Portable welders?

Graham376 said:
But your boat is steel, you can weld bits on anywhere :) , much more limited use on grp. I did have an inverter stick/tig on board but sold it off. I weld so infrequently these days it's usually very untidy.
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Still must have on a cruising boat imho, infinite number of little brackets and handy stuff to be made :cool:
And fix on a cruising boat.
New fridge shelves coming on nicely in my inhead design software :)
Piece of flat and some bar and you've a kitchen paper roll holder that would be fifty quid down a chandlers.
 
If you‘re welding on your steel boat make sure you disconnect everything electrical from batteries onward. Otherwise you may end up with a lot of dead equipment. Also do not wear a quartz watch while welding as that will be affected.
 
PCUK said:
If you‘re welding on your steel boat make sure you disconnect everything electrical from batteries onward. Otherwise you may end up with a lot of dead equipment. Also do not wear a quartz watch while welding as that will be affected.
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I suspect GHA has more circuit boards and components on board than boaty bits and his hull may look like a chess board by the time he's finished welding patches on :D
 
TernVI said:
If you've got a nice looking boat, you don't want anyone with a welder within 100 yards of it.
Welding and grinding and disputes over rust spots are a sore point in many a dock or boatyard.

I have seen the little inverter welders powered by a car battery, awesome bits of kit.
Modern welder inverters are controlled current so easier to use than the old buzz box.

Tacking a fitting to a deck on a steel boat is low tech, highly loaded bits of stainless need to be welded by skilled blokes or robots, in lab conditions.
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Graham376 said:
I suspect GHA has more circuit boards and components on board than boaty bits and his hull may look like a chess board by the time he's finished welding patches on :D
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SpottyDog5 said:
Pay a proper Welder to do the job for you, it will work out cheaper in the long run.
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That's generally true with anything critical.
I've always found that the welding I've needed has been awkward stuff, which a beginner shouldn't be doing, unfortunately that means I've not learned to do much. However, this winter I plan to put some hours in doing some low tech stuff that will be useful even if it's not pretty.
 
Like John, my apprenticeship included a spell in the Fabrication shop. My welding skills are soooo rusty now I wouldn't contemplate doing any. I've gas brazed using a butane bottle torch more recently and I've successfully repaired stainless with an appropriate rod (well it's still holding) but it's really not for the common handyman. As for doing it on board....don't even think about it except in a dire emergency.

+1 for doing a course before making a decision but event then you need to practise a lot to get good and do it regularly to keep the skill fresh.
 
Lon nan Gruagach said:
6KVA generator can run an inverter welder but: Only a tiny one. Probably too tiny to be much use on a boat.
The big problem with separate welder/ gen set is that the load goes from nowt to a bit over full in a gnats. The genny (that is not meant for this load) will just barf and stall.
Portable welding sets are designed to cope and accept such a sudden load.
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I‘ve run both mig and inverter arc, both 150w from a 3.5VA genny. Used the arc on about 5mm stuff and it did a reasonable job, the only problem I noticed was starting off, you have a fraction of a second where the genny can‘t put the load required through fast enough it causes the stick snag. Once going on a run was absolutely fine.

This was on farm tackle though, I can’t personally see a need on my boat for one.
 
SpottyDog5 said:
Why would you risk your life/boat on something you know little about?
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That is a fair point, but there are lots of things that are not life threatening and jobs that even knowing little about them, with a reasonable amount of common sense a practical person can research and undertake.
Surely, that is what this PBO forum is all about!
 
LadyInBed said:
That is a fair point, but there are lots of things that are not life threatening and jobs that even knowing little about them, with a reasonable amount of common sense a practical person can research and undertake.
Surely, that is what this PBO forum is all about!
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I do appreciate what you say, however, I've seen so much dreadful Welding in my time, often is some very scary places (it's often hidden out of sight), if you knew about it, wouldn't go to sea in their boat!
Welding on a boat is way different from doing the odd repair on your garden gate or lawnmower.
There is soo much to consider to get it right.

Having said that, I've seen some very bad "Professional" welding too :rolleyes:
 
to be able to weld properly requires a lot of continual practice, unless the OP can commit to that I wouldn't bother carrying a set onboard. like a number of other posters I did some many moons ago as a shipwright apprentice and my late father was a shipyard welder, so I know a little about it. If they decide to do some onboard make sure well prepared including plenty of fire extinguishers etc and dont leave the boat until everything has cooled right down.
 
DinghyMan said:
Generators will cope with arc & tig - depending on the quality of the welder bought and the generator; e.g. "Generator Friendly - Generator must be minimum of 5KVA 240V and fitted with AVR (auto voltage regulation)" for tig R-Tech TIG161 - Inverter TIG Welder AC/DC 160Amp 240v
and "Generator friendly - 6KVA Recommended" for arc Arc MMA Stick Welders, 135 Amp ARC MMA Welding Equipment, MMA140M

Portable arc welding using cheap generators and cheap arc welders has been around a good while. The cheap generators dont tend to last for ages but for site welding are OK - bit different to welding on a boat though.
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I've run 2.5mm 6013 rods on mild steel from a small (Aldi) 2kv inverter generator using a little inverter welder (Thermal Arc 175 TE)
Penetration was fine.
The problem is in striking the arc; initially neither the welder or the generator want to give full power; the welder drops the current to prevent sticking and the generator only revs up to give power when it detects a demand.
The answer is to get the rod hot by letting it stick momentarily but the moment you feel the stick stick lift it and if you're lucky the gen will power up just before the welder drops the current and then you run the bead as normal...it's a bit of a juggling act but needs must and though the start of the bead isn't pretty, the rest is fine and the penetration was fine on 2 - 3 mm plate.
I've not tried it with stainless but don't see why not but wouldn't consider DC stick for Ali.
There are double pulse inverter migs that seem to give good results on Ali ......when I grow up I'm going to get one of those, then again AC/DC tig is becoming more afordable.

John the Kiwi is right about the mess
 
SpottyDog5 said:
I do appreciate what you say, however, I've seen so much dreadful Welding in my time, often is some very scary places (it's often hidden out of sight), if you knew about it, wouldn't go to sea in their boat!
Welding on a boat is way different from doing the odd repair on your garden gate or lawnmower.
There is soo much to consider to get it right.

Having said that, I've seen some very bad "Professional" welding too :rolleyes:
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+1 for crap professional welding, there's plenty of that around, amateurs are often far more careful and don't rely on "I'll be long gone before anything happens" mentality.
 
SpottyDog5 said:
Why would you risk your life/boat on something you know little about?
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Cos we're cruisers. Grown ups living in the real world constantly taking considerable risks and more than capable of evaluating individual project risks and knowing when it's time to seek assistance.

Just what is it you're welding that's putting your life at risk?
 
GHA said:
Cos we're cruisers. Grown ups living in the real world constantly taking considerable risks and more than capable of evaluating individual project risks and knowing when it's time to seek assistance.

Just what is it you're welding that's putting your life at risk?
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Don't see much difference between welding and badly carried out grp or engine repairs.
 
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