Arc Welding with 3 Car Batteries (Tutorial & Demo)

11-09-2011 • YouTube.Com

Emergency welding technique using 3 car batteries wired in series. Knowing how to do this may just save you from haivng to leave your rig out in the middle of nowhere. If you're going to go wheeling you need to know how to save your own butt. AAA doesn't respond if your 20 miles off the beaten path. This is the second video that I've done on this subject. The first video showed me doing an acutal trail repair, but wasn't very detailed. I had so many responses from people that didn't understand what was going on, or for some reason thought it wasn't possible, that I decided to do a video in a controlled environment and show exactly what welding with car batteries is all about.

2 Comments in Response to Arc Welding with 3 Car Batteries (Tutorial & Demo)

Comment by Powell Gammill

Entered on: 11/9/2011 6:28:31 PM

as long as your rig has 3 car batteries

Comment by PureTrust

Entered on: 11/9/2011 1:45:21 PM

I haven't watched the video, but I have done this kind of welding a lot in the past.

Three car batteries gives you a lot of heat. Car batteries are made to dump a lot of amperage all at once, so you get the cranking amps that you need to start the car. When they dump this amperage into a welding arc, they can be extremely hot - way more than you would want for welding - enough to make the whole rod smoke.

Most of this kind of welding that I did was done with 2 car batteries. If you had deep-cycle batteries, you could do your welding much better - far less heat.

Be real careful to not ground yourself. Three car batteries is 36 volts when connected in series. Accidentally place yourself into the circuit, and you will fry... especially if you are wet from sweating.

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