I need to weld some angle iron hold downs on the corner of my Lincoln SAM 400, i was wondering whether or not it would damage the internals of the welder or not? Im not planning on using the welder itself to weld the hold downs on, ill be using another welder. and i plan on removing the leads from the battery.
Is there anything else that i should know, or should i even attempt this?
any feedback is helpful, Thanks
Mike-
I welded some angle to the four corners of my SA250 and bolted it to the frame. No problems whatsoever.
thanks thats what i needed to hear!
if you're going to use another machine and unhook the battery it should be ok i welded brackets to 1 of my machines using the same machine to weld them and never had any problems
I have welded on my SAM 400 frame and panel face, with the machine itself, and had no problems. I didn't disconnect the battery or anything. My machine was bolted to the truck bed, and I have also welded using Hi-Freq GTA on that bed with another machine both while the SAM 400 was running and when it was off, with no problems.
I have been told that the HI-Freq could burn out my truck alternator, and truck electronics, but it never happened either.
I will be fine. Just make sure you have a good clean ground connection and ground to the part you are welding. I`ve welded many times on delicate equipment,with all kinds of electronics and circuit boards,no problem. Once a welder buddy of mine was going to weld on mud pump with a lot of electronics and the tool pusher about had a meltdown because of this. I told him there would be no problem if he followed the two simple above points I mentioned. The pusher still wasn`t happy and asked if I would guarantee it wouldn`t hurt anything and I said yes,up to the point of covering repair costs if need be out of my own pocket.
Along those same lines, Ive heard that if you welded on an automobile that the current could travel through the bearings in the engine and arc spot them. Anybody ever heard of this? I have welded on auto's and haven't ever had an issue.
I worked in body repair shops for 10 years and welded on vehicles daily and never heard of that buit with the computers they have in them i always took safety procautions and unhooked both sides of the battery. as long as your ground is with 2 feet of the spot to be welded it will be fine even on mud pumps. I had a drilling super throw a fit cause i was grounded to the bottom of the sub and welding on the rig floor. He said it would fry all the computers on the rig so i told him to shut it down and unhook them he looked at me funny and said just weld it lol. i did go down and move my ground close to where i was welding all was fine
i never heard of the engine bearings getting arc marks on them but anything is possible
Hello jsdwelder, what you are hearing is true. There "can" be instances where improper grounding can cause arcing issues that "could" result in the issues that you had heard of. Electricity follows the path of least resistance, so depending on where the ground is placed that path could be through the engine's bearings, electronics, or other sensitive electrical devices. That's why the rule of thumb is to always try to place your ground in the nearest proximity to where the welding will be taking place and to also disconnect the vehicle battery ground when welding is taking place. An extreme example would be placing the welding ground on the front damper pulley of the engine and then proceeding to do some carbon-arc work elsewhere on the vehicle. High-frequency is a real killer with newer vehicle electronics, that's why most body shops that use plasma cutters in their work won't use one that has a high-frequency start to fire the arc. As well consider that most cars have a number of ground straps that connect the various parts of the auto to the battery ground system. You will notice that there are straps that often connect the frame to the body, frame to the engine, and so on, these points could lead to grounding in areas that could lead to problems. My $.02 for the morning. Best regards, Allan
I have seen arc marks the size of of your hand on bearing races on mining equipment from improper ground placement after air arc gouging. The haul truck frames are always cracking and require gouge-out, reweld and "fish plate" installs. Since these are large boxed members, I prefered to clamp the ground onto a piece of scrap and then tack that close to the weld repair or used as a run-off tab.
Maintenance foremen tend to get irate when having to replace a bearing and race assembly due to negligence.
Many welding problems, especially with wire feeders can be resolved with a clean and secure ground.
I've welded on cars, big trucks a bunch. Always have the ground as close to the weld area as possible and make sure it's clean for good contact. Never had a single problem, you'll have no problems
I welded on my SAM400 with my SAM400 and never had any troubles.
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