Hey guys, we've got this giant miller spot weld machine that my dad has had forever, it was something that came with his old welding business but we cant use it because its military surplus... aka 440 volt [I think? I know its 400 something] Does anyone know how easy if at all it would be to convert to thing over to like 220 so we can actually use it? Im tired of it sitting in the corner and im sure we could find some uses for it Thanks!
Open it up and see if the transformer has multiple taps. It may be ablke to be converted just by moving a wire inside of the unit. If not, you may be stuck using an external transformer, which would probably be prohibitively expensive.
Is it 440 single phase or 440 three phase? If it is single phase couldn't you just gear up something from your panel. What i mean is in the same manner that 220v is two separate breakers on the hot bus, couldn't you just have 4 breakers from the hot bus? like two 220v lines into one? this may be totally wrong and i suggest checking with someone who is well practiced in wiring but that is my idea.
the problem with trying to run it from your pannel is that most power is brought in off of an external transformer on the power pole. when you wire your panel you have two hots a neutral and a ground. to run 220 you pull a leg from each 110 source with a double breaker becasue they alternate pickups in the panel. I think the only way to run it would be a an external transformer.
400 something would be 480 and thats 3 phase. Thats 3 hot wires @ 277 volts each. Need to see what you have. Is it going in a home garage because general homes only have 240 single phase with 2 hot wires @ 120 volts each.
Gotta find out what you have exactly first. Most likely 480 3 phase and possible reconfiguration OR dual voltage to 277 If so on dual voltage you could make or purchase a phase converter and run it off your home power service. Use the Google to research the above
If thats for me dont worry. Theres lots I dont know. Stay on here and read, theres lots to learn, I know I have learned lots here. Sorry for the Hi Jack Hotrod 7
we have a miller MIG that was 440 and someone switched it to a lower voltage. it still requires three phase, (as least the pseudo 3 phase that home shops get). that thing would build a battle ship. if you look inside there is a buss with different jumpers. dont ask me the configuration as I didn't set it up at the time
Try contacting Miller tech services about resetting the input service. I have contacted their tech service many times in the past, I thought they were always helpful. You didn't say where you were going to use it; in general the older the machine the more amps it wants to gobble up on the input side, so there might be a big amp requirement on the supply side to deal with. "Every electrical wire has a certain amount of smoke inside it. Try not to let it out, as you can never get it all back in."
2nd - most welders have multiple voltage capability, you just have to open them up and set all the jumpers to the right configuration. If your really lucky, it may even switch between single and three phase too. I have a mig power supply that can run on almost any voltage, just look inside the back cover where the power cord goes in.
I may be wrong but i think a phase converter at least the ones I've delt with are just for motors not resistive loads like welders and heaters that kind of thing it just fakes out the motor on the 3rd phase enough to make it spin around and hit the next phase
That sounds like the "taps" I mentioned. If it runs on single phase (single phase high voltage on welders is fairly common) you can most likely reconfigure it to run on 220V. There probably is (or was) a diagram on the inside of the cover telling how to configure the taps to different voltages. Look for the diagram, if it isn;t there, do a bit of internet searching on the model, or contact Miller.
You can use an external transformer . My friend is an electrican and wired one up for me . They can be purchased at used industrial supply businesses everywhere at a very reasonable cost.
Here's a neat trick. if you want three phase from a single phase house service. Take a three phase motor and pony it up to a 220v single phase motor with a belt and two sheaves .Have the three phase motor feed a three phase panel and feed all your equipment from there. The pony motor will be fed from a disconnect (220 volts) so you can turn it on or off. You could also use a starter and pushbuttons. Now it may dim your lights and cause computer problems on the initial start , once up to speed there shouldn't be any low voltage issues. You can get all the equipment used and cheap. Companies throw out or scape old non effluent three phase motors and there's business that sell surplus electrical disconnects. Your loads will depend a pone what size motor you need. and motors are usually multi phases depending how you wire them so you can have 208 v,220v, or 480v. Your equipment your trying to run will need to be straight three phase ( no neutral) ,motors wont make a neutral and you can't use the one from the house panel. You can add transformers to produce a neutral ,they must be delta to wye configuration to achieve a neutral.
whoa lots of content! looks like i need to drag this thing out and open it up to see what i really have. ill check back in
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