Lister Engine Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: mikenash on October 22, 2019, 07:13:38 AM
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Hey Bruce (and others)
We talked about home welders & related stuff a while back - probably in the context of "what machine do I need?" So maybe there is some value in the following thoughts:
See pics?
This is the little single-phase welder I use all the time out of my service truck running off the generator you see in the pic (see detail, nominally a 7500W machine). This welder likes the generator and runs just fine off it
One of our suppliers has a slightly different variant of the 16TC 7016 Low Hydrogen electrodes I normally use for everything and I bought a box to have a play and did a rough test-piece (see pic detail)
Tomorrow when its cool I'll cut some slices off it and attack them with the press and the sledge-hammer so see if there are any faults
The test piece is an inch thick and used about 3 or four pounds of electrodes (to use American dimensions) and the little welder did a close-to-100% duty cycle - just the time taken to swap electrodes and chip/wire brush as it's only down-time - running at about 60/70% of its nominal 170A capacity
The point I wanted to make is that, while current ratings are a bit nominal, I started off the first ten or fifteen runs at 125A and the final five or six at 100A as the piece got hot and I was working closer to the surface
I'm a fan of these inexpensive (but not "cheap") Chinese-sourced, Australian-branded welders and the inexpensive (and only slightly cheap) Chinese Honda Clone generators
I'm expecting that if there are any faults in that test-piece they'll just be the result of a pretty causal approach on my part but that penetration etc will be good
FWIW I would conclude that - unless you're working on Serious Heavy Machinery - that a nominal 7500W (Chinese watts with a lot less torque than American/English/Lister watts) and a nominal 150A or so of welding capacity is plenty for most applications
Maybe the DC output is 30 or 35V? On that basis, say, 150A is kinda 5000watts? Whatever the arc-striking current draw is at 125A, it seems to be well within the range of the nominal 7500W Chinese generator
Cheers