- City
- SoCal
- State
- CA
I think I mentioned in one of my posts that I wanted to put an onboard welder on my jeep after breaking my tie rod. I've had an Leece Neville alternator sitting around for years waiting to be converted into a welder but never got around to starting to project. One of the biggest problems was fitting another alternator (especially one as large as the leece) into the engine bay was going to require some creative fabbing and possibly moving things around. That sounded like too much work so I started looking for other solutions like battery operated welders when I came across this on Amazon
https://a.co/d/05B5WQWZ
Miniature 110V stick welder for $32. I figured even if it's complete junk, at least I can use the ground cable and stinger if I ever decide to make the alternator welder in the future. Ordered it last night, it just arrived so of course I had to immediately go to the garage and start smoking up the neighborhood.
In short, it works as expected. I would show you the welds but they're absolute crap I am not a good stick welder, I think I use the Arc welding mode on my welder once every 3-4 years. But it will stick 2 pieces of metal together, and that's all that matters. The 125A rating might be a little optimistic, but I was able to burn through a 3/32" 7018 rod on full power running on AC.
The main reason I bought it was to use it as trail welder so I tested it with an Ecoflow power station. Running off the Ecoflow the power is limited to about 70A because of the overload protection, but thats still enough to burn a 1/16" rod. I haven't tested it with a 2K inverter yet, but I expect it will perform at least as well or better than the Ecoflow. For my use that's more than enough, I'm only expecting to use this for emergency trail repairs and even a 70A welder would be good enough to get me off the trail even if I have to take multiple passes.
Best of all, the welder, and cables all fit into a 50 cal ammo can.
https://a.co/d/05B5WQWZ
Miniature 110V stick welder for $32. I figured even if it's complete junk, at least I can use the ground cable and stinger if I ever decide to make the alternator welder in the future. Ordered it last night, it just arrived so of course I had to immediately go to the garage and start smoking up the neighborhood.
In short, it works as expected. I would show you the welds but they're absolute crap I am not a good stick welder, I think I use the Arc welding mode on my welder once every 3-4 years. But it will stick 2 pieces of metal together, and that's all that matters. The 125A rating might be a little optimistic, but I was able to burn through a 3/32" 7018 rod on full power running on AC.
The main reason I bought it was to use it as trail welder so I tested it with an Ecoflow power station. Running off the Ecoflow the power is limited to about 70A because of the overload protection, but thats still enough to burn a 1/16" rod. I haven't tested it with a 2K inverter yet, but I expect it will perform at least as well or better than the Ecoflow. For my use that's more than enough, I'm only expecting to use this for emergency trail repairs and even a 70A welder would be good enough to get me off the trail even if I have to take multiple passes.
Best of all, the welder, and cables all fit into a 50 cal ammo can.
Last edited: