Caddy Welder from Generator

[Jereb]

I've come accross an old wives tale so to speak.
Some of the guys on site have been telling me that it isn't good practice to run a caddy welder (portable hand welder) or any electric welder for that mattter from a regular generator.

Has anyone heard the same thing? And if so a reason why?

Regards,
Jereb

 

[waross]

Before the advent of wind farms and Hi Voltage DC Links, with invertor technologies,Virtually all our electricity came from generators some where. Most of it still comes from generators.
There may be an issue with governor response and voltage dips running a welder from a small gen-set. These dips will affect other loads more than the welder.
If the generator sizing is marginal, then there may be issues with voltage and frequency drop when the arc is struck. A naturally aspirated engine will give better response that a turbo aspirated machine in this case.
Bottom line, I've been on a lot of job sites with a lot of welders running on generators and never seen a problem.
This urban ledgend may have it's roots in a real world situation. Probably a jobsite once where the generator was too small for the welder.

Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter