Seeking welder for 6000w generator

[Sagebrush33]

No matter which route I choose, I need to get my mig running soon. One truck needs walls, and barn door gates, made for the flatbed dump. The other needs some small frame repair at the hinges on my 1 ton dump. The shop will be simeased to the garage so sharing a power panel presents no issues.

 

[Al Smith]

Now a generator .Some years back I signed up for a generator learning course where I worked and the whole course was half the price of the cost of the generator that came with it .It was ,is a 6,000 watt sold under the Homelite name .The instructor was from Indiana and said he had used that same little generator on a trailer with a Lincoln tombstone ran at reduced power to do remote repairs on his farm with no problems what so ever .
It's not like you are going to go cross country welding pipe lines .Just more or less something done every so often .
It's a good little genny but I had not used it in about 4 years .Had to rod out the fuel line change the fuel filter and clean out the carb before it would run about two years ago .It blew some nasty smelling exhaust fumes for a few minutes .I've got "Sta-Bil" in it now .Live and learn.

 

[JB-PlantHeirloom]

If you are really rural with 100+ acres, I would consider a generator, as a self-supporting SHTF measure.

If you and everyone around you only has 30 acres or less, I would probably skip it, as power being back up after a storm or disaster would be on soon enough. Though if you live near the SC coast, who knows. Plus, none of them tend to be exactly quiet and without background noise, you can hear them for a ways, they draw attention. My thing is I would lock it down, with the hold down bolts welded to a cement pad, inside a building. Too big of a vital investment just to have it walk off by a neighbor or passerby with a bobcat.

I guess it comes down to how much it will cost you per kilowatt hour to run it on diesel vs. paying for an upgraded service. I like being independent as possible, even though I am living urban at the moment on less then an acre. I have been able to get by with 12v - 2 - 120 inverters, but, I would not want to do it for more then a week and my solar surely would not support running a 240 50 amp welder. You need (4) 72 AH batteries just to run an inverter for a 15 amp 120v load. You would probably need 30 batteries and an expensive inverter to run your 240v stuff if you relied upon it for vital welding.

Someone on CL in GA actually has one for barter, came across it looking for another cheap ford 4x4

40 KW generator (SUMMERVILLE, GA)

https://nwga.craigslist.org/bar/d/summerville-40-kw-generator/7353165038.html

Not exactly 75 kw and does not look single phase (meter for each leg?), but, might be cheap enough for your needs without much debate.

 

[Sagebrush33]

I'm on a pretty rural road, tagged with multiple acre farms. I'm only sitting on 5 1/2 currently, with hopes to reclaim the 66 that were once with it. When first established I'm sure it was one of the few farms on this road with many, many more acres. Just trying to "paint a picture" in ones mind. I doubt this is a priority road for the grid system. The genset I was eyeing is much closer to me, About a 5 hr drive one way, and much bigger. If I went with a generator I would fire it up for running the air compressor and/or the mig. I would definitely put it in a insulated shed to muffle it. I'd rather go with the 400A service but I need to find out what the monthly charges would be whether I used the 2nd panel or not. I was told the monthly charges can be costly.

 

[Al Smith]

The power companys can be funny. For example my shop has a 400 amp single phase industrial panal with bolt in breakers but with a 200 amp main breaker .The service drop is 250 MCM copper in 2.5" rigid conduit mainly because that's what I had which was industrial salvage .The power company hit it with number 2 aluminum tri plex .They said that was heavy enough on their end .In this area I only know several with a 400 amp single phase service and it took them a lot of paper work to get that done plus a long time to do it .
As far as three phase convertors I suppose over the years I've built 15-20 of them .The largest I think was 15 HP .A rotary if built properly will start up to the size of the motor it's made from ,a 15 will start another 15 but will run up to three times it's size in combined motors .It's only function life is to supply the missing third leg of three phase .It's not like running another motor under load because the combined load of the convertor will usually be less than the total of a same single phase motor .
In a discussion with my brother I showed him the load on a 5 HP single phase drill press .Then the combined loads of a 5 HP convertor plus a 1/2 HP Bridgeport milling machine and a 3 HP engine lathe and another dill press with a 3 HP motor .6.5 HP total, plus the convertor load which was less than the 5 HP single phase .The cost was pennies compared to dumping diesel fuel in a three phase gen set .
Even decades ago running my 8 HP gasoline gen set I could buy gas for a buck a gallon but it cost me around 25 cents a KWH which I could buy it off the power company for 7.5 cents a kwh at that time .So if it's a question of economics it's kind of evident based on that example .Back up gen set is another subject though IMO .

 

[Sagebrush33]

I have two things to worry about before powering up my mig.
1 property taxes are due soon at $5300.
2 I need to get a mew foundation under the kitchen and mud room.

I do need the mig so I can get my one ton dump back in action ......

