UKC

Dear all

I come before the great collective knowledge of UKC in need of help and knowing full well I should of paid more attention during my electronics GCSE.

We have a 240v to 110v step down CTE transformer, rated to 3kva, which last year the socket on it got damaged.
I now need said transformer for my welder, but for love or money, I can't remember/tell if the socket was 16amp or 32amp.

It's an older transformer, so no manual, and the plate on top offers no clue whatsoever. Just the step and the kva.

If I get it wrong, am I going to die in a horrible ball of fire and copper wire? The welder has a 32amp plug on it, but we'll be using it at it's very lowest setting for thin mild steel and not using it constantly if that makes any difference at all.

I'm somewhat loathed to splash out £100 for another transformer when I know this one works well, but I will bow to someone else's greater knowledge!

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

IG

In reply to Infinite Granite:

Not much help but for £100 you can buy a cheap MIG welder that'll do thin mild steel

In reply to Infinite Granite:
3kva ÷ 240v is 13 amps input from uk mains

3kva ÷ 110v is 27 amps output at 110v

32 amp socket if a single output

In reply to elsewhere:

I am indebted to you sir! Thank you very much indeed!

Wilkie14c, cheers for the reply. I've already got the welder, it's the damn power supply I'm trying to sort!

In reply to Infinite Granite:

Do you mean the socket on the output side, or the mains side?

On the output side, 3 kVA at 110 V means less than 32 A (3000/110 = 27.3), so the output socket must have been rated at 32 A, rather than 16 A ???

So if the welder has a 32 A plug, all should be OK I would think ?

In reply to mbh:

Yes the output side.

Basically, the output socket protrudes from the case, it got dropped and the socket smashed, now I don't know which one it was.

Seeing as we're not stressing the welder, and only being used for a few seconds at a time, I'm inclined to agree with you guys.

In reply to Infinite Granite:


Isn't that all the info you need? I don't think a 32A plug will fit a 16A socket.
jk

In reply to jkarran:

Welder is new, we've never used it with that transformer before. I dug it out to use it and remembered that we broke the socket. Thus my confusion.

In reply to Infinite Granite:

It's probably a 32A, is there anything left of it to compare to the plug on the welder, there's quite a difference in size.

The worst that will happen is you'll blow the fuse or burnout the Tx is there are no fuses in between.

You won't explode the world or cause nuclear devastation.

In reply to krikoman:



^^ That is what I needed to hear.

Very much appreciate all your help guys, UKC wins once again.