Welding with 4000watt generator

[domains]

Ok what is the EXACT MAKE AND MODEL of the generators?
Champion makes lots of welders.
IF you've 2 INVERTER welders available you might be able to PARALLEL them and run your welder.

Run both generators at a time but i'm not good in electrical mods , i'm going to run a wire to my garage when ground is not soft and muddy , in about a month, I'm going to run a 10 gauge wire 100 feet( or 8 maybe), and only use single pole 30 amp breaker,Breaker box is full , I should be able to weld 1/8 rods

 

[newbury]

Run both generators at a time but i'm not good in electrical mods ,

If they are inverter generators Champion makes a kit to parallel 120 volts.
linky
Should be an easy mod.


Have you figured the voltage drop over 100' of 10 or 8 gauge?

 

[domains]

If they are inverter generators Champion makes a kit to parallel 120 volts.
linky
Should be an easy mod.


Have you figured the voltage drop over 100' of 10 or 8 gauge?

Yes it says I need grade 6 but my friend has 100 feet 12 gauge and welds with it

thx for link, I might try to find some grade 8 while im waiting for new garage

 

[BukitCase]

If you run 240 volts, the #12 would work at 100 feet because your welder only needs 18 amps when running on 240 volts, and the 12 gauge would still keep voltage drop below 3%.

As far as parallel operations, unless your generators are IDENTICAL INVERTER types, there is no simple (or safe) way to accomplish that.

There's no need for parallel operation ANYWAY, because ONE of your generators with the proper twist lock 240 plug will let your welder do ALL IT'S CAPABLE OF... Steve

 

[domains]

If you run 240 volts, the #12 would work at 100 feet because your welder only needs 18 amps when running on 240 volts, and the 12 gauge would still keep voltage drop below 3%.

As far as parallel operations, unless your generators are IDENTICAL INVERTER types, there is no simple (or safe) way to accomplish that.

There's no need for parallel operation ANYWAY, because ONE of your generators with the proper twist lock 240 plug will let your welder do ALL IT'S CAPABLE OF... Steve

Thx... Il buy adapter and try

 

[BukitCase]

One more WARNING - if your cord doesn't NEED to be 100 feet to reach (if it's too long by more than maybe 6 or 8 feet) I would STRONGLY recommend buying a second male AND female twistlock connector, and making up a SECOND cord with the EXTRA wire - that cord would just have male and female twist locks - basically just an "extension cord", to ONLY be used if you occasionally need more reach -

The reason for this - too long of a power cord tends to get coiled up to keep it out of the way - this becomes an INDUCTOR, also known as a CHOKE - that will cause a RESTRICTION to the welder's available power, OVERHEAT the power cord, possibly DAMAGE the welder, even CAUSE A FIRE .

I've worked on induction heaters that INTENTIONALLY use coils to heat small ingots (typically 6" diameter, 3 ft. long) - the difference is INTENT - the wiring on those units is MUCH HEAVIER DUTY than just a "too long" power cord - the heaters we had would raise the temperature of an ingot to CHERRY RED in about 30 minutes... Steve

 

[BukitCase]

Just in case you might think the above is just "internet fact", this

Vacuum Arc Remelt (VAR) Furnaces

Since 1963, Retech has enjoyed being a worldwide leader in the production of Vacuum Arc Remelt (VAR) furnaces designed to melt reactive and refractory metals as well as steel. Retech VAR furnaces can be configured for a range of capacities for producing ingots or castings, from a laboratory...

www.retechsystemsllc.com

is the kind of "welders" I used to work on - power supply outputs ranged from 30,000 to 50,000 amps, furnaces produced ingots (usually Titanium or Zirconium) from 26" to 40" diameter and up to 24 feet long. Inlet power was 4160 volts, fed directly from transmission lines.

We had lathes big enough to turn the surface of the largest ingots, the lathes were loaded/unloaded with a 30 TON crane, 2 cranes ran on the same rails and covered the entire area of a 80' x 200' building. There were 5 remelt furnaces and an electron beam "recycle" furnace in the building.

That was the first rare metals company I worked for (9 years) - the second one (25 years) had multiple melt areas, about 30 remelt furnaces, and started the rare metals process by chemically extracting metals from common beach sand - the process is incredibly complex, and yields Zirconium, Titanium, Hafnium, and Niobium. The various alloys of those metals allowed us to produce everything from heart valves to parts for nuclear reactors.

Best thing about those jobs is that I almost NEVER got bored ... Steve

 

[ArlyA]

Just in case you might think the above is just "internet fact", this

Vacuum Arc Remelt (VAR) Furnaces

Since 1963, Retech has enjoyed being a worldwide leader in the production of Vacuum Arc Remelt (VAR) furnaces designed to melt reactive and refractory metals as well as steel. Retech VAR furnaces can be configured for a range of capacities for producing ingots or castings, from a laboratory...

www.retechsystemsllc.com

is the kind of "welders" I used to work on - power supply outputs ranged from 30,000 to 50,000 amps, furnaces produced ingots (usually Titanium or Zirconium) from 26" to 40" diameter and up to 24 feet long. Inlet power was 4160 volts, fed directly from transmission lines.

We had lathes big enough to turn the surface of the largest ingots, the lathes were loaded/unloaded with a 30 TON crane, 2 cranes ran on the same rails and covered the entire area of a 80' x 200' building. There were 5 remelt furnaces and an electron beam "recycle" furnace in the building.

That was the first rare metals company I worked for (9 years) - the second one (25 years) had multiple melt areas, about 30 remelt furnaces, and started the rare metals process by chemically extracting metals from common beach sand - the process is incredibly complex, and yields Zirconium, Titanium, Hafnium, and Niobium. The various alloys of those metals allowed us to produce everything from heart valves to parts for nuclear reactors.

Best thing about those jobs is that I almost NEVER got bored ... Steve

All of my sposues family came from eastern Eruope and worked the hematite and taconite mines of MN near and after the tunrn of the century. My father-in-law retired from LTV. Some of my ancestors worked in hematite mines in MI. Steel is big here.

 

[domains]

Found one for 45$ going to try

 

[BukitCase]

"Steel is big here"

Yeah, hopefully it'll get bigger if/when we quit relying on China so much - I saw a vid of an open hearth steel plant, made me REAL happy all our melt processes happen in either total vacuum or straight Argon environment

Domains, now if you read and understood my previous post you need to get your 100' cord and TWO SETS of male/female twist locks (unless you will ALWAYS need the full 100' to reach between generator and welder), then only ONE male/female pair of twist locks - if money's tight, one OTHER way to "get by" would be to remember NEVER to coil up extra wire unless you're NOT using the welder AT ALL... Steve