well i had a portable engine driven lincol electric older then heck stick welder. it blew a bearing out the other day and self destructed. after 50 some years what can ya expect. anyways the local dealer wants to much to fix it and there new models cost around 3 grand. i was thinking of buying a regular plug in stick welder for about 300 bucks. weld 235 ac 170 dc 30% duty cycle. and then buying a belt driven generator from north start for 600 bucks. 10,000 watt has a 50 amp 120/240 plug rite on it. already have an extra lawn mower engine twin cylicder 16hp motor. my question is anyone ever do this and or have any ideas on wether it will work. i cant see why it wont work. the gen is slightly undersized by about 5 amp but i figure unless the welder is tunred all the way up it wont be drawing the fully 50 amp. the dealer also thought that to be true. any ideas suggestions ect are welcome. iam trying to do it on a budget since this is for my farm and it would be nice to have a regular welder that i could plug in the shop instead of runnig an engine all the time. on the other side i need to be able to weld anywere somthen breaks. thought this would be a good middle ground kinda both of best worlds type thing.

 

I have a Lincoln stick welder I bought from Costco about 5 years ago. Recently I decided to build a pole barn using rectangular tubing but the problem I had was that I didn't have a 220V outlet nearby. The rental shops want about $250/week to rent a generator to power the welder. But being that I was doing ALL the work my self, it was going to take me more than a week to complete the fabricating and welding. Recently, I ran across a very seldom used Coleman 5K watts generator for $300...purchased it and am using it to power the welder. I'm on my third week now and very close to completing the pole barn. This is the best combo I bought...the Lincoln welder and Coleman generator .

 

glad to here it. what size stick welder are ya running i was figuring id need at least the 1ok gen but its a pretty big welder to.

 

My Lincoln welder is a 225 Amps A.C. I'm using 3/32" 6011 & 6013 rods at 105-130 amps.
Regardless of what size your welder is, it's the setting you use that draws the amps.