Piranha 12V mig welder unit.

Hi Richard Its fairly cheep to make up your own stick welder. All I did was buy some cable earth & stick clamps & short jumper to join 2 X 12V batterys. Keep a few rods in a piece of PVC tube with caps on each end. Works well & doesnt take much space in the van. Also + goes to work & Neg to rod.

dbish Thanks

I could I know 30 years ago I was trained to be a Boilermaker Welder.

But now I'm to lazy and have too much money.. LOL

Cheers

Richard

Also 25 years ago I travel around with one spare tyre some tools and a Datsun..

hi
a warning to the unwary please beware

these stick type dual battery immergency welder set ups will and do work but beware and always protect the batteries with a guard/ cover as one small spark on or near the battery will it explode like a bomb showering anyone or anything with acid and sharp pieces of the battery box

i witnessed this on 3 seperate occassions 2 in a workshop where welding was done to close to a battery on charge and acid and the box particals even hit the roof in a high workshop

and once with one of the kits simular to the piranha but home made the problem with these is the welding cables are very short

yes i know someone is going to say that most batteries are sealed types but they still have a small breather vent on them out in the hot arrid zones or after just been removed from under the engine bay can give off enough gas on a hot day to explodewith just one small welder spark

Hi John F

Were you using flux cored wire when running gasless as I have found that gasless is ok but a lot more spatter.

To my knowledge you need flux cored wire to run without gas but happy to be corrected

I only run gas with mig but don't weld outdoors.

cheers

wafarmer

Hi WAfarmer,

Yes, gasless (fluxcore) wire. Hobart brand, from the US. I admit my skill level is low, but the gas mig with cheap Chinese wire gives great results for me, so would be very wary of a cheap welder with flux core. Still, skill may be the difference...
I'm plucking up courage to experiment with a cheap, small Italian stick job running at 1/2 amps off my Honda 20i - what's the worst that could happen??

Stick seems easier to me as an emergency welder, above warnings from others notwithstanding.

Regards, John.