Welding machine from wiper motor - video

**Jon** · Oct 11, 2023, 01:14 PM

Welding machine from wiper motor. By PROFESSOR PARDAL BRASIL. 18:54 video:

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**nova_robotics** · Oct 11, 2023, 05:05 PM

Very creative. Producing CO2 with baking soda and vinegar is pretty neat. I've thought many times about using car exhaust a gas shield. The wire speed control kinda sucks. But I have to ask WTF is with the saw blade?

**BuffaloJohn** · Oct 12, 2023, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by nova_robotics

Very creative. Producing CO2 with baking soda and vinegar is pretty neat. I've thought many times about using car exhaust a gas shield. The wire speed control kinda sucks. But I have to ask WTF is with the saw blade?

Wire speed is way too fast, you can see it in the welds, way, way too much wire in the weld.

As for the saw blade, this is the same person who made a larger flat washer by taking the bearing seals off, sprinkling in metal shavings and adding super glue. It looks like this guy is one of those people that finds whatever to use in the build.

As for the CO2 generator, a simple calculation shows it to be way more expensive to produce that way. And - the pressure regulation is an innertube. A more constant delivery would be needed for welding. As the inner tube deflates, the pressure goes down. At the beginning, the pressure might be too high and then it is too low - bad for welding.

Now as for your car exhaust idea - that would be a problem. While there is a volume of CO2, your problem would be the H2O in the exhaust. Here is a good discussion of the chemistry of engine combustion:

https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=104735

In the exhaust, you also have lots of N2 flowing, since it is a major component of air. There is a school of thought that Nitrogen, being inert, could replace Argon in the shielding gas, so that part is useful, but your problem is going to be the water. Water in simple MIG welding is a source of Oxygen and Hydrogen (it is easy to convert water to H2 and O with the plasma arc) and both O2 and H2 are bad for weldments. Hydrogen causes delayed cracking also known as cold cracking and when embedded, it causes Hydrogen to be deep in the weld. As for the Oxygen in the shielding gas, while it can have a beneficial effect in small amounts, the combustion equation looks like the water in the output is a fairly high concentration and the various sites say in higher concentrations, O2 promotes combustion and uncontrolled oxidation.

**WmRMeyers** · Oct 14, 2023, 08:13 AM

Originally Posted by nova_robotics

Very creative. Producing CO2 with baking soda and vinegar is pretty neat. I've thought many times about using car exhaust a gas shield. The wire speed control kinda sucks. But I have to ask WTF is with the saw blade?

Holds the wire spool.

**nova_robotics** · Oct 14, 2023, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by WmRMeyers

Holds the wire spool.

My apologies, I should have phrased my question better. Why use a circular saw blade instead of fashioning it out of old razor blades or used hypodermic needles?

**nova_robotics** · Oct 12, 2023, 12:12 PM

That's a good point about the water vapour in exhaust. I was mainly considering it for dirty get-back-moving welding when you're in the middle of the woods using the vehicle alternator/battery as a welder. It doesn't make any sense to have a spool gun with you in the woods if you're going to try that anyway. Just bring rods and arc weld.

I saw some guys who had made bumpers for their Jeeps out of capped pipe, then put fittings on it and filled it with compressed air. So their bumpers did double duty as a compressed air tank. I thought that plus an alternator welder would be a great in the middle of nowhere fix anything solution.

**BuffaloJohn** · Oct 12, 2023, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by nova_robotics

That's a good point about the water vapour in exhaust. I was mainly considering it for dirty get-back-moving welding when you're in the middle of the woods using the vehicle alternator/battery as a welder. It doesn't make any sense to have a spool gun with you in the woods if you're going to try that anyway. Just bring rods and arc weld.

I saw some guys who had made bumpers for their Jeeps out of capped pipe, then put fittings on it and filled it with compressed air. So their bumpers did double duty as a compressed air tank. I thought that plus an alternator welder would be a great in the middle of nowhere fix anything solution.

Stick welding is much better as you have the shielding gas from the flux on the rod. Simple, fewer moving parts, just keep the rods dry. You can use you jumper cables to carry the juice and the amount of extra stuff you need is minimal (you don't need to chip or brush the flux since you are trying to get out of a breakdown).

