Welder on board, power supply advice

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

Stainless is a lot easier to do a neat weld compared to steel IMHO.

But the darned stuff hot shorts and has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion and lower electrical/thermal conductivity than carbon steels. And then there's carbide precipitation to worry about. All adds together to trick things up.



And don't do what I did recently and tig weld some 316 tube with mild steel filler rods. Lesson learnt - don't store different filler rods in the same container.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

That'd rape the batteries.

Would they ever recover from that abuse?

Why would that “rape” the batteries?
You pull high amps out, but no more than they can deliver. You need to watch you amp-hr usage or the voltage and stop for recharging at or above 50% discharge just like any other use. Because you are pulling high amps you are not going to get as many amp-hr but that’s an inconvenience, not something that damages the batteries.

[rmlarson1098]

Originally Posted by Reefmagnet

But the darned stuff hot shorts and has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion and lower electrical/thermal conductivity than carbon steels. And then there's carbide precipitation to worry about. All adds together to trick things up.



And don't do what I did recently and tig weld some 316 tube with mild steel filler rods. Lesson learnt - don't store different filler rods in the same container.

Like Reefmagnet says, stainless steel has its issues. You may make a nice looking weld with stainless, but a 'pretty face doesn't mean a pretty heart'.
But in the end it's all about location - if you're building your boat in the backyard, or making major repairs ashore in a controlled environment, you can use pretty much any process you like. But if your yacht has been to sea, and everything isn't just perfect, stick welding is the rule - at least for mild, Corten, & stainless steel. Forget about TIG (heli-arc) in most marine applications. Who wants to carry an argon bottle around?
Plus the weld zone must be very clean, and very dry.
And it's largely the same with wire feed. (MIG) The sales guys will tell you that their cored wire, be it Innershield or something else, will weld in dirt, paint, grease, etc. This is not true in my (40 years) experience. The steel to be welded must be mostly clean and quite dry or you'll just have a bunch of porosity. Nassau and others make stick rod that will weld in VERY wet locations, and do a nice job. It's remarkable. Still, clean up the weld zone! A wire wheel on a grinder rules, or even a grinding wheel if you've got a real mess.

[JamesReid]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

You can get flux core wire feed welders that run off 120 volts no gas required. Buy small spools and deal with a descant.

hi good day, expert welders. I am planning to be a welder as my trade here in australia and I'm thinking to buy a welder machine. I would like a piece of advice from the expert welders here, in your opinion what is the best welder as a beginner im planning to buy at this store welding machine. Thanks everyone in advance for advising me.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, James.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by JamesReid

hi good day, expert welders. I am planning to be a welder as my trade here in australia and I'm thinking to buy a welder machine. I would like a piece of advice from the expert welders here, in your opinion what is the best welder as a beginner im planning to buy at this store welding machine. Thanks everyone in advance for advising me.

One of these Welders, Its got Tig and stick, will run 4 guage electrodes easily on 240 volts,
Nice easy machine to start with,
I have one, Comes with every thing except a bottle of gas,

[hpeer]

I carry a Harbor Freight inverter DC stick welder and run it off a Honda 2000. It runs up to 90 amps DC on shore power but with the Honda I can only get about 40 amps and then I have to be very careful of my duty cycle. I’ve not tried the 2000W inverter as a source yet.

With shore power I’ve done some good work. With the Honda I can do small repairs only. Yet the thing is small, cheap and beats having nothing.

[stimpsonjcat]

I plan to take my Miller Squarewave if the boat has room. AC/DC TIG and stick.

Part of the reason to take the welding classes folks have mentioned and learning to weld is it will help you evaluate welds done by locals even if you don't have a welder on your boat.

[GrowleyMonster]

Simple stick setup, 36v or 48v bank of golf cart batteries. I have tried 24v, and higher voltage works a lot better for me. For very small jobs, just burning one or two rods, it works okay-ish. Due to legal and safety issues I only ever used this setup twice on the boat, once on the dock. Minimum cost, if you have an electric boat and have a 48v bank anyway. Ground clamp, stinger, some cable, hood, gloves, chipping hammer, brush, that's about it. Some guys insist you need some inductance in the circuit, and recommend an old microwave transformer with the old windings removed and rewound with 4ga wire, as many (not many!) turns as will fit. I haven't tried it. Seems like an awful lot of heat would be dissapated in the transformer.



@earthmover, zinc sickness is no joke. Been there, done that. Not sure if there are long term or cumulative effects (there probably are) but you will be extremely miserable for a day or two. Grind the zinc off first, before welding, and use a respirator when doing that. A forced air respirator is a really good idea when actually welding galvanized. You will miss some of the zinc grinding it off. Small parts can be soaked in ospho to de-galvanize. Again, mind the fumes. As far as the actual welding goes, the zinc does not interfere with stick welding, I can say from experience. It burns away quickly. It is the health issues that will affect you.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by JamesReid

hi good day, expert welders. I am planning to be a welder as my trade here in australia and I'm thinking to buy a welder machine. I would like a piece of advice from the expert welders here, in your opinion what is the best welder as a beginner im planning to buy at this store welding machine. Thanks everyone in advance for advising me.

Dunno any of the brands there but generally there's three brands to consider for serious work, Kemppi, Lincoln and Esab, in that order. We ordinary mortals use something cheaper..

[JamesReid]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, James.

Thanks Mate

[JamesReid]

Originally Posted by Mr B

One of these Welders, Its got Tig and stick, will run 4 guage electrodes easily on 240 volts,
Nice easy machine to start with,
I have one, Comes with every thing except a bottle of gas,

Thank you so much for your advice mate.

[JamesReid]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

Dunno any of the brands there but generally there's three brands to consider for serious work, Kemppi, Lincoln and Esab, in that order. We ordinary mortals use something cheaper..

Yeah Mate hahaha, i'm also thinking about something cheap.

[JamesReid]

Originally Posted by JamesReid

hi good day, expert welders. I am planning to be a welder as my trade here in australia and I'm thinking to buy a welder machine. I would like a piece of advice from the expert welders here, in your opinion what is the best welder as a beginner im planning to buy at this store welding machine.

Thank you so much everyone in advance for advising me.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by JamesReid

Thank you so much everyone in advance for advising me.

Here you go, James,
Buy one of these on Ebay, From Sydney,
Inverter welders, Minimum 200 amps. 3 or 4 in one welders.
They have every thing you will ever need and very cheap as well,
Under $500-00 delivered, 240 volts,
They are very easy to use, Once you get the hang of it,
More power than you will ever use,
They have every thing included,
This piccy is only one of many on Ebay, ,
But it shows what you can get, They are all basically the same welders,
Cheers, Brian,