What MIG welder is suitable for car repairs?

bump - anyone
personally I can't see why the welder would care,
as long its a steady power supply ?
but I'm not sure and need guidance ?
:dry:

I don't know the science behind it, but I know most small generators are not suitable for welding. I imagine it's a power thing. Welding is basically making a short circuit, so saps tons of power. I don't think it's got anything to do with inverters though!

thanks Busta, was thinking maybe i WAS BEING WOUND UP,
understand power and high point sapping, but inverters was a new one on me :S
was hoping maybe some expert here could advise correctly



the welder needs
Duty Cycle
8% - 130A
15% - 115A
60% - 57A
100% - 44A

but just what that means with respect to a generator is beyond me :S
have asked the missus but she says Brazil will win :pinch:

Those figures are the duty cycle for the welder.
At the lowest setting of 44A it has 100% duty cycle so you should be able to weld all day long.
At the maximum (hottest) setting of 130A it should only be used for 8% of the time, and allowed to cool down for 92% of the time. Or put another way, 2 minutes of welding every 25 minutes!

This is how I ruined mine- doing long continuous welds on the highest setting, massively exceeding the duty cycle.

Back to generators, you can work out how much power your welder needs easily, but the problem is this doesn't translate very well to the size of generator you need. Generator figures are always optimistic, and welders always seem to such every last ounce of power out of things.

On paper you need 3.12kva for a 13 amp supply. In reality you probably need a 5kva generator or bigger for the welder to run happily.

nice one Busta

that's that then :pinch:

no way I could afford a 5 KVa let alone 3.12 Kva genny just for an ickle bit of welding play

will just keep it at home and blast holes in metal now and again :whistle:

Welders and generators are always a pain. This is me doing some welding in Australia back on 2008.



The welder is a 140amp arc inverter (It's that little red shoebox sized thing on the floor). The generator is that trailer thing on the left. It had a massive old Lister engine that weighed a ton running a generator the size of gas cylinder and I had an old SJ to tow it around with. Anyway, the point in posting this is that when that small welder was turned up to full, the big lister engine would nearly stall. It always amazed me that such a little box of wires could do that!