Battery welding... maguyver

Date 02-16-2008 08:50

I saw an old rerun of maguyver and saw him welding with a battery. Was funny how he took a clothes hanger and battery cables. And DC+ for that matter. Just beautiful and easy starts and stops.
I tried it with a 3/32 stick out of boredom on a junk battery and it worked ...... somewhat. Can make some ugly tacks easy to snap is about it. Can tell the lack of steady energy. Was humorous none the less passed an amusing 15 minutes quick. I'm curious of a clothes hanger now,

Anyone tried out of boredom?

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 02-17-2008 04:50

I never tried it but I offer this much: 12 volts is a bit low, 18 or 24 would probably work better. I have an old "Lessons In Arc Welding" from the Hobart trade school from the '50s. They started everyone off with bare rods, E-4510 straight polarity. The reason given was that the bare rod is more dificult, and if You can do OK with them, You will do really well with coated rods. Like everything McGuyver did, it was theoretically possible, but don't count on a TV show to get the details right.

By TimGary (****)

Date 02-17-2008 05:19 Edited 02-17-2008 05:31

check out this topic...
http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?pid=21960;hl=Car%20Battery#pid21960

and look at this...
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200305299_200305299

Tim

By darren

Date 02-17-2008 08:55

batteries in series make a cv welding circuit.
i have owned a couple of the ready welders and they weld very very smoothly perhaps as smooth or smoother than any other welder ive used they are standard equipment for the military and do overcome some very problematic circumstances. having said that they are an emergency or hobby quality at best. they can be hooked up to a cv machine and used as a spool gun and work ok there as well, but not industrial.( i made money with mine going to remote places) if you want a cheap dc cc machine then there are plans on ebay using a generator on your vehicle motor. i have never used one but have talked to a couple of guys that have and said the welded remarkably smooth.
there is a reason however that the robust lincoln redfaces weld so well and anything short of proper r and d will only be a novelty.
just my 2 cents
darren