Power source for off grid workshop ?

[sardine]

I'm not sure what taper the Chinese use on their generator builds.
It could be a British (common), Japanese (Japan-built complete gens) or Italian Taper (Italian Market machines). Note a lot of Japanese engined gensets are British Taper - because the engines were bought in by the container load & assembled into gensets in Europe/UK (Pramac, Stephill, Harrington etc sets).

I'd not just assume that a Zanardi is a direct fit onto the Kipor engine Taper shaft. Also I suspect that the Zanardi welder alternator is quite a bit longer than the Kipor item & won't fit in the Kipor chassis.

4-pole 1500rpm industrial alternators are vastly superior in general over 2-pole stuff, which are portable sets designed for power tools and pretty insensitive, unfussy loads. A 4-pole with a 2/3 pitched winding, more mass a decent exciter and AVR will provide a better, more stable output than any 2-pole set.
The greater mass & flywheel momentum give better stability and better motor-starting capability (along with the better alternator). Hefty flywheels is how relatively small output Lister SR/ST & TS/TR gensets punch well above their weight.

If you've the room & can find a decent one for sensible money, an industrial genny is just so much better tbh.

The Kipor needs taking apart anyway as the rotor is dead and the crankcase has an oil leak, I will see what taper it has then.

It's had its extenal exhaust removed and is piped out to a bigger external exhaust, a welding alternator could be shoehorned in.

This machine sits inside my workshop so I don't have space for anything much bigger, nor do i need anything more than to run a 3.2 , duty cycle isn't a concern as I'm not fabricating big stuff.

 

[sardine]

Options ..

1.Diesel generator with AVR big enough to power welding = too big to fit in my workshop
2.Bison / Warrior 10kva generator is a Chinese clone = too cheap to be worth investing in
3.Used Diesel welder generator like a Arcgen 200 SSD fits in the space = but stick welding is not my main process any more and all my welding machines would have to go and special ones that work off a welder generator bought, none of which are cheap.
4. Replace the alternator on my 5 kw Yanmar L100 clone generator with a welding alternator = output of clone engine is doubtful, it may not handle it, new welding alternator is £600/700 !

 

[sardine]

Edit .

Sincro or Zanardi welding alternators have gone up to £ 900.

 

[Memmeddu]

Edit .

Sincro or Zanardi welding alternators have gone up to £ 900.

It's cheaper to get an used engine driven honestly.
I have two of them a GenSet with 4.5kW three phase output and a little two stroke MOSA which is not auxiliary power model unfortunately but I've seen there were external boxes which somehow made possible to use it as a 220VDC power generator.
More studying on whenever I found little time to work on it.
I addition to those two I have an Honda Pramac 4.5kW single phase Genny.
My idea is to sold it along with the MOSA to save money for a bigger engine driven welder

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

Diesel generator with AVR big enough to power welding = too big to fit in my workshop

Why wouldn't you put it outside in the first place?

If you have a decent sized silent diesel you will want it to be outside anyway, there's absolutely no way I would want to move my 32kVA unit in and out on gigantic castors, even if I had the space:

Excuse the mess as I'm in the middle of a tidy up.

 

[Memmeddu]

Why wouldn't you put it outside in the first place?

If you have a decent sized silent diesel you will want it to be outside anyway, there's absolutely no way I would want to move my 32kVA unit in and out on gigantic castors, even if I had the space:

View attachment 492009

Excuse the mess as I'm in the middle of a tidy up.

That's what I'm thinking to do myself

 

[sardine]

Why wouldn't you put it outside in the first place?

My workshop is on a narrowboat

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Last week I was fixing my boat...theres no power at the site. Managed to power my vacuum and power file from the electric car (borrowed from the missus).

I have to say it's made me look at the EV very differently...think it's able to supply around 7kw. Very handy option to have in a pinch...maybe they should advertise them as portable generators that can also be used for transport .

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

My workshop is on a narrowboat

Ah, yes, well...

I can see how that might get a bit moist then...

And a barge under tow is definitely out of the question?

(I jest, but a friend of mine who lives on a narrowboat did have an acquaintance that had an unpowered wide-beam barge they used as a workshop for furniture restoration.)

 

[Justme]

I have found that it will run my mig at 200+ amps without breaking a sweat, but stick welding at 115amps does make it sound more like its working! not sure why?

In one word voltage.

mig 200amps at say 19v is 3800w yet arc 115 amps at 50v is 5750w.

Not all amps are the same

 

[sardine]

In one word voltage.

mig 200amps at say 19v is 3800w yet arc 115 amps at 50v is 5750w.

Not all amps are the same

Does MIG really run off a smaller generator than stick ?

 

[finyuk2005]

In one word voltage.

mig 200amps at say 19v is 3800w yet arc 115 amps at 50v is 5750w.

Not all amps are the same

never thought about that, but yeah quite different voltages!

 

[GRW]

Does MIG really run off a smaller generator than stick ?

Generally speaking, yes. As per the example, the kw loading is less with MIG.

 

[Justme]

Generally speaking, yes. As per the example, the kw loading is less with MIG.

However in general you need more mig amps per mm of thickness than with arc.