Welding Tips and Tricks

The only thing that’s holding me back is that it is HF stay only, no lift start. I don’t know If I’ll ever want/need to weld to a car or truck but you can’t do that with high frequency, right? Won’t it potentially damage the car’s ECU and other electronics?

Is there another machine in the price range of the Primeweld that will do hf and lift that would be a better option?

HF start won’t damage a vehicle’s ECU. If you’re ever really concerned, simply disconnect the battery while welding on the vehicle. Clamping the ground cable close to your work also limits the circuit of the welding current.

A torch-mounted switch for amperage control is very handy when welding underneath a car. Lift Arc or Scratch Start are handy when tacking, but a torch switch remedies that inconvenience.

Just isolate the battery. You should never weld a vehicle without isolating battery and using wheel chocks. You run the risk of chasing electrical gremlins forever otherwise. As Cj said close and clean earth clamp aswell. All welding equipment has the potential to damage circuitry and disconnecting battery and moving battery leads away is the easiest and best way to avoid it. It also applies to welding on equipment being held by cranes, no metal sling etc. ( and not while in air).

It's been my experience to not only remove the battery leads but also the connectons to all the compuerized components of the vehicle. Just taking the battery leads off might not be sufficient to eliminate problems.

Just buy a isolator. The mechanics at work got this little gizmo box with two jumper leads they pop onto the battery while welding on the vehicle.

They've been using it for years now and havnt had any issues.

Or the free way like others said just unhook the battery.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Toggatug wrote: ↑Tue Feb 15, 2022 7:40 pm Just buy a isolator. The mechanics at work got this little gizmo box with two jumper leads they pop onto the battery while welding on the vehicle.

They've been using it for years now and havnt had any issues.

Well, it can't be a short so it must be an RF bypass - perhaps with over voltage protection.

Do you have more details?

Or the free way like others said just unhook the battery.

If I did that, I would also be tempted to short the leads together.

Jack

Toggatug wrote: ↑Tue Feb 15, 2022 7:40 pm Just buy a isolator. The mechanics at work got this little gizmo box with two jumper leads they pop onto the battery while welding on the vehicle.

They've been using it for years now and havnt had any issues.

Or the free way like others said just unhook the battery.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

its not an isolator its a spike protector. they tend to use them these days because disconnecting the battery can cause or sorts of ecu gremlins. eg ecu self corrects for leaking throttle, disconnect battery looses that data. the ecu will self correct all over again, but that takes time and in the mean time the car runs like complete crap. "the welder must have damaged the ecu" type claims.

The 225X arrived last Friday
Tigging aluminum is a lot harder than I thought, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Jack Ryan wrote: ↑Tue Feb 15, 2022 7:52 pm

Toggatug wrote: ↑Tue Feb 15, 2022 7:40 pm Just buy a isolator. The mechanics at work got this little gizmo box with two jumper leads they pop onto the battery while welding on the vehicle.

They've been using it for years now and havnt had any issues.

Well, it can't be a short so it must be an RF bypass - perhaps with over voltage protection.

Do you have more details?

Or the free way like others said just unhook the battery.

If I did that, I would also be tempted to short the leads together.

Jack

I'll go snap a pic of it (I think the brand name etc are still on it but unsure), when tapatalk agrees to cooperate again I'll get it posted.

Pic attached