Fieldlines.com || Homemade battery welder and charger

Front Page - [Homebrewed Electricity-- (wind) (solar) (hydro) (steam) (controls) (storage) (mechanical)] - Classifieds - Site News
Everything - Newbies - [Remote Living-- (housing) (heat) (light) (water)] - Reviews - Diaries - Our Products

Homemade battery welder and charger
By Spelljammer, Section Mechanical Posted on Mon May 08, 2006 at 06:55:09 AM MST
Welding is really fun.

I bought my pulser desulfator and managed to repair 3 car batteries. I hooked them up in series and use them as an arc welder. I've never welded before so its been quite the experience but I'm starting to get the hang of it. After welding 1/4 inch steel for about 30 seconds my batteries and my 2 gauge cables weren't hot. Supposedly you can run a battery welder about 5 min out of every 10...havn't tested that though. Here are some pics of the battery bank.

Those are just copper tubes between the batteries. I drilled and tapped each battery post. That way I can tap into 12, 24 or 36 volts. But I've decided to always use 36 volts and limit the current with two strands of that cyclone fence wire from home depot. It is about $3 per 100 feet. I will wrap about 20 feet around a small conrete cylinder and use the jumper clip to connect to it. I've welded 1/2 inch steel without a problem..this thing has tremendous power. And even then the batteries didn't even get warm. Although that was a small piece about 6 inches long..and both sides. My big problem is seeing through my cheap helmet. I am going to get those solar powered helmets that auto darken. I also made a charger for the bank. I didn't like hooking a 12 volt charger to each battery one at a time. Takes forever and the charging isn't equal. I built a charger out of a dimmer switch and rectifiers out of an old alternator. I hooked a cheap digital multimeter up to it for reading battery voltage and amps for charging. In these pics, the battery bank is at 40 volts and my charging current is 1.02 amps. As the voltage rises, the amps fall. When it gets down to about .15 amps it shuts off. I can also leave it on and as I am welding the amps jump up to 3-5 amps or so and drop back down once I stop welding. For a 36 volt battery bank, I can push about 60 volts into it at about 10 amps or so. The dimmer only handles 600watts and at 120 volts, that is 5 amps. I tested it on just 12v and could get about 20 volts and 25 amps or so. I had to use a different meter though...that one is limited to 10 amps.

So, this charger is no frills but it gives you a lot of control. Imagine having some batteries that you are going to repair and desulfate. Lets say what I'll have in the near future. I'll have 2x12 volts, 2x24 volts, and a 36 volt. If I jumpered these in series, then that would be 96 volts. I could hook this homemade charger up to each end and turn up the knob. When I hit the bank voltage it will start charging. So all the batteries would be trickle charged and equalized once a month if I like. I could then put the 12 volt desulfator on any 12 volt section I like. Otherwise, by the time I fix one battery, the others would be in far worse condition from just sitting there. Or, I would have to buy 9 seperate chargers. I've seen 25 amp 12volt golf cart battery chargers on ebay for $200. I've seen 12 amp 36 vot golf cart battery chargers for about the same. Mine does that with total control and only cost me $5 for the dimmer switch, $14 for the meter, and the rectifiers were free out of a junk alternator. I think I'll get some cheap digital amp and volt gauges on ebay and put it all in a nice box. We'll see :)

Homemade battery welder and charger | 37 comments (37 topical)

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by Flux on Mon May 08, 2006 at 02:58:27 AM MST

If you can find a nice big low resistance inductor to put in series with the battery it will weld even better.

If you find a large scrap transformer, remove the windings and wind 10 turns of your cable round the core it should be fine. An old microwave transformer would be about right. Leave a gap in the core.
Flux

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by Spelljammer on Mon May 08, 2006 at 12:22:44 PM MST

thanks, Flux. I am making a concrete tube and will wrap some galvanized steel wire around it. It will act like an inductor and will lower the amps some. It also makes it adjustable because I will connect to it via a battery clamp. If I clamp close to the battery..high amps. If I connect further away...lower amps. Still experimenting though.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by Flux on Mon May 08, 2006 at 02:40:49 PM MST

Without an iron core you will not have enough inductance to make any worthwhile improvement for an arc welder. Nando seems to have used something special and the small inductance may have been enough for that.

