Cordless welder???

EddieWalker · Mar 9, 2005

Forgive my ignorance, but isn't a MIG welder more of a sheetmetal and thin metals type of welder? Will it put a strong weld on something that a tractor has busted or hold together a metal building?

Bird · Mar 9, 2005

Eddie, I'm not much of a welder myself, but I've seen folks use a MIG welder on some pretty big, heavy stuff. My toothbar was just a tiny bit too long when I got it, so I let a real welder cut it in two, shorten it a bit, and weld it back together with a MIG welder.

Soundguy · Mar 9, 2005

With what you can buy comercially... I wouldn't be afraid of 3/8 and up to 1/2 inch if done right. I would think for thicker applications you would need 'more' equipment than will run off of single phase 220 service.. etc.

Given equal amp machines.. stick seems to penetrate much better. Must be electrode size difference.

Soundguy

Dargo · Mar 9, 2005

EddieWalker, the MIG welder I want will weld the heavy stuff your talking about just fine. However, the MIG welder I can afford won't. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Phred · Apr 7, 2005

I hope our resident inspector will weigh in and clairify this if I do not make it clear, but......

The green safety ground and the white neutral in a house are tied togheter only at the service entrance. It is in fact unsafe and a code violation to tie them togheter else where. The reason is that under normal operation the green should never have current flowing in it unless a fault occurs. The neutral does in fact have current flow throw it.

Fred

rswyan · Apr 7, 2005

( Forgive my ignorance, but isn't a MIG welder more of a sheetmetal and thin metals type of welder? Will it put a strong weld on something that a tractor has busted or hold together a metal building?
)

Depends on who's doing the welding I guess ..... I've joined 1" steel plate for the backhoe ripper tooth I built (image attached) using my MIG which is only rated 1/4" single pass MIG and 1/2" with flux-core using multi-pass.

I've used it for the past week or so on some rather larger tree roots and it hasn't broke in half yet (knock on wood) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif It definitely has been under some serious stress.

txdon · Apr 7, 2005

rswyan, I looked at your building the ripper post and realized that you welded the end together and then ground it smooth, that is amazing. What MIG do you have?

rswyan · Apr 9, 2005

Don,

Thanks. It's a Lincoln PowerMIG 215.

WhiteRock · Apr 10, 2005

Seems like your mixing scenarios here. This was on a welder, not in a house. Not much code being considered here best I can tell. Following code generalizations in some areas and not others can get you killed. I think it is better if folks can get some sound advice or understand what they are doing.

 It is in fact unsafe and a code violation to tie them togheter else where. 

Appliances usually have the green wire tied to the chassis. This for the case where a hot wire internally touches the chassis, a breaker would trip. Your "code rule" seems to imply that it would be better to let this float. This is not near as safe as tying them together. Welders are usually in harsh environments. I think having them grounded is much safer. Yes, It should be wired correct all the way through and it wouldn't be an issue. But, this isn't how it always appears in the real world. Folks will take short cuts when they shouldn't. My dad was the worst. Kept me scared to death. You didn't want to roll up one of his cords by hand with it plugged in. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif But I could never convince him.

Tying the green and neutral together on a welder circuit in the plug would only disable ground fault sensing in the welder. Do they put ground faults in welders?

The neutral does in fact have current flow throw it.


There may or may not be current in the neutral. The netural is only use for 120V. If the welder is all 240V, there would be no current through the netural.