I've seen the compressed air bumpers before. Often you have to air down to rock crawl, and re-inflation is nice with the air tanks.

**Frank S** · Oct 15, 2023, 07:36 PM

Some folks build things just to prove what can be done. Practical application is not always the precursor to a build.
Many builds are more in tuned as being for educational purposes. And yes, many are purposely done to serve as U tube channel click bait.
Someone mentioned using stick electrodes and batteries to weld with. Easy Peezy just have 2 12v batteries connected in series with a pair of jumper cables and you have a means to weld something together. You won't have amperage control. but a little bit of practice and you will be able to scratch weld something back together.
But what is you don't even have any stick rods, and you have say a broken tie rod.

Here is a little story of when I was assigned to the Brigade Motorpool welding shop in the 64 c10 MOS training brigade at Ft Polk in 1972 never mind what they call it today it will always be either Camp Polk of FT. Polk.
Anyway a few of the training instructors liked to hang out at my welding shop on their breaks or between classes in the buildings not far away. One day I was repairing some broken part on a duce and a half, when one of the instructors said SGT I wish you could have been with us at the deepwater fording pit the other day with your welding equipment. when a tie rod broke on the Captain's M151A2. You could have welded it back together enough fo it to be driven back instead of having to wait until a wrecker came to pick it up.
I said I wouldn't have needed a welding machine just the vehicles batteries and jumper cable the carbon rod out of a flashlight battery and a piece of wire or a piece of wire some baking soda. a chocolate bar and toilet paper out of the C rations, a little bit of water, and a way to melt the candy bar, water and soda together I could have made a poor excuse of a welding rod. My supervisor the MTR SGT Master SGT Brice had walked up about that time and said I understand the baking soda but why the candy bar?
I said at the blacksmith shop we ran out of Borax brazing flux once, so I was sent to the store across the street t9o get some baking soda to use as the flux. That was when I learned from the blacksmith that the first stick electrodes didn't have a flux coating Borax or even common baking soda was poured onto the area to be welded then the arc was struck, and the soda was continuously poured over the arc.
I told them I had not tried it but thought that using a candy bar as a binder mixed with the water and soda would coat a wire better the T paper would be wrapped around the coating so once it was dried it would remain in place.
MSG Brice said then put your theory to work and tomorrow you can demonstrate whether or not what you are saying can be done.
Lots of baking soda a candy bar a little water and a hot plate to melt the goo made for a sweet smell while welding, all be it a poor excuse of a welding electrode I was able to join 2 pieces of scrap together.

**Dollar Bill** · Oct 13, 2023, 09:27 AM

That's some strait-up MacGyvering!!! I'm not a welder but considering every part of his welder was made from leftover parts they looked pretty danged good to me. It aint a Miller ShopMaster but he's way South of the 4 grand it would cost to own one.

**BuffaloJohn** · Oct 13, 2023, 11:15 AM

Originally Posted by Dollar Bill

That's some strait-up MacGyvering!!! I'm not a welder but considering every part of his welder was made from leftover parts they looked pretty danged good to me. It aint a Miller ShopMaster but he's way South of the 4 grand it would cost to own one.

Just because he made something from scrap does not make it useful. This implementation is pretty awful and the quality of the welds is very poor.

As far as the $4k price, that is way off. Just a welder, mig/tig gas and gasless (flux mig or stick) runs on amazon in the $200 to $300 with some lighter capacity (more than this battery welder in the post) can be had at the $100 range - so it is not $4k.

Is a spool gun needed? Not for steel. Aluminum? It's easier than spooling from the machine, but it can be done without a spool gun. But this post can't do aluminum - not with an innertube of CO2, you need Argon. Magically, an innertube of Argon shows up at 16:15 and he welds aluminum. Oh, please!!!!!!! Where did he get the argon? Not like he got the CO2 - you need to compress air and get it from there. Air is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, 0.04% CO2, 0.002% neon and everything else is much much less. So - he filled an innertube with argon and wrote on tape to say it was argon.

You can get a spool gun for $50-$200.

Bad welds can be dangerous and even fatal. This spool gun makes bad welds.

If you want to do inexpensive welding, stick can get you reasonable welding in the range of $60 to $150 - OH, he used a stick to put the spool gun together...