I have seen several people post here with questions about hooking welders to portable generators, so I thought I'd give it a try.I used my Lincoln AC stick welder (230, I think...) connected to my Generac 5500 watt generator. I was using it this a.m. to repair a hay ring at my father's farm. It worked fine at 105 amps, but at 120 amps the generator could barely keep up. Since I was welding pretty thin metal, 90 amps was enough for most of it. I was using 3/32" rods, I tried a 1/8" but the smaller ones worked better for what I was doing. So, I have a portable welding rig now, as long as I don't need over 105 amps! It worked just fine. The no-load idle switch doesn't work because as soon as you turn the welder on, it senses it and stays at high speed, but that's no big deal because it probably makes it easier to strike an arc anyway. Hope you guys get something out of this, I'm finally glad to know that I can do it, now I can go finish fixing the corral and some other things without borrowing my uncle's big welder on the trailer! Kerry
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