Anyone Make a Homemade Welder?

is it possible? also i once heard you could weld some how using a car battery and coat hanger? does anyone have any clue to any of these things? i've never welded before but would like to get into it but don't have the money for a welder, thats the reason i'm asking these possibly moronic questions.

thanx,

eric

Hi Eric
here’s how you do it. Place the 3 batteries side by side, and use two of your four jumper leads to connect them together IN SERIES. That means the negative terminal of battery #1 to the positive terminal of battery #2, the negative of battery #2 to the positive of battery #3. You now have a 36 volt battery. Then using another jumper lead, connect the positive terminal of battery #1 to an earth on your vehicle (or part to be welded), and the last jumper lead connects the negative terminal of battery #3 to the handle of your vice grips. Put a welding rod into your vice grips and you’re ready to start welding.

Rods of around 3.2mm are ideal and this setup will weld medium to heavy steel, but if the job is lightweight, such as roofrack tubing, you may have to come down in rod size to 2.4mm and delete one battery. It’s all trial and error. If you haven’t welded before, find a friend with a proper welder and practice first - you will actually find it easier to weld with batteries, because the rod doesn’t stick to the work.

hey man, that was an excellent explanation, thanx alot dude, now i just gotta get 1 more spare battery

Why bother with welding with batteries. Just get a tube of JB weld and use that to repair broken brackets and steering linkages. I keep a tube in my glove box.:gee:

medium to heavy steel, would 3/16"-1/4 steel fall in this categeory?

thanx,

eric

Are you serious? Do you mean welding in an emergency situation or as a shop tool? That sounds like a great way to kill three batteries. On the trail that may be ok, but gimme a break, you aren't gonna be building bumpers and such with 3 batteries and a coathanger. You can always find used MIGS and Stick Welders reasonably. Check the local papers.
Sorry if that sounded harsh...

I ran across a site last year where a guy mounted an alternator on an angle iron frame with either a gas engine or small electric motor(can't remember which) to create his own portable welder. Wired it up like an on-board welder. Sorry I do't have the url, but google should return something to get ya going.

Lincoln 100's aren't all that expensive and can handle most of the welding jobs around the garage, but it's still fun and a learning experience to try rigging up your own junk sometimes.

KY Chris said:

Are you serious? Do you mean welding in an emergency situation or as a shop tool? That sounds like a great way to kill three batteries. On the trail that may be ok, but gimme a break, you aren't gonna be building bumpers and such with 3 batteries and a coathanger. You can always find used MIGS and Stick Welders reasonably. Check the local papers.
Sorry if that sounded harsh...

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Emergency use only!

Yeah, that's strictly an emergency fix. Check the Harbor Freight Tools catalog -- they have 115-volt hobby arc welders for around $100 or a bit less, and for a little more they'll sell you a 115-volt wire welder. You'll spend more than that in wasted batteries doing it the other way.

Weldonator!

I built a welder 110v tool source for trail use in my heep - it uses a 105 amp Delco-remy alternator driven with a 1/2 v belt off the nose of the OEM alternator - you short the regulator to ground and remove the exciter diode - and you get 48.XX volts at idle - run her up to 140v for welding or 120v for the angle grinder ect...

I run 3/32 6011 rods and get decent results, I have also run 1/8 alum rod in a pinch...

There are a pair of 110v outlets mounted in the cargo area...

The control box is as complicated as you want to make it - I have a digital volt meter, cable disconnects, field power switch, meter switch and your done...

Not too bad - the hardest part is moving the battery and building the bracket for the alternator - whole project was under $175 including the cables, stinger, and all the other accessories...

Matt

Lots of pics here:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingwillys/xjpics/Underhood/OBW/



My very first stick weld - ever!



Outlets:



Any questions...

Plans

Matt, did you draw up any schematics? Was that a salvage alternator or did you spring for a rebuilt? Now you've got me intrigued!

Alternator was a salvage unit of a 1976 caddy (you want pre 1980 as the recifiers after that date usually burn out a 30v - large case externally regulated ford alternators will work with no internal mods)....

The schematics are very simple - postive post of the alternator goes to the pos lead (stinger) and neg lead (mounted to the alternator bracket) goes to the ground clamp...

For everything else I just use the tweco panel disconnects (welding supply store) as junction blocks - one side goes to a terminal on the 110v outlet and the other side goes to the other terminal (doesn't matter which is which) I also ran a chassis ground for the outlets...

The meter is just measuring the open circuit volts when the system is unloaded- I use a hand throttle to control the RPM's and just use the OCV as a guide to aproximate amp levels...

The digital meter runs on 9VDC and I have it wired to run off a 9v battery with a power switch - you have to add some resistors to the back of that specific digital volt meter as it is designed to measure 0 - 200 mV not volts...

Otherwise when welding on your vehicle keep the setup reverse polarity (groung neg and stinger pos) to avoid possible electronics damage...

Thats about it - pretty simple...

Matt

I thought about home-brew plasma after reading some stuff but then I would do one of two things: 1. cook my nuts with a RF microwave transformer, or 2. actually make it work and then have to carry steel to cut and repair stuff with (my jeep is already too heavy - it doesn't need a steel rack inside)

It Works

I jury rigged a welder like you specified and got some arc out of it. Don't know what kind of amps I was putting out but the process works. I did several searches on home-built plasma cutters and came up with nothing. Any hints on web sites?

Search on the http://www.pirate4x4.com board and there was several threads on homebrew plasma - none of them really ended up with a nice finished product - I think the cool factor was driving things more than an actual need...

Matt

i know this post is years old and im sory to pop it to the top of the list but...

I have made a stick welder

i would never use batteries to weld anything

if you are in need of a cheap welder go to www.dansworkshop.com and order his plans...they are great, i have built a stick welder from his plans and its good for some things but it wont give you a strong weld unless you build the 240V models...

i really would suggest a brand name welder like Miller, Lincoln, or even Hobart

names to look out for(bad brands): Clarkie

they say they weld good but i have heard many bad things from weldors that have welded with them...(bad wire feed, no penetration...) that list goes on and on.

if you have any question on welding go here:
http://s14.invisionfree.com/Weldors_Anonymous/index.php?act=idx

you have to register to see the topics and all...but its way worth it.

btw - I have a millermatic 175 mig welder and it works much better than any microwave welder i have ever made

weldman07747 said:

i know this post is years old and im sory to pop it to the top of the list but...

I have made a stick welder

i would never use batteries to weld anything

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So how do you power your mm175 on the trail?

I use a MM250 or a lincoln 350 TIG for everything in the shop - but being able to have 110v dc power and a small stick buzz box to get you home out in the boonies is nice - especially when the net total of parts was ~65$

Matt :gag:

KY Chris said:

Are you serious? Do you mean welding in an emergency situation or as a shop tool? That sounds like a great way to kill three batteries. On the trail that may be ok, but gimme a break, you aren't gonna be building bumpers and such with 3 batteries and a coathanger. You can always find used MIGS and Stick Welders reasonably. Check the local papers.
Sorry if that sounded harsh...

Click to expand...

Ive seen it done before with 3 batteries "borrowed" out of trail rigs, a few sets of jumper cables and some welding rod....you'd be amazed at what you can rig up when your broke down on the trail!! :viking:

Dang...this is an OLD post!

Here's a good write up: http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/on-boardwelder/ .............Hans

on the topic of welders, has anyone used one of the chicago electric ones from Harboar Freight? They're super cheap. I'm just looking to learn to weld, and maybe make some proper bumpers for the MJ as a start.