Think 50mH at least for arc welding. Even some field coils from starter motors may make a worthwhile difference if you leave the armature in to mostly close the magnetic circuit.
Flux

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by cjdock on Mon May 08, 2006 at 05:39:34 AM MST

Spelljammer,
The charger seems very cool. I want to make one myself just like yours. Could you post a little schematic on that wiring just so I get it right? I've never used a car alternator for rectifing so I'm not sure of its connections. I do have a couple of spare bridge rectifiers though, 35 amp flavor.
Thanks...
Whats a good place for the desulfator, I recently screwed up all my new batteries...newbie issues!
Thanks

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by Spelljammer on Mon May 08, 2006 at 12:30:37 PM MST

Cjdock, Thanks. You can write this guy, he makes the desulfators. desulfator@yahoo.com I have the one with the digital readout but it doesn't really help. Just use a small digital meter. And even when the voltages look good, put a 5 to 10 amp load on the battery and make sure it will run for at least a few hours and still stay above 12 volts. here is the link http://www.flex.com/~kalepa/desulfparts.htm Here is the crudely drawn schematic for my charger.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by whatsnext on Mon May 08, 2006 at 07:16:02 AM MST

Buy a Rediwelder and you can turn your baterry bank into a wire welder.

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by whatsnext on Mon May 08, 2006 at 08:46:31 AM MST

Also, if you search around the web you'll find all kinds of cool home made sites dealing with DIY welders. Somewhere I have a link to a motor driven TIG welder made from a car alternator and a washing machine motor. Something about it, variable frequency and adjustability I think, makes it as good as very expensive modern TIGs. And there's a kid somewhere that built a AC stick welder out of microwave trannies which seemed like a waste of time when you can buy used Lincoln tombstones for $100 but he did it anyway and it worked.
John...

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by Nando on Mon May 08, 2006 at 08:06:57 AM MST

Interesting indeed.

In the early 1960's I had to have a very precise and stable current to weld large ( 2 to 8 inches diameter) rings for electronic shutters for cameras ( 10 Nanoseconds shutters ) to take photographs of the atomic bombs exploding -- the starting few microseconds of the explosion life --.

I utilized 10 - 12 volts car batteries in series with a defined "variable" resistors in series to limit the current as needed plus a good size coil, for "re-starting" the plasma again if by some reason it stopped.

The coil was a 10 microhenry formed with number 8 gauge wire, it worked perfectly reducing rejects by 98 %,OR 2 % losses, previously the rejection rate was around 65 % losses without the coil.

The plasma voltage varies from 18 to about 40 volts for the large welders that most units ( good class) have a 50 KHZ spark auto generator if the plasma drops ( quite often) for plasma reformation.

For your case, get a good length of welding wire and take a form of at least 3 or 4 inches diameter and try to put 10 to 20+ turns to form a good coil to re-trigger the arc in case you move the electrode from the welding zone.

You are not limiting the welding current, as you are indicating that the battery links and the batteries get HOT.

To limit the charge current, you need a resistor in series with the system.

You should limit the current to a maximum of 100 amps, better around 50 amps.

Car batteries should not be used for lengthy welding at greater than 100 or so amps.

(Vbat- 20 Voltsarc) / amps = Resistor in series
(36-20) / 50 = 0.32 ohms resistor
Resistor power 16^2/0.32 = 800 watts

The 0.32 ohms resistor takes some of its value from the batteries internal resistance, so if you have "old" high internal resistance the batteries will get HOT and go down fast.

I have used copper wire, like 8 of so gauge, coiled and placed in water to cool it to do emergency welding -- which happened in my native country when we went hunting and fishing and had to weld a part of a car directional stabilizing arm in a remote region and the small town mechanic did no have a welder (it was damaged) but had many batteries and showed him how to do one in emergency -- he was so happy that refused to be paid for the job he did for us.

Nando

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by kitno455 on Mon May 08, 2006 at 09:41:24 AM MST

nando- he said a couple times that the things DONT get even warm.

allan

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#22)
by domwild on Mon May 08, 2006 at 08:53:39 PM MST

Nando,

Interesting jobs you must have worked at!

Here in Oz we watch a series about our aboriginal bush mechanics, who, e.g., fix radiators by finding batteries, making a bush fire and using the lead to fix the radiator. But welding with car batteries, that is interesting!

Or removing the roof of the car if the luggage on top made the roof collapse!

dom We only ever use the best fencing wire for our repairs!
[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by wooferhound on Mon May 08, 2006 at 09:49:35 AM MST

The thing I would do with your copper pipe interconnects is to wrap electric tape around them. That sure is a lotta power out there that is completely exposed to easy short circuits. Even better but more expensive would be to put heat shrink tubing over them.

Now I'm courious about your Dimmer Charger thingy
are you feeding it 120 volta AC and then dialing it up to the current you want to charge at ?
If this is what you are doing, then you are charging with a desulfator. The dimmer outputs sharp spikes of voltage when it is used at lower settings. You would also want to put a 5 amp fuse in series with the Dimmer

you may also be interested in this transformerless charger . . .

