Wire feed welder duty cycle change

[philb]

HF welders also don't have the electronics Lincoln's and Miller's do. It's just a cheap welder that's light enough to climb ladders and scaffolding in hand. I do prefer the old Ideal Arc welders myself.

After getting under the hood, I realized this machine is just a large, old power supply. It has a multi-tapped transformer, diodes, inductors and capacitors to smooth the wave form. It is very inefficient by today's standards. I'm thinking since the inductor is welded on top of the transformer because it is borrowing some magnetic flux to keep the amperage surge down?

The Lincoln Weld Pac 100 I have adds an electronic board and capacitor the HF doesn't have. Since the Lincoln no longer functions, I'll rob the capacitor. It is a DC 59,000 uf cap, so care must be taken to get the connections right.