 

[Ford3000]

I have an old miller CP200. Did some research on it before I picked it up. They're supposed to be easy to convert to single phase. I only have 110 running out to my garage now and I've been waiting for a couple months for my buddy to come out here to help me with upgrading the service to the house. I've got a 150A main panel with two 100A sub panels branched off for powering a couple different sections of the house. One sub powers the kitchen, mud room, and garage. I was looking into doing a "320A" service. Basically a 400A with 2 legs for two 2ooA panels. 1 for the future shop build and existing garage. He's been telling me I won't want the power bill associated with it. Said I should upgrade the house to 200 and run a 3phase gen set for the shop. Still waitin on him to get out here..... I'd have someone else come out but this fella owes me.
I'm wondering if a big 3 phase generator would play nice with the mig.

Three phase is the best for a three phase mig, converting it to single
never works well, I have seen people do it, you loose a transformer,
but the voltage also drops a lot, inputting 240 instead of 400 volts to the same
transformer makes a huge difference, three phases are the way to go, the voltage going through the machine never reaches zero, which makes for a nice smooth weld, I even had one single phase mig that was built using capacitors to make a third phase, it also had capacitors to smooth out the rectified DC, and it was noticeably better than the ones that were single phase.

I would also rather buy a single to three phase converter than run a generator,
it will be cheaper in the long run, and less noise to deal with. A generator for backup is a good idea, as small as you can get away with, the fuel bill wont go down well when you are forced to run it in the worst case scenario, like maybe three weeks or so, where a small single cylinder diesel 3 or 4 kw will be doable.

 

[Sagebrush33]

Three phase is the best for a three phase mig, converting it to single
never works well, I have seen people do it, you loose a transformer,
but the voltage also drops a lot, inputting 240 instead of 400 volts to the same
transformer makes a huge difference, three phases are the way to go, the voltage going through the machine never reaches zero, which makes for a nice smooth weld, I even had one single phase mig that was built using capacitors to make a third phase, it also had capacitors to smooth out the rectified DC, and it was noticeably better than the ones that were single phase.

I would also rather buy a single to three phase converter than run a generator,
it will be cheaper in the long run, and less noise to deal with. A generator for backup is a good idea, as small as you can get away with, the fuel bill wont go down well when you are forced to run it in the worst case scenario, like maybe three weeks or so, where a small single cylinder diesel 3 or 4 kw will be doable.

Many valid points here, and I'm taking notes. I must ask though, have you heard of the Haas-Kamp conversion? That is what I read about it, before I made my purchase. It still preforms at 200A @ 100% duty cycle with this conversion. I read of not one negative review with this process. As far as leaving it at 3 Phase, I would be forced to a genset or the RPC.
Have you run a converter with a 3 Phase mig successfully? I was told the waves would be to dirty for a mig to run effectively.
All thoughts and advice appreciated. I am learning.
I do not want to invest a lot of coin in the wrong direction to just have to back track. My mig has been sitting since I purchased it last Jan.

 

[Ford3000]

Many valid points here, and I'm taking notes. I must ask though, have you heard of the Haas-Kamp conversion? That is what I read about it, before I made my purchase. It still preforms at 200A @ 100% duty cycle with this conversion. I read of not one negative review with this process. As far as leaving it at 3 Phase, I would be forced to a genset or the RPC.
Have you run a converter with a 3 Phase mig successfully? I was told the waves would be to dirty for a mig to run effectively.
All thoughts and advice appreciated. I am learning.
I do not want to invest a lot of coin in the wrong direction to just have to back track. My mig has been sitting since I purchased it last Jan.

When you study it all up, there is no way Miller made a three phase mig welder that runs on 400 volts, or anyone else for that matter, that can be supplied with 240 volts and missing one limb and still work properly, it just is not possible, unless you spend more money on making it possible, in which case you would have to tear it to pieces, rewind it and loose lots of time and money in the process, re inventing the wheel, I would not dream of it, I looked at a few that people converted on the tube a long time ago, and to anyone who can weld these things were very obviously a waste of time.
If it worked I would not have spent 3,400 on a new single phase mig when I could buy three very good second had three phase migs for the same money.

Now if I could find a three phase mig that was designed to run on 240 volts
from the beginning, then I would see more potential in that, but over here in Ireland, three phase means 380 or 400 volts, not 240, and that is a huge drop in performance, from three 400 volt windings down to two 240 volt ones on
the primary side, that has an unimaginable crippling effect on the secondary
windings, its all down hill am afraid.

I have no idea how possible it is with the new inverter tech, but I like the transformer based units, I can put a control card from another brand into mine if I need to, I can even add a feeder that has its own control card if I cant get the genuine one, and it will still work like new again, inverter tech is great, but I like to fix my own, so I avoid what I do not know.

 

[JB-PlantHeirloom]

Big enough to run any 3 phase welder with room to spare :-D

Seriously, these are one of the generators that come up at auction from time to time. that I was talking about. Probably will go for about $3600 and is close enough to Carolina to get on a road trip. They do have forklifts to load.

GENERAC 80KW GAS GENERATOR W/ TRANSFER SWITCH

https://www.proxibid.com/GENERAC-80KW-GAS-GENERATOR-W-TRANSFER-SWITCH/lotInformation/63725389