W o o f -={(

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by Spelljammer on Mon May 08, 2006 at 12:43:14 PM MST

Woof,

Yeah, I agree, I will put some electrical tape around the copper pipes. And yes, I am feeding 120 volts ac to it and turning it up until it hits the current I want.

The beauty is that I have it set so my batteries are floating at 42 volts. If they drain slightly then the amps flow at about .1 or so. If I start welding they will jump to about 3 to 6 amps or so depending on voltage drop. After a few min of welding, for example, the amps will be at 1.5 or so and slowly dropping. Within an hour the amps will be at about 0.5 and slowly drop to about .1 after awhile. It basically shuts itself on and off to float the battery at my setting of 42 volts. When the weather gets warmer, I'll bring that down to 40 volts. And once a month I'll equalize to about 45-48 volts.

I love that schematic you enclosed...gives me some ideas.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by Spelljammer on Mon May 08, 2006 at 01:02:37 PM MST

here is a simplistic diagram of my welding current control system. Just steel wire around a concrete cylinder and a jumper clamp for adjustment. My connections to the battery are also clamps so I can reverse polarity.

Spelljammer

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by John II on Mon May 08, 2006 at 01:13:42 PM MST

Hello Spelljammer:

Nice low cost idea...I think it's a neat idea.

However someone correct me if I'm wrong... but with your charger connected to the grid.. It's possible that either your welder ground clamp and or Electrode could to be electrically connected directly to the grid as well... In such case you could accidentally receive a nasty or even fatal shock or electrocution ?

Just something to check for : )

One possible way to alleviate this would be to plug your light dimmer switch into a isolation transformer. Sometimes these things sell really cheap on Ebay.

Happy welding wishes to you : )

John II

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by Spelljammer on Mon May 08, 2006 at 01:39:40 PM MST

John, I agree it does worry me so I'm going to take Woofer's advice and put a 5 amp fuse on the ac side. If the dimmer lets the full power come through, then that 5 amp fuse would blow.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#23)
by RP on Tue May 09, 2006 at 10:02:04 PM MST

I'm very concerned about the grid tie thing. A 5 amp fuse will happilly continue making your muscles convulse long after your heart has stopped. An isolation transformer is really called for here. At the very least get a GFI ground fault interupter outlet from the hardware store and wire it in series with your dimmer. They are designed to deal with this kind of situation and could prevent an unfortunate incident.

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by BT Humble on Mon May 08, 2006 at 02:59:04 PM MST

I made mine portable:

I'm using a pair of 12V 75Ah deep cycle batteries, permanently hooked up at 24V. I found that 12V was too little to strike an arc without sticking (with 2.5mm rods).

I've used it to weld everything from 10mm plate down to exhaust systems. The welds are generally very nice and smooth. In a nice example of recursion, the trolley was welded up with the welder that it's carrying. ;-)

Recently I had to use my single-phase-AC-powered welder again, and I was ashamed of the quality of welds I was producing with it!

BTH

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#16)
by Spelljammer on Mon May 08, 2006 at 04:48:18 PM MST

BTH,

Very nice that it's portable. If I can rent the garage here starting next month I might make mine portable too. What is that little black box on the front of yours? And how do you charge your batteries? And what gauge is your welding cable and how long? And do you use 2.5 mm sticks for the different size metals or do you use different size sticks?

Sorry for all the questions but not many people are doin the battery welding so I have to take advantage. :)

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#17)
by BT Humble on Mon May 08, 2006 at 05:09:54 PM MST

BTH,
Very nice that it's portable. If I can rent the garage here starting next month I might make mine portable too. What is that little black box on the front of yours?

That's a circuit breaker, removed from a house panel. I use it mostly for avoiding embarassing short circuits when the welder isn't in use, although if I sized it correctly it'd also be a good way to prevent rods from getting red-hot when they get stuck on the work. ;-)

And how do you charge your batteries?

I connect them in parallel to my main 24V battery bank and ignore them for a day or so:

And what gauge is your welding cable and how long?

Not sure, it's whatever was attached to my mains welder when I got it. About 20mm2?

And do you use 2.5 mm sticks for the different size metals or do you use different size sticks?

I use 2.5mm rods because I had a box of them, and I use 24V because it works well with 2.5mm rods. ;-)

Sorry for all the questions but not many people are doin the battery welding so I have to take advantage. :)

Hey, I'm impressed that nobody has told you yet that you'll surely explode your batteries and die! They did to me! ;-)

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2003/7/27/232842/161

BTH

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#18)
by whatsnext on Mon May 08, 2006 at 06:45:02 PM MST

Did anyone every try making something based on that last guy's post? I don't know why but DIY welders just seem like the coolest thing ever. Oh, and the original poster should know that reversing the polarity will result in the majority of the heat going towards the welding rod instead of the work. This is actually a good thing when trying to deposit material onto a very thin workpiece.
John...

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#19)
by dinges on Mon May 08, 2006 at 06:55:16 PM MST

I agree, it's pretty impressive.

Have read about it often enough and wanted to do it myself, but for lack of batteries. Nowadays I have a very nice 250A AC/DC inverter welder, TIG and stick. So the need to experiment using batteries as welding machines is not that urgent anymore :)

In German U-boats during WWII they used their batteries not only for propulsion but also for emergency repairs, welding. It's a pretty common concept. In fact, there's a MIG-feeder system for battery welding available as well:

http://www.readywelder.com/

The concept is valid. But I'm surprized too that the batteries can stand this sort of duty. My gut reaction would be 'don't do it' if it weren't for the fact that it is and can be done, safely (as far as welding can be considered 'safe').

Should be an ideal solution for DIY-ers without mains electricity. Only thing needed, besides batteries, is a way to keep them charged. This board is all about that last one, I think. Hmmm. Using a battery welder to build a windmill to keep the batteries charged to weld to...

Peter.

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#20)
by BT Humble on Mon May 08, 2006 at 08:13:32 PM MST

Before I did it, I thought about how many amps my car starter motor draws. I've run car batteries flat a few times with numerous 15 second bursts and never exploded a battery, so I thought it would be reasonably safe.

If I swap that circuit breaker for something a bit smaller (that will trip if the electrode sticks to the work) it should be even better.

Oh, and I found out that bit about reversing the polarity of the electrode/workpiece AFTER I'd had the fun of welding exhaust systems. I'm all set for next time now! ;-)

BTH

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#21)
by domwild on Mon May 08, 2006 at 08:48:01 PM MST

Good to hear of success with desulphators. There would be a lot of batteries out there which were junked for the wrong reason and can be resurrected, perhaps even with chemical and/or pulsing.

dom We only ever use the best fencing wire for our repairs!

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#24)
by troy on Fri May 12, 2006 at 11:12:05 AM MST

Excellent post spelljammer.

I have a readywelder that I use with my 24V bat bank and it does a nice job.

I use the stickwelder more, but this looks fun!

Would anyone care to throw out a guess as to the efficiency of the quick and dirty "light dimmer" battery charger???

I might build one for backup if my high priced thing conks out.

Finest regards,

troy

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#25)
by Spelljammer on Mon May 15, 2006 at 02:23:37 PM MST

Troy,

I'll put my kill-o-watt meter on the AC side and compare to the watts used on DC side and I'll get an efficiency. I know if you are going to charge at more than 4 amps or so on the DC side, you will need a cooling fan for the dimmer switch. With a cooling fan and thicker wires, you could maintain 20-25 amps into a 12 volt and about 10-12 amps into a 48 volt battery. Fan also helps the diodes too. You have to be carefull though, don't want to overcharge the batteries. I think it is great for a variable charger. It did wonders for my nicad batteries in my cordless phone. I did about 3 amps for a few seconds until they got warm. I let them cool off and did it again a few more times. Now the battery life is back in them.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#26)
by ProfG on Wed May 17, 2006 at 07:25:54 PM MST

Don't forget - only way to measure power on DC side will need true RMS meter like a FLuke due to pulses. RMS voltage x RMS current then = RMS power. I need to try this with couple my 48v banks for backup to golf cart charger. Later.
ProfG

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#27)
by troy on Fri May 19, 2006 at 02:40:32 PM MST

Thanks Jammer!

Can't wait to see the numbers.

I wonder if the Kill-a-watt uses rms protocols???

I have compared it to my fluke dmm a few times and got very similar answers, but that was all pretty garden variety sinusoidal wave forms.

Finest regards,

troy

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#28)
by Spelljammer on Sun May 21, 2006 at 10:56:30 PM MST

Well, all I did was hook the kill-a-watt meter to the ac side and check battery voltage and amps on the dc side. I had 190 watts on the ac side and on the dc side it showed 3.2 amps at 55.1 volts. That's 176.3 watts and if I divide that by 190 watts I get 93% efficiency. But there is a cooling fan that takes up 20 watts. While using that I can get more amps into the battery, but in this sitution it would be 176.3/210. That would be 84%.

