Has anyone made an alternator welder? seen a few videos of ones in the states. Thought it could be handy for welding down the field when hooked to an old lawn mower engine or something, rather than forking out over £1000 for a welder generator which will get only used once in a while. Wondered how difficult it is finding a suitable alternator and making the required modifications to it. TIA
Alternator Welder
- Thread starter TomBowers
- Start date
- Location
- Mid Ulster
My dad had something rigged up from an old RAF alternator back in the 70's for that very purpose. it didn't give a steady enough current/voltage for high quality welding, but had plenty of power. I'm sure there are better electronic gadgets nowadays to level out the power. But modern inverter welders will run on surprisingly small petrol gennys,If it was my money that's what i'd being spending it on. The small inverter welders are incredibly powerful.
just get an inverter stick welder and a generator. ideally you want a 5kw generator and an inverter with PFC (migatronic etc) but if you are contemplating welding off an alternator i guess you arent concerned with the quality/integrity/penetration of the weld so any inverter and generator will do
- Location
- Mid Ulster
/\Everytime, the benefits of having a Genny and an Inverter welder over faffing about with the YouTube cockup. No competition
- Location
- North Norfolk
You can, at a push, use a couple of big car batteries in series, and put a big soft iron bolt in a coil of jump start lead to act as a choke. Several videos on You Tube, of variable quality as usual!
I think variable is generous, very poor would be a better description. Can you imagine the results from a cut and etch on one of those welds?
If you're serious give Paul Peacock a ring he used to do Mec calte 6kva gen/ welder used to be far less than 1k ...will be different price nowadyas no doubt and thats if he can still get them.
??
"PTO Welders
Mec calte alternator with 6Kva output powering a 200 amp Welder with a 240v & 3.5Kva 110v Output"??
- Location
- Cambs/Suffolk/Norfolk
I run a small petrol driven welder from the back of my pick up. Has 240v and 110v outputs. I regularly run a 9 inch grinder from the 240v side. Doesn’t take up much space, is very lightweight, will happily weld as many 3.2 rods as you can put through it. It should run a 4mm but not needed to yet. 10 meter set of leads and 4 wheel drive I can cover most places with this set up.
Welder was less than 2k brand new
Welder was less than 2k brand new
fermerboy
Member
- Location
- Banffshire
I bought a 10kv Pto genny at a sale for £35, quick tidy up, goes fine.
Use my Jasic 180 inverter with it, cost £160 a couple of years ago.
Whole setup under £200, works great, had it up welding rails on a cattle grid in middle of nowhere the other day.
Dead handy for the few times a year I need it, sometimes easier to take the genny than mess about with extension leads over the yard.
And the genny is running the house tonight due to power cut after the storm.
Much as I like bodging stuff up I wouldn't mess about with an alternator welder.
Use my Jasic 180 inverter with it, cost £160 a couple of years ago.
Whole setup under £200, works great, had it up welding rails on a cattle grid in middle of nowhere the other day.
Dead handy for the few times a year I need it, sometimes easier to take the genny than mess about with extension leads over the yard.
And the genny is running the house tonight due to power cut after the storm.
Much as I like bodging stuff up I wouldn't mess about with an alternator welder.
Some bargains there, jasics ain't cheap any moreI bought a 10kv Pto genny at a sale for £35, quick tidy up, goes fine.
Use my Jasic 180 inverter with it, cost £160 a couple of years ago.
Whole setup under £200, works great, had it up welding rails on a cattle grid in middle of nowhere the other day.
Dead handy for the few times a year I need it, sometimes easier to take the genny than mess about with extension leads over the yard.
And the genny is running the house tonight due to power cut after the storm.
Much as I like bodging stuff up I wouldn't mess about with an alternator welder.
fermerboy
Member
- Location
- Banffshire
I see the welder is about £250 now, but I admit I did get very lucky with the genny, could have just as easily been a dud.
Dukes Fit
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
That's a steal for a PTO Genny!I bought a 10kv Pto genny at a sale for £35, quick tidy up, goes fine.
Use my Jasic 180 inverter with it, cost £160 a couple of years ago.
Whole setup under £200, works great, had it up welding rails on a cattle grid in middle of nowhere the other day.
Dead handy for the few times a year I need it, sometimes easier to take the genny than mess about with extension leads over the yard.
And the genny is running the house tonight due to power cut after the storm.
Much as I like bodging stuff up I wouldn't mess about with an alternator welder.
We were off today for about 5 hours, just got the Genny ready to plug in and the power came back on as I was about to switch over