New thought on Onboard Welder

[2004LB7]

You may have better luck with a spool gun and batteries then trying to do stick. Then you can vary the wire speed to help adjust the heat. Should also require less amps overall too

 

[Chevy1925]

^^for sure but that’s an addition 6-700 bucks that will have to wait for now.


Bypassed the stupid little circuit boards and she lights the sticks up like a christmas tree.... literally. About half way through a stick it will light the flux on fire . I had to let them cool a bit 1/4 way through. 3/32 is just way too small for the amps coming through. You can’t feed it fast enough but it works great for short bursts on 1/8” to 1/8”.

I burned through 6 sticks before the batteries died. They were only charged to 75% as well. I’m going to stop by the welding shop tomorrow and grab some 5/32. I feel that’s going to be the sweet spot.

I tried both 24v and 36v. 24v just ain’t enough. It can get the arc semi going but just won’t feed.

Needless to say, batteries never got hot (you could feel they warmed up some but nothing you’d ever worry about), wiring never got hot, and nothing burst into flames. Good start to this adventure

Be forewarned, these welds are extremely shitty. I don’t arc weld and I was damn near jamming rod down into the steel just to feed fast enough due to using 3/32. They look like hell but that shit would get you off a trail under your own power. I prefer to see if we can get them up to a little better standard though

1/4”

1/8”

I’ll get a video up tomorrow.

 

[2004LB7]

Nice. Better than expected

 

[TheBac]

I'll be darned, it worked. I was hoping for explosions, though.

How did you isolate the welder from the Tracker's electrical system?

 

[Chevy1925]

I'll be darned, it worked. I was hoping for explosions, though.

How did you isolate the welder from the Tracker's electrical system?

There is no tracker parts involved . what you see is 3 lithium jump starter packs on the 1/4" and 2 lithium jump starter packs on the 1/8". only part that will involve the tracker is the charger. it will charge the batteries when not in use off a 12v cigarette plug and 2 amp plug in. :woott:

 

[Chevy1925]

Video as promised. You can see i swapped to 24v and tried it. didnt work as well and took a little finesse to get it to weld right on 1/8". Easy to see the issues are more with me welding and wrong stick size than the batteries them selves.

[youtube]_ex95bm-ng0[/youtube]

 

[2004LB7]

Bypassed the stupid little circuit boards and she lights the sticks up like a christmas tree.... literally. About half way through a stick it will light the flux on fire . I had to let them cool a bit 1/4 way through. 3/32 is just way too small for the amps coming through. You can’t feed it fast enough but it works great for short bursts on 1/8” to 1/8”

It's just a guess, but I I would say you may have your polarity backwards. Have you tried it electrode positive? That should put more heat into your work piece and less into the electrode

Edit: just watched your video and I see you are on electrode negative. Try electrode positive with the 3/32 rods. That might keep them from getting so hot

 

[Chevy1925]

It's just a guess, but I I would say you may have your polarity backwards. Have you tried it electrode positive? That should put more heat into your work piece and less into the electrode

i was always told arc welding is "cathode negative" or that the welding rod is on negative and "ground clamp" is positive. Thats how i have it set up but its easy enough to swap around.

really i think its more the fact i have 150+ amps going through a rod meant for 25-75 amps :roflmao:.

see if i get time tonight and batteries charge up. i only have 1 amp chargers for these things which isnt the fastest lol. If not, ill dick with it tomorrow if i get the tracker done. leaving on a desert trip friday morning and have a few things left to do on the rig before i go as well as pack.

EDIT: just seen your edit lol

 

[Chevy1925]

well this might be all for not... lmao, buddy of mine showed me this. at 900 bucks, thats pretty sweet for what i get. waaaaaay longer run time, MIG style, nice case and can charge in the tracker or use the trackers battery if the one in the rig is doing dead (could probably use 12v on thinner metals as well).

https://karnagewelder.com/about-karnage-welder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e38cLsuCftk

when i get back from my trip, i might be ordering one.

 

[2004LB7]

Since you already have the batteries, why not just add something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Hobart-300796-SpoolRunner-100-Spool/dp/B004U9BZW4

Then mount everything in an ammo can and have your own version for half the cost

 

[Chevy1925]

that might work. just have to wire in the motor as well and figure out what kind of voltage it wants. if its 24v, that makes it easy. Hell, ebay has some el-cheapos for 100 bucks i could test.

not gunna lie, this is alot of fun dicking around with figuring this out. been a while since ive played with small projects.

 

[2004LB7]

Haha, yeah, my life is full of small projects. Keeps me sane

I say go for the eBay el-cheapo. Doesn't look like you can loose much

 

[Trimox]

You can try 1/8" 6010 they will handle the ampere much better. 6011s are meant for lower ampere than 6010. You can also try an 1/8" 7018. Run a quick root with a 6010 to blow out all the trash and then come back and cap it with the 7018. 7018s don't burn near as hot as 6010 or 6011(not as big a fireworks show either) on the same amperage but will have more holding strength with clean metal or clean root. All this is on electrode positive as stated above.

PS your welds look better than some I have seen from paid "welders".

 

[Chevy1925]

Thx trimox, I’ll grab a few of those as well and try them out! Welding shop only has 10lbs boxes and no way I’ll go through that much, specially if I switch to a mig setup.

The 6011 shows up Thursday, I’ll get some 6010 and 7018 as well in 1 lbs boxes

Don’t sugar coat those welds, they are f**king terrible :rofl:. Specially coming from this with MIG

 

[TheBac]

Video as promised. You can see i swapped to 24v and tried it. didnt work as well and took a little finesse to get it to weld right on 1/8". Easy to see the issues are more with me welding and wrong stick size than the batteries them selves.

Admit it....you were worried about explosions. :roflmao:


BTW, those were really good welds compared to the birdshit jokes of welds that I've done.

 

[Chevy1925]

Admit it....you were worried about explosions. :roflmao:


BTW, those were really good welds compared to the birdshit jokes of welds that I've done.

f**k yeah I was! Plus I was concerned on killing the batteries quicker than I thought

 

[Trimox]

Don’t sugar coat those welds, they are f**king terrible :rofl:. Specially coming from this with MIG

I can have a monkey mig weld as long as I set up the box for him. Stick is a dying art that is individual to each welder.

 

[Chevy1925]

I can have a monkey mig weld as long as I set up the box for him. Stick is a dying art that is individual to each welder.

:rofl::rofl: we must have some REALLY retarded monkeys because ive seen way too many "fabricators" lay down MIG welds that look like or worse than my arc welds. Same guys want 30 bucks an hour to work :roflmao:

 

[2004LB7]

Any updates? Get any chance to try it out on electrode positive yet?

 

[Chevy1925]

Not yet! Tomorrow I might. I’ve got more rod to play with but I’ve been working on the LT kit for the tracker.

I was really starting to look into building my own battery pack but finding a bms setup that would take 150-200 amps ain’t cheap or easy to find. Then needed to figure out how to put the lifepo4 batteries in such a way I’d get 10-15amp hours at 24v and still fit in an ammo can with bms (or multiple) and main power connections. I didn’t get too deep into it though as I realized I actually have time to start playing with my LT kit again .

So I’m off to foddrills to pick up a bunch of heims and shit to start the knuckles and upper arms