I'm building an F27 in a rented garage, and after one too many noisy sessions using a generator for electricity, a nice neighbour has offered to run an cable from his flat down to the garage. We are coming to some arrangement with the cost etc.

Chassis is mostly finished (bought that way), but there is some welding that I need to do. Thickest of which will be the mounting plates for the roll bar which also hold the upper mounts for the rear shocks.

What welder would be adequate for most jobs on a kit project? Should I not bother with a welder that needs a higher current supply than the standard 13A coming from a house? Are people that build own chassis etc using a standard MIG that runs off a 13A household supply, or are 'special arrangements' needed?

Cheers

Matt

I've done all of my welding using thre normal 13a house supply, everything seems solid enough!

Just be aware that a long extension cable, and a lot of current being drawn is a bad idea...!

A good extension lead will easily take 13A (if uncoiled) but you will get some voltage drop if it's a long cable and if it's coiled 10A is usually max.

My wife recently melted my best cable drum by leaving it coiled on the drum and running 2* 3000w heaters off it I still cry myself to sleep at night....

[cough]

but you can get away with it!

[cough]

Get a 'GOOD' extension cable - thickest you can, make sure its got the highest wattage rating on it possible. If the choice is saving a pound or two - spend the cash.

Make sure the welder is plugged into a socket thats decent - doesn't have other stuff plugged into it (ie is part of the ring and not a spur). Fully unroll the cable.

Go for it.

(its what i may have done many times. For normal welding i do have other stuff running off the same socket but if i go to max power i plug into the cooker socket. Reality is the cables are designed to carry more than 13 amps, usually 15. 13 amps is the fuse protecting the cable. If you're careful and stupid you can go over 13 amps (With fuse still in) and get away with it. I usually make sure after every minutes welding i let the welder and cables all cool down. when i first started doing this I used to grab the cable to see how warm it was. Now i don't bother. )

quote:

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Originally posted by BenB
A good extension lead will easily take 13A (if uncoiled) but you will get some voltage drop if it's a long cable and if it's coiled 10A is usually max.

My wife recently melted my best cable drum by leaving it coiled on the drum and running 2* 3000w heaters off it I still cry myself to sleep at night....

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Could you quieten the generator at all?

Fit an exhaust silencer?

Dig a hole and put it in there? This is what we did when camping at Donnington once and running laptop and projector.

Have a screen between the generator and the flats? Might take a few decibels off it.

Just a few quick thoughts!

HTH,
James

I scratch built my car and did everything using a Clarke MIG160EN. The official spec is that this requires a 15A supply but I just put a normal 13A plug on it and it was absolutely fine, even when running it at the highest possible power setting.

I did every bit of welding on the same fuse, via an extension cable without blowing anything. Apparently the fuse is most likely to go if the wire feed jams but this didn't happen to me.

HTH,

Ive got a Lincoln 250A Mig welder. I ran it on a 16a plug but could only use it upto 1/2 power. Ive since had a 32A supply and plug fitted, and i can now run it at nearly max :-/

ive also got a 200A ac/dc tig welder, and that is fine upto max power on the 32A supply

Hi Folks, how about running 2 extensiion cables and making a lead with 2 13 amp plugs on one end and a 15 amp socket on the other?

Just a thought.



Must ensure that both adaptor plugs are in before switching the extension leads on.....

[Edited on 11/3/10 by avagolen]

quote:

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Originally posted by avagolen
Hi Folks, how about running 2 extensiion cables and making a lead with 2 13 amp plugs on one end and a 15 amp socket on the other?

Just a thought.



Must ensure that both adaptor plugs are in before switching the extension leads on.....

[Edited on 11/3/10 by avagolen]

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Thanks for all the advice - picked up a Clarke MIG 135TE last week and got it going this weekend. Fortunately no issues at all with blown fuses etc. Still learning my way to make pretty welds but it certainly has done the trick. The difference in productivity between no electricity, and now elec + welder is crazy!

Thanks again

matt