Welder on a boat - equipment

[hpeer]

Better than nothing. Inexpensive and small.

80 Amp-DC, 120 Volt, Inverter Stick Welder

[RaymondR]

I have a steel boat and carry a 140 amp inverter welder and a selection of carbon and SS rods. Most use it gets is welding links on anchor chain when I add pieces on followed by the odd hull repair and small projects.


I have a 2.2kw 240V AC genset but it does not put out enough power to do stick welding so I generally find a shore power outlet if I need to weld stuff. However I do have two other uses for the inverter welder.


I have used the inverter welder powered from the AC genset as a high output battery charger to recharge house batteries as one can adjust the current output of the welder whilst monitoring the voltage so that the batteries are not damaged.


The second unusual purpose is to crank the main engine when the starting batteries are flat.


I wind the amp setting on the welder to max, jam the throttle on the genset fully open and concurrently hit the start button whilst jamming the welding lead onto the battery terminal. It has worked well both time I have been obliged to do it, however, I then go to the motor rewind shop and buy a new capacitor to replace the blown up one on the genset's excitation circuit.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Steven UK

Thanks for the link, and I'm close to Spirit Lake.

Which Spirit Lake? The one in Aitkin or Wedena counties? Or one of the others? There are 5 big enough to be listed in DeLorme's Minn. Atlas. I assume there are a bunch more smaller ones too.

When I was a kid my family had a cabin on Round Lake. There are 42 big enough to be listed in the atlas. I imagine there are at least 100 Round lakes in MN what with over 14,000 lakes to name.

[hsi88]

Originally Posted by Bill Seal

If you want to do aluminum, this one works pretty darn well. Eastwood TIG200 AC/DC Welder Of course, it's not a Miller, but it's not $3k+ either. Square wave AC, offsettable for dirty metal, foot pedal, 110volt. And Eastwood stands behind their products.

Hard to beat for under $700 and I got free shipping when I bought mine a few years back (the older blue one). Not a bad machine. But not sure I'd want one on the boat full time unless i was using it to make extra money. Welders of almost any type take up some room and are fairly heavy.

[Pelagic]

Just curious..... Do most marinas allow welding / hot work at their docks?

Ours does not which is a real PITA

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Just curious..... Do most marinas allow welding / hot work at their docks?

Ours does not which is a real PITA

I don't know but would seriously doubt it. It may depend on your location.

[groundtackle]

Typically in our area it's acceptable with proper insurance coverage. All reputable trades sign in when conducting business. It works well for everyone.
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