Car-Battery Welding
Make a welding rig with stuff you can easily obtain.
- Author: Hackett
- Time required: 45 minutes to 2 hours to the rest of your life
- Difficulty: Moderate
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Welding! Welding is a glorious, mystery-infused, thoroughly bad-ass way to stick things together. Welders move in their own cloud of mythos and danger - they are dirtier, tougher, and sexier than other kinds of makers, and the things they build are big and strong and hold our world together. Want to be a welder but have no money and less experience? This guide will help.
Tools
- Gloves
- Hammer, Welding chip hammer or regular hammer
- Pliers
- Welding Electrodes, 6011 or 6013 Standard amount is a 5 pound box, but a handful will do
- Welding hood
- View:
- Paginated
- Full width
Edit Step 1
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Car-Battery Welding
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Gather materials. Some of the things you need to buy, most of them you prob either have lying around or can borrow.
Gloves. Welding gloves would be nice, but any heavy, non-flammable gloves will do.
Jumper cables. You will need at least a couple of sets, or one set and some heavy-gauge wire to wire the batteries together. How heavy? Like, as thick as a jumper cable.
Welding helmet. Cute little steampunk-y goggles will not cut it. Arc welding dumps out a ton of UV. All exposed skin will get a deep, horrific sunburn. A cheap welding helmet will work almost as well as a fancy one.
Three car batteries. Smaller batteries (like ATV, golf cart, motorcycle) will work as well. What you need is a total of 30-36 volts. The more amp hours (usually, the larger the battery, the higher the hours), the longer you will be able to weld.
Hammer. For chipping slag- a welding chip hammer is best, but a normal claw hammer will work. A rock works, too.
Steel to weld. If it rusts, it's steel.
Welding electrodes, or rods. Steel rods, covered in flux. To make your own would be hardcore DIY and a waste of time. You can buy welding rods anywhere in the world. Get a box of 6010 or 6011 1/8 inch electrodes. 5 pounds will set you back $20, max. You can also beg a handful off of any welding shop. The number code refers to the strength of the electrode, the chemical composition of the flux, and the positions you can weld in. Interesting stuff, but kind of beyond the purview of this. For more info go here.
Edit Step 5 ¶
Now you need an electrode holder. You will eventually want to buy one (I have seen them as cheap as $5 on Amazon) but with a little bending of the jumper cable clamp and a little scraping of the flux on the rod, you can make it fit.
The key here is to make sure the electrode is secure in the clip and that there is as much surface contact as possible. A high-amp current is going through this connection, so make sure it is a good one.
Edit Step 6 ¶
OK. It's time to connect the final lead. Grab the cable that is holding the electrode. Connect the other end to the lonely, bare battery terminal. It should be negative. If it is not, check your wiring!
YOUR WELDER IS NOW HOT ("HOT" in the electrical way. Kind of sexy, too.) BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU PUT THE ELECTRODE. Make sure the electrode is not touching the ground cable, or anything that is conducting to the ground cable, like the work, a metal welding table, salt water aquarium, etc. Put it somewhere safe.
Edit Step 8 ¶
Set up your metal for your first weld. You can use clamps or a vise. The important thing is that all parts you want to weld together are conducting to one another and to the ground clamp.
Remember to gear up: Wear gloves, rated welding helmet, non-flammable clothing. Make sure ALL exposed skin is covered.
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I don't really have anything constructive to add, but from the perspective of someone who's just getting started in welding, this is amazingly helpful. A lot of guides and tutorials get caught up in the details, which are good once you get further in with your training, but for total beginners this is perfect.
I think my wife would kill me if she caught me welding with a rig like this though. Which is why i'll give it a test in the garage out of sight :D