powering a welder with a generator?

Not sure if this is the correct place or not but here goes,

just about to start stripping my mk1 to do the welding work required and i need to know if any1 on here has used a petrol generator to power a 100A+ welder, if so what type of generator did you use and what output did it have?

i'm renting a council garage so it's not near my house so no chance of rolling it down the street to do the work!!

cheers for any help given.

andy.

I have a petrol welder its a quite a big thing and i think you will need a monster of a normal Genny to run a welder as it need a good few amps

sorry cant be more help

yeah i know what you mean, is yours a mig welder then mate?as the one's i've seen are all arc welders!

think i'm just gonna have to see if i can get a loan of one to try it!

cheers

Andy.

dont get an arc welder. they are usless for work on car bodies.

depends more on the welder mate, are you using mig tig or arc? use a single phase welder, you might get problems with fluctuation if your settings are high, try and keep a low setting and use a decent genny, if the genny pines it will cause the weld to spatter, failing that you can hire a gen set which is a portable welder on a petrol engine, i have an sitoarc gen set, is an arc welder, fine on low to medium settings but for burning in deep welds it struggles with the engine pining.

Try asking these guys: MIG Welding Forum Really friendly forum and more welders than you can shake a stick at

Just weld with gas. You'll need a bottle for MIG anyway, so why not get 2x bottles from a gas supplier and then all you need is the torch set, etc. Gas welding is a bit more versatile too. Problem solved.

paul_c said

Just weld with gas. You'll need a bottle for MIG anyway, so why not get 2x bottles from a gas supplier and then all you need is the torch set, etc. Gas welding is a bit more versatile too. Problem solved.

keep a fire extinguisher handy

cheers for the tips guys, been reading through some of the posts on mig-welding.co.uk and found how to work out what size genny ya need, here it is off the website,

this info was taken from this post on the second page.

What size generator | MIG Welding Forum

Hi,

To work out the genny size it is
Open circuit voltage X Amps + 10% = KVA Generator
e.g.
130amp sip mig has an open circuit voltage of 18 - 34
130 x 34 + 10% = 4.86KVA


goin off this info my clarke pro90 welder would need a 2.57KVA Genny

open circuit voltage is 18-26 and its a 90 amp welder
90 X 26 + 10% = 2.57KVA

hope this helps others too.

andy.

Personaly id weld the body and bits up with tig if you have the time to clean the welded area as its sometimes easier to manipulite the weld pool than mig and the torches are usually lighter.Plus there is less spatter to have to clean off afterwards.
but if your a good enough welder you can get away with mig just use a scrap piece of metal to get the corrrect wire speed and amps before you start welding the body.
usually you want a smooth sounding flow of like a crackle with mig.
have you chosen how to do it yet?

Pazmister, i'd love to be able to tig weld but don't have the gear of the knowledge to learn how to do it mate! done plenty of mig welding from making my owns engine mounts for my last car( BMW e30 with a 3.5L 5 series engine with 265 bhp) to fitting new sills on that same car.

cheers for the advice though.

andy

what welder would be best if im close to many sources of energy?

For someone who wants to do big things (Rear pannel) with not much know how…

aha.

TIG welding is the best type to use for thin sheet metal, but is hard to use and will take alot of practise to get it right,

MIG welding is what probs 80 odd % of people use to dp repair work on there cars, it's easier to learn how to do it, all you need to look for is the sound of bacon frying in the pan! sounds daft but when you try it you'll see what i mean!

hth.

andy.

cheers mate.

Its more i dont know whether its too big a job for me to do, ive welded a few times but never anyhting that had to be precise.

Il have a go, see what happens, sjut want to know im getting the right equipment enit..

tah.