Stand-by generator

[Nuru]

I've been puttin this together for about A month. The motor is A 2.5 chevy 4 cyl. out of an 85 cj5 jeep. My son gave me the motor cause he upgraded to A 4.3. The generator was originally powered by an onan water cooled 2 cyl And came out of a houseboat. It was given to me by my BIL. I got the propane stuff from a freind who had it in his basement,also for free.It puts out 6.5 KW.Total cash investment is less than $200.We ain't gonna count the time invested.It also has a DC output of 36 volts,I want to try to make a welder out of that part.If any of you guys know how that would I'd like to hear from you.

How do you plan to pipe the exhaust out of the garage? I am interested in finding out the best materials to do this so I can work on the tractor on bad weather days.

 

[PILOON]

If I'm not in error, I believe you would need to control the field voltage in the generator to vary the output amperage.

I think you have a 'one rod' sized welder.
Try different type rods and rod sizes.
Each type and size has different amperage specs, however forget about thin stuff.
With rod selection you probably can weld down to 1/8" safely.

I know because I once made a homemade welder without any control and with practice welded from 1/8 (with 1/6 or 3/32 rod) all the way up to 1/2" stuck with 5/32 rod.
Naturally I'd often have more penetration than I wanted but the welds sure stuck.
Was even able to use cutting rod that wanted about 200 amps.

But with DC, you sure will do nice welds.
Some rods are specifically made for DC welding, while others do AC and DC.

 

[Olmike]

NURU, I don' plan to run it inside anymore,I was testing it the pic & it was too cold to open the door. If you want A good way to vent exhaust,I use A vent fan motor out of an old high efficency furnace.Vent the outlet to the outside & get some exhaust hose from a good parts house & make an adapter to fit your tractor pipe.

PILOON, I haven't used it alot for welding,but it seems that the more rpm the hotter it welds.

 

[Tom_Veatch]

...I haven't used it alot for welding,but it seems that the more rpm the hotter it welds.

I strongly suspect that you are right. I doubt there is any control electronics to vary voltage and maintain current to a set point like there is on a CC welding source. If that's the case, the amperage (heat) will vary directly with the voltage developed by the generator (all other things, lead length, arc length, etc., being the same).

On my PTO driven generator, the output voltage rises and falls with RPM.