Portable Welding Equipment

By IWeldAtHome Date 12-09-2003 23:49

I am working on a study for the UCLA business school about portable, battery-powered welding equipment. If anyone out there has experience using this type of equipment (in particular, the Ready Welder or GoWeld), I would like to ask you a few questions regarding your use (i.e. - for what projects do you use portable, battery powered welding equipment) and what you like or dislike about the welder you are using. It doesn't matter whether you own one - just if you've used one or know someone who's told you about their experiences with one. Thanks in advance for your response.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 12-10-2003 21:54

I ran a Readyweld demo model at their vendor booth during the Fabtech exposition in Chicago last month.

They had the thing set up with gasless flux cored wire and were welding fillets in 3/8 mild steel. I'm assuming the sales crew had the machines working as well as one could possibly expect to impress the crowds at the expo. Appearence was just ok.

But honestly it was better than I expected for a wire feeder hooked up to a couple of car batteries. I suppose they will make metal stick in a pinch but I won't reccomend anybody putting hard coin down for one.

It may be unreasonable but I get these flashes of batteries exploding and battery acid raining down upon everybody. Just think about it for a minute and I bet you can even start to smell the acid.

By TimGary (****)

Date 12-10-2003 22:07

I'm sorry to say that I don't have expierience with these machines, but I am interested in learning about them as well.
Would you please be so kind as to share your report findings with the board?

Thanks and good luck,
Tim

By Mike W

Date 12-15-2003 07:51

For .035 wire you need 100 amps at about 26 volts so a couple of car batteries would work. How long they will last is another discussion. One of my welders is a high dollar electronic regulated 24 volt battery charger. Set the voltage to 26 and start welding, the voltage stays at 26.

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 12-16-2003 09:16

Hi Mike!
Now let me get this straight - did you mean set the machine's output voltage at twenty-six volts for .035 dia wire? Correct me if I'm wrong here but is'nt that spray transfer or is it because you are using only 100 amps that you need to increase the output voltage in order to compensate with this machine and are you sure that 100 amps are enough??? BTW, this system you mentioned - the "high dollar" is a 24 volt electronically regulated one with how much maximum output voltage and at what duty cycle???
What IPM's would you set your wire feed speed to??? what brand of gasless FCAW wire are you using??? what's the tip to work distance for the wire??? Like Tim, I'm not familiar with this system so these questions are asked in earnest!

Respectfully,

SSBN727 Run silent... Run Deep!!!

By Mike W

Date 12-17-2003 10:02

Hi SSBN727. The battery charger was used to float a 24 volt string of wet cells. It's rated output was 100 amps. It has 300 amp diodes in it . I tested it at 150 amps and it did not blow up. I had to make a couple of mods. It had a slow start to max current which I was able to bypass.

My Hobart Betamig 200 runs about 100 amps with .035 solid wire and CO2. I use the battery charger with a Miller wire feeder and also run at 100 amps. I also have a Lincoln feeder that I use with .024 wire. I just plug in one or the other. I like to experiment.