middle of the road welder

[Chilly807]

I had a Miller 135 mig (120v) a few years ago. It ran very well on a 5000 watt Honda generator with flux core wire, I never tried it with gas.

Now for the interesting part. I "upgraded" to a Miller 180 (230v) with autoset, etc. It doesn't work nearly as well as the 135 on generator power, even at lower settings. At full power it'll open the breaker on the generator.

I hadn't considered the "clean power" issue, but I think it might be a factor now that I think about it.

You might look around for a good used mig, they're fairly common.

Sean

 

[yomax4]

One thing about running welders and plasma cutters off of generators is,, Most of the Welding Type generators do ok up to about 40 amps output. If you turn your machine up beyond what the generator wants to put out. It will actually get worse. Try pluging in and reducing the output on your welder and increasing it until you find the sweet spot. That will be your Max out put. All the New Welder Generators have Clean Power now. They safely run grinders and drills. A plain old generator like a Coleman etc. is anyones guess. If you need to wirefeed with your " Welder Generator" you need to Consider a Voltage Sensing Wire Feeder. It is easy to hook up and runs full bore from the Welder. Check Out lincoln LN25 or Thermal Arc VS212.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

yomax,

There are still a lot of generators out there that do not run clean power. Drills and such run will fine of them. I am not talking about Hz or actual voltage. I am talking about "noise" in the sine wave. A lot of them are choppers or inverters and produce modified square waves, others are just plain dirty with a lot of background issues. The best way to tell is to put them on a oscilloscope and look for the clean sine wave. A good quality generator like some Honda gensets actually have been known to produce a cleaner sine wave than the power your utility company can supply. Others are quite bad. Line conditioners and filters can help though and make a bad gen look good with just a little effort.

 

[yomax4]

Yeah, I am unsure about the common generator. I guess my expierience is with Welder / Generators. Lincoln, Miller, Thermal Arc. I know nothing about the others. Since the 90's I have never had an issue with anything I have pluged into any of my Engine Drive units. I often run Inverter Tig Stick units and Plasmas off the Ranger 8 Than I currently own.

 

[arrow]

Generators with voltage regulators built in insure cleaner power so much so that some make the claim of being able to run a computer off of. A 115 volt mig for thinner stuff, even if it is from middle of the road reputable dealers such as from Northern products, or Giant Tech or Eastwood supply after you add gas and a cart is going to be over $500. An inverter dc stick welder from Giant Tech is a bit over $200 but is said to run off a generator. Not sure what you mean by "smaller stuff" as smaller stuff can be thick or thin. Thinner than 16 gauge, a mig will handle much easier. Of course a 50' to 100' thicker gauge extension cord will make any 115 or 220 volt welder more handy so long as what you need to weld is not in the middle of an expansive pasture or field.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Northern has an interesting line-up of Northern Industrial MIGs. The 125 flux core has decent power for $150. The 200amp inverter MIG/stick is the only thing like it for that price.
Northern Industrial Tools | Wirefeed Welders | Wirefeed Welding | Welding | Northern Tool + Equipment

I have (infrequently) run my Hobart Handler 135 and my neighbor's Lincoln 100 amp flux core off my low-end Coleman 5000w generator without issue.