I've heard about guys modifying an alternator to act as a makeshift welder as well as still acting as an alternator (not heavy duty but can really get one out of a spin in the bush). Does anyone know how this is done, as my knowledge of electrcity is dangerous - I need to do a little research before doing something like that. Anyone done a mod like this yet, how well does it really work? Sorry, hope its relevant - living in Africa u sometimes need to make your own plan - last trip in a landy we ended up having to stick strips of the carpet to the clutch so we could get home (pratleys steel worked wonder - and no I am not paid to say that); we took 3 hrs on the road to do that job (f&*$@n hot!), but it drove another 450 odd km where we could change the clutch properly - ha ha.

So, any help would be appreciated.

Another project Im interested in is a compressor system using and aircon pump and some tanks (dive bottles or fire extinguishers or something) havent really checked whats the correct spec yet, but its fairly simple to do. A friend of mine runs a aircon pump on his landy just for emergencies, reckons itll inflate a big tyre in no time! Would be cool to be able to run pneumatic drills/grinder/rivet gun and be able to weld while travelling hey - to help the guys in land cruisers of course

Have never seen any plans to modify an alternator to become a welder, but they are available commercially. Another way to go is to use 2 or 3 batteries and a stick welder rather than an alternator... neither of which I have tried, but have always fancied the onbaord welder idea.

On board air, using an aircon pump, is covered pretty comprehensively in the tech archive.

Thanks,

The reason I think that it could be a home job is that I've heard of people doing their own, so it isn't impossible - I just don't know how to get hold of those people.

Thanks agn.

theres a few threads on pirate about home conversions. you could also arc off batteries or use a ready welder (they work very very well)

Sorry, excuse my ignorance: Pirate? and Ready Welder?

Basically, all you need to do is replace the regulator with a new voltage regulator that regulates to a higher voltage, rather than 14.4 (changing the closed-loop set point, effectively)
or fitting a 'battery sense' type regulator, connecting the sense wire for battery charging, and disconnecting it for welding(forcing it open loop, the regulator will continue to increase the output voltage). In both cases the max current from the alternator will be exactly the same as it always was - so you need to fit a big alternator.

In both cases, you need to upgrade the rectifier as at the higher voltages it'll burn out.

The thing is, there's no off the shelf bits to do it, as far as i'm aware, so you'd have to sort it all yourself.

DIY DC TIG

Arc welder

More info

Google is your friend.....

look here
Mike

Pirate

Ready Welder

enjoy
Mark

Thanks,

Now I just need to see how much they cost here in SA!

Google? Jokes, thanks you guys are really helpful! Will let you know when/if I build anything interesting - busy boy lately with too many other projects!

Ages ago someone posted a link up to a very low cost reel gun for a mig? Can anyone remember? Not even sure it wasn't when we were LRE?

Si

I learned to weld using a car battery as powersource. It was using a solenoid rod holder thingie called an XP welder..