HOW TO – Car battery-powered MIG welder

Becky Stern is a Content Creator at Autodesk/Instructables, and part time faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts Products of Design grad program. Making and sharing are her two biggest passions, and she's created hundreds of free online DIY tutorials and videos, mostly about technology and its intersection with crafts. Find her @bekathwia on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram.

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October 22nd, 2008 6

Normally MIG welding requires a big fancy machine, sometimes also with a large tank of pressurized gas. Instructables user TimAnderson managed to hack together a hand-held wirefeed MIG welding gun and a couple car batteries for a more portable effect. He writes:

Here’s my new wire-feed (MIG) welder.
All of it.
They sell these things as accessories for commercial MIG units, but they can also work great on 24 volts from two car batteries.
I have it loaded with .030″ flux-core welding wire.
It cost me less than $100 on ebay.
The “Ready Welder” is a similar commercial product.
WARNING: The tip is electrically on all the time!