mm140 portable power

[acro2eaa]

I have a mm140 I am quite happy with. Use it in my Home/Shop, plug it in anywhere, welds like a banshee. Today I borrowed my dads old Honda EM3000 generator to go out and repair/replace some pipe fence. Low and behold it wouldn't weld worth a %*^(. I'm not an electrician but I thought that generator would power it fine. Guess not.

Any advise on what minimum/adequate generator it would take to power that welder.

thanks

[DDA52]

I ran my MM135 off of a Honda EB3500 with ok results. It would not weld on the upper end at all but the mid range and lower was fine. My guess would be 4000w would get it going just fine. Is your 3000 peak or continuous wattage? From the sound of it, it may be peak watts. In which case, you are running in the 2200-2500 watt range which isn't quite enough.

[Sundown]

I ran my MM135 off of a Honda EB3500 with ok results. It would not weld on the upper end at all but the mid range and lower was fine. My guess would be 4000w would get it going just fine. Is your 3000 peak or continuous wattage? From the sound of it, it may be peak watts. In which case, you are running in the 2200-2500 watt range which isn't quite enough.

I ran my EZ125 on a 3.5K Genset (old job with no name that I could find) on a fence job, didn't have any problems.

[MAC702]

I said it with more words in the thread on the other board, but consider the quality of the power too, esp. with a machine that has more electronics than others.

[Bert]

Good question I always wondered about
I wanted to buy a normal generator from Home Depot, say...a 8,000watt continuous powered one. Few people mentioned to me that a welder/generator puts out cleaner power than a regular generator. That's why it works better for welding. Any truth to that? I was wondering for some reason if the electronics were better on the welding generator...
bert

[MAC702]

...Few people mentioned to me that a welder/generator puts out cleaner power than a regular generator. That's why it works better for welding. Any truth to that? ...

Not that I know of. For example, the Miller Bobcat is a 10kW generator with a skewed rotor that has very clean power. But it's a marginal welding machine, good for occasional use, but not designed for the pros.

The Trailblazer is an awesome welding machine, and has clean power, but it's not as good as the Bobcat for power quality, though its seperate rotor for welding means the two processes don't interfere with one another.

Now, there are probably many machines where the two are related because of the size and quality of the machine as a whole.

I would say that generators in the same price point as an engine-driven welding machine should have power of the same, if not better quality.

[Bert]

Mac,
I'm looking at the catalog:
Bobcat 250 vs. Trailblazer 302 I see most of the construction trucks here have the Bobcat. Are you saying the trailblazer is a better machine, but the Bobcat actually has more power? They are both rated at 9500 watts continuous power, I just thought they didn't want to spend the extra money on the trailblazer. I have wonderd which would be a better machine to buy, in a couple of years, I was thinking of buying the Trailblazer...Pipe Pro,Big 40,Big blue is definately out of my price range!!
thanks,
bert

[MAC702]

...I see most of the construction trucks here have the Bobcat.

That's because they are cheaper...

Are you saying the trailblazer is a better machine, but the Bobcat actually has more power? ...

No, the Bobcat has cleaner power, not more. That said, the Trailblazer is still very good power, but my MM Passport was probably the most electronic thing it ever powered, and it did it quite well.

If you were wanting mostly aux. or emergency power, the Bobcat 250 is the best choice between these platforms.

If you want a welding machine, get a Trailblazer, without hesitation.

[Bert]

Thanks MAC!!! That will make me stay with the Trailblazer

[Bert]

MAC, btw, how's the traveling construction work/ministry going? Any pics on the kind of work you're doing?