Hi all....

[Roxy]

I have been welding for some time, but I have a small problem.
We are now "off grid", or in other words have no mains electricity.
I have heard that using a "normal" 240V welder powered by a generator can cause damage to the generator, so I have joined up here to see what options are available.
I am mostly interested in how to power a MIG welder.

 

[madkayaker]

hello and welcome. A MIG can be powered by genny but the genny needs to be considerably larger than the welder to reduce spikes that kill electronics. What are you wanting to weld? There is a couple that have battery powered MIG guns

 

[runnach]

Yo Roxy, off grid, sounds like oxy-acetylene may be perhaps the best method for nailing metal to metal!

 

[madkayaker]

or engine driven MMA

 

[Roxy]

I don't want to sound daft, but what is an MMA?

An engine driven MIG?

 

[madkayaker]

sorry MMA is stick or ARC welding

 

[Roxy]

OK. MMA is arc. Thanks.

How "available" is an engine driven MIG welder?

Looking for welding thickness of 4-10mm.

 

[madkayaker]

not heard of an engine driven MIG

 

[Robotstar5]

Looking for welding thickness of 4-10mm.

You would need a decent MIG to weld those thicknesses, the engine driven ARC welder sounds better.

 

[Roxy]

Yes, ARC would be better for the thicker end.

I would actually say UP to 4mm for the MIG.

 

[Bigjoe]

I think you generally have to run a wire feed unit from a power source (Generator setup) for engine driven Mig but others may know of another way.

And welcome of course

Joe

 

[wyn]

We use welder/generators and seperate wire feeders in work when a mig is needed in an out of the way place.

The pics below is what was hired a while ago to stick a plate on. The plate was 2" by 6'. We had problems with the wire feeder and ended up doing it with arc ...Took about a week with all the gussets etc.

 

[zardoz]

older generator driven welders often come up on ebay and often as not, relatively cheap. If you search ebay for "generator welder" you will get quite a few, some expensive some not a bad price.

 

[zardoz]

heres one on today:
ebay link

and another:
another ebay link