Supply for welder

[David230]

Looking for a suitable "portable" supply for my mig welder and for lowest cost. I want to work on a car that I have at a garage which is away from the house (couple of roads away). I dont have power in the garage at all but I am just curious to know what would be the cheapest solution other than organising power to be supplied to the garage?

cheers

 

[Hitch]

A genny is an option, but you will need quite a powerfull one. At least 6kva.

 

[malcolm]

One thread from last year might be useful - wicamron reckons a 3kW generator will power his 130 amp MIG.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=133

 

[Hitch]

Ah, it will depend on what your welder is, but on a 3kva i would have thought it must nearly die everytime you start a weld!

Tried a 150amp set on a 4.5kva and it virtually stalled it!

 

[wicamron]

Hello David230
wicamron here, my briggs &stratton 3.2kv generator runs my migmate 130 turbo just fine, i have run it for hours repairing my spitfire, most of the time it is used at low settings for body work and occasionally as high as the machine can go and seems to work just fine, but when i tried to run my 8 1/2 cfm 1850 watt compressor the generator just stalls, apparently ,compressors require a higher starting current.
hope this helps regards wicamron

 

[willie w]

hi a lamppost work well a night he he

 

[jugs]

hi a lamppost work well a night he he

I remember a guy in Cardiff used to plug his ice-cream van into a lamppost overnight (so he wouldn’t disturb the neighbours.)

BTW Geny kVA should be 2.5 -3 times the max load kVA

 

[madkayaker]

The street light will normally work during the day to if its a DNO feed instead of a private supply... Wouldn'T recommend it. Is there some one near that you could come to an arrangement with to buy small amount of power? Probably work out cheaper than a generator. Some welders don't like the fluxurating Hz