EU2000i & Backwoods Welding
Anyone have any experience running a very small welder (either flux core MIG or stick) with a Honda EU2000i? Thanks for any help, Brad
Forum Discussion
BradW wrote:
I know this can be done, but from the you tube videos I watched, the welds look pretty bad and it seems very hard to run a bead very far...
Not sure what you saw on YouTube, but with the correct rod and polarity, plus clean base metal and some practice… You should be able to weld quite well with the 24-36V battery setup. This is why I carry E7018 (dry, dry, dry!!), use reverse polarity (electrode +) and also have a small wire brush on hand.
The only other electrode I would consider is E6011… and then only if the material was very dirty, or galvanized.
The "shell of flux" thing you mentioned is common with 7018, especially when re-striking. The trick is to quickly clean-up the end of the rod with a flat-file before restriking. This prevents the flux from cracking off when striking the arc.
For a "planned" welding project I do think a portable MIG/flux-core machine is the way to go. The alternator driven arc welders also work awesome, but are fairly expensive if you only plan to use it occasionally. For an emergency repair on steel, you simply cannot beat the battery powered solution in terms of size, cost, ease of use, and efficacy.
-Mark
