MIG welder works great powered by the 14-50 outlet

[bwilliam79]

I've seen some YouTube videos of people running various appliances off the outlets in the truck and one where someone was trying to run a plasma cutter along with multiple other appliances with mixed results.

I finally got around to testing my dual voltage MIG welder (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TVCWDGW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1) running off the truck's 14-50 plug, and to no surprise, it worked like a champ. Only used about 1% of the battery (energy graph says 0.8%) after 15-20 minutes of welding 1/4" steel plate.

I was just jacking around by myself so I couldn't very well capture the power draw on the screen while welding and didn't get any video, but I'll can try to get one later this week if anyone wants to see it in action. Just an FYI for anyone like myself who was curious for confirmation.

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[Outdoors]

Please. Make that video like soon. I can't stand to watch someone shoot the Cybertruck. Real world would be nice. Something like welding from the truck video would rock.

I know real world could involve shooting, but. I like welding more.

 

[bwilliam79]

Hah! I absolutely feel the same way about some of the stupid videos I've seen. The wife says she'll play camera lady for me tomorrow afternoon, so I'll see if I can't put something up and share the link.

 

[Gigahorse]

Hah! I absolutely feel the same way about some of the stupid videos I've seen. The wife says she'll play camera lady for me tomorrow afternoon, so I'll see if I can't put something up and share the link.

Heck yea, love to see it.
Bonus points if you weld something on your CT

 

[CyberSleeze]

Please. Make that video like soon. I can't stand to watch someone shoot the Cybertruck. Real world would be nice. Something like welding from the truck video would rock.

I know real world could involve shooting, but. I like welding more.

Well said. Completely agree.

 

[bwilliam79]

My wife pointed out our Ring camera may have caught my welding yesterday. Turns out it did and I found this clip with my official report on how well it worked towards the end. I’ll still try to get something up today showing power draw, but thought a few of you may get a chuckle out of this one.

 

[ideaXfactory]

chuckle don't know, but looks very promising. It can be a real pain to run a welder from a generator... Still you would need to keep the current draw below 50 amps, and more powerful welding machines will want a 100 amp circuit.

 

[countryboy]

This is awesome! Always wanted onboard welder on my Jeep, but now I'll be able throw my Lincoln 240v in the back of the CT, hook up the trailer and go riding... break stuff, go back to camp, grab a cold one from the fridge, fire up the smoker, and get to welding... all powered by CT! It ought to have plenty of juice for a long weekend.

 

[bwilliam79]

chuckle don't know, but looks very promising. It can be a real pain to run a welder from a generator... Still you would need to keep the current draw below 50 amps, and more powerful welding machines will want a 100 amp circuit.

Agreed on the bigger welders. You won't be doing any industrial welding with the CT, but I've tried welding 1/4" steel on 110v and my welder really struggles. Running off the 220v on the CT was just as smooth and clean as my dedicated 50 amp circuit I have on the house. Certainly good enough for field repairs or welding fence without having to drag a generator around. Based on the hour or so I was messing around, I'd feel pretty confident you could get a full day of welding out of this thing and not have to worry about running out of juice.

 

[ideaXfactory]

Smooth power is good and that would be much preferable to using a gas powered generator... Producing nice welds needs the welding machine to have a smooth constant supply of energy. Some welding machines can do all sort of things to the voltage, such as creating square waves. -- Square wave tig welding of stainless from the Cybertruck would be nice to try... That might be considered industrial...

 

[firsttruck]

My wife pointed out our Ring camera may have caught my welding yesterday. Turns out it did and I found this clip with my official report on how well it worked towards the end. I’ll still try to get something up today showing power draw, but thought a few of you may get a chuckle out of this one.

How close to Cybertruck are you? After next rain/wash, might you have rust on Cybertruck from the welding dust?

 

[bwilliam79]

Maybe 5-6 feet away. I'm not at all concerned about surface rust, and if it does show up, I'll clean it off. It's well documented how to do so.

If people are concerned about rust, I've seen no reason for it. I've had my truck about two and a half weeks now and it has sat outside the entire time because it won't fit in my garage. In the time I've owned it, it rained for two straight days, I drove ~800 miles and got all kinds of bug guts on the front of it, and I took it through a car wash this past weekend. Still not a single sign of rust on it.

 

[firsttruck]

Maybe 5-6 feet away. I'm not at all concerned about surface rust, and if it does show up, I'll clean it off. It's well documented how to do so.

If people are concerned about rust, I've seen no reason for it. I've had my truck about two and a half weeks now and it has sat outside the entire time because it won't fit in my garage. In the time I've owned it, it rained for two straight days, I drove ~800 miles and got all kinds of bug guts on the front of it, and I took it through a car wash this past weekend. Still not a single sign of rust on it.

Do you know if your Cybertruck was delivered solely by vehicle carrier truck or if rail car was used for part of the trip?

 

[bwilliam79]

I'm going to assume carrier truck since I'm only a few hours away from the factory in Austin, but I don't know for sure.

 

[bwilliam79]

@Outdoors Here's the video as requested. If there's something I didn't cover that you'd like to see, just let me know. Since I'm relatively new to welding, constructive feedback on my technique is welcome.



Since it embedded the video and doesn't show my comments on YouTube, here are a few additional points to know:

I really suck at stick welding as I've only tried it a couple of times and I think I had the amperage too high, so the weld was not pretty at all and you can hear me struggling to keep the arc going. I dialed the welder back to 156 amps and had much better luck, but didn't capture that on video because my assistant (wife) had run to the store.

The screen shot at the end showing 0.5% battery consumption was inclusive of me attempting multiple amperage settings with stick welding before finding something that seemed to work okay.

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