By the way, this is going into two 24 volt forklift batteries in series for 48 volts.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#29)
by Shadow on Wed May 24, 2006 at 10:45:45 PM MST

Which polarity are you using,or works best for welding?

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#30)
by Spelljammer on Sat May 27, 2006 at 01:51:48 AM MST

Well, for the thicker metal, to get deep penetration I have Positive as my ground clamp and Negative as my stick clamp. Electrons flow from negative towards positive. For 1/8 inch welding I would drop to 24 volts and sometimes reverse the polarity for the smaller stuff.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#31)
by Shadow on Sat May 27, 2006 at 08:46:54 AM MST

Thanks spelljammer, I'm just gonna try putting one together.I just have 2 farly large tractor batteries to start with, probably not as good as deep cycle, Si I'll just be working with 24 volt. I was also wondering if a dimmer switch like yours would work for reducing 48 volt down to 12 volt?

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#32)
by Spelljammer on Wed May 31, 2006 at 12:31:07 AM MST

actually the dimmer switch only works with AC

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#33)
by jjj on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 06:35:16 PM MST

Years ago, when I was still busking (street performing)at Sydney's Circular Quay, I used a car battery for PA purposes. To recharge the battery I invented my own 220V powerful charger:
I soldered a diode into the 220V Active of the mains supply wires (to drop either half of the wave) and then into the same Active wire I soldered in a (1KW4) hair-dryer to serve as a current limiting resistor. I then soldered the Active wire to the AC input of a bridge rectifier. The Neutral 220V mains wire went directly from the mains to the AC input of the rectifier. The DC output I then fed to the battery.
The charging current was about 6A at 13-14 V. To increase current to feed several batteries delete the diode in the Active supply wire. The hair-dryer was running slowly; just good enough to cool itself.

V Active----->DIODE----Hair-Dryer----AC Bridge-Rectifier------DC + to Battery
V Neutral----------------------------AC Bridge-Rectifier------DC - to Battery

=======
Since I'm at it, perhaps you allow me to mention to mention thatI even build a dual tube pre-amp and a howl-around stabilizer into this portable PA. Now, with advent of computers, I somehow my interest in audio electronics faded...

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#34)
by jjj on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 06:39:19 PM MST

V Active-->DIODE---HairDr---AC Bridge-Rectif---DC + ToBattery
V Neutral-------------------AC Bridge-Rectif---DC - ToBattery

====
Since I'm at it, perhaps you allow me to mention to mention thatI even build a dual tube pre-amp and a howl-around stabilizer into this portable PA. Now, with advent of computers, I somehow my interest in audio electronics faded...

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#35)
by STANGER89 on Sun Dec 10, 2006 at 02:45:47 AM MST

Ok, newbe here and i have some questions.I have 3 Optima yellow top , deep cycle batteries, A Power wise EZ Go textron 36 volt charger{got it at the salvation army thrift store for 40 bucks}. I also have 100 ft of 20 gage cable.Copper for connecting the battries, clamps and a real desire to do some welding>Do i need anything else to get started?? thanks for any help you can give. {{STANGER89}}

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#36)
by Spelljammer on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 10:15:17 PM MST

Well, you can't use the 20 gauge to weld with. You will need something much thicker. I use 2 gauge. But I have tried it with 8 gauge jumper cables and got a few hundred amps through it but the wires got kinda hot fairly quickly. Also, try to weld at least 10 feet from the batteries and it is better to have the batteries covered just in case.

Spelljammer

[ Parent ]

Re: Homemade battery welder and charger (3.00 / 0) (#37)
by STANGER89 on Fri Dec 15, 2006 at 09:58:36 AM MST

Thanks Jammer, I dont know why i said 20 guage cable, I ment 02, I guess when you post online at 2 or 3 am , you type really bad. Im planning on building a box for the battries so they will be 10 or 20 feet from the work.The most that I will be doing is home stuff so this welder should be great. thanks again for posting this on line, I have really learned a lot here.Keep it comeing Guys. {STANGER89}

Homemade battery welder and charger | 37 comments (37 topical)

Menu

� create account
� How to use the board
� FAQs
� search the board
� Google search the board

Login

Make a new account

Username:

Password:

Total Views

��332 Scoop users have viewed this posting.

Related Links

� Also by Spelljammer

You must be a registered user to post here. It's easy and free, and the link is on the upper right side of your page.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Postings are owned by the poster, but may be deleted or moved at the ADMIN's sole discretion. The Rest � 2009 Forcefield.
You can Email the board ADMIN here. PLEASE include the username you signed up with!