon 40 amp plasma cutterHypertherm Max 20    O/A cutting and welding stuff5HP Ingersoll air compressor
Reply:

Originally Posted by hdonly0

Is it worth doing?
Reply:If DC then use E71T-11 0.030"If Ac then use E71T-GS 0.030".Sounds like you have a 120 volt welder.Dave

Originally Posted by hdonly0

Yes, it does work. It belonged to his father that passed away. It's older, but doesn't look like  it was used much. I have a larger Miller mig but it is hard to move the welder and tank around on my property. This one is much lighter and I can carry a generator with it to do remote repairs.
Reply:

Originally Posted by California

Nooo!!!My second welder was nearly the same HF model as that. Junk! I went back to using my big AC stick welder.First issue is there was no cooling fan in it. The wire feed was so flimsy that it couldn't feed smoothly.The two-position welding voltage switch provided 1)Too Hot and 2)Way Too Hot. Far more splatter than it should have made. (I should have bought HF's other near-identical model, the one you have, its two voltage choices were farther apart).And - I see the power cord and ground grommets etc are worn out. You hardly have anything there to start a conversion from.Then a couple other issues not relevant to DC conversion:HF sold it alongside flux wire labeled DC ONLY. A clue that HF didn't take their AC welders seriously.I actually had two of those. First one just spit, couldn't make a bead. I returned it. Then saw on Ebay a huge number of them 'almost new, open box special' offered by a liquidator. Apparently nearly all of them got returned. A year later I read an explanation, that batch came with flux wire that was hopeless. So I bought the same model again. $72 with coupon, not much money at risk. And bought decent flux wire, Hobart or something. I got some use out of that welder, but eventually sold it for $25 and got a used Century 130 110 volt Mig that worked nice. My advice is put it on Craigslist and buy something that is already DC. And not HF''s current AC black equivalent of your welder.
Reply:

Originally Posted by hdonly0

I am going forward with the conversion. I enjoy playing with such things anyway.
Reply:As a fun hobby project it could be worth it,,, as far as welders go shove it in to the scrap, newer better are now so cheap its not worth investment not including effort.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:

Originally Posted by Sberry

As a fun hobby project it could be worth it,,, as far as welders go shove it in to the scrap, newer better are now so cheap its not worth investment not including effort.
Reply:Got my capacitors and bleed-off resistors in yesterday. Put them together while drinking my morning coffee. The bridge rectifier came in this afternoon. Will be installing these parts in tomorrow. Will add a cooling fan also. Maybe will find out if this thing will do more than sputter tomorrow.

Craftsman 230/140 AC/DC   Miller HF-251D-1Millermatic 130   Linclon 40 amp plasma cutterHypertherm Max 20    O/A cutting and welding stuff5HP Ingersoll air compressor