Karnage Welder

fiend

fiend

Caught the Bug
I picked up a Karnage Welder a couple of days ago. It’s a battery powered welder in a suitcase. There are various trail welder options, but the Karnage is the only one that I know if that’s self contained (I.e., doesn’t run off car batteries or an alternator). That gives it a lot more flexibility, I think. Hobart used to make a similar battery powered welder (Trek 180), but is was discontinued years ago.

I got the Karnage for emergency trail repairs. It comes with a roll of .030” flux core wire. Today I had a short opportunity to test it out.

First, a caveat: although I have a Lincoln 180 Dual in the garage, which I use for small projects, I’m by no means an experienced or skilled welder. I’ve welded on small skid plates, made various brackets, and also some modifications to my bumper to fit my unusually proportioned hydraulic winch. Probably my most consequential project to date was to weld a synergy track bar bracket to my ProRock 44 axle, and then to weld some PSC ram tabs to the bracket. It’s all held up well through some tough wheeling, so I guess I’m a “good enough” welder.

Anyway, I tried some 3/16” and 18 gauge steel with the Karnage. Although the wire speed is adjustable, the current is not. This thing runs HOT, at least at full charge. As you can see, the first pass on 3/16” looks like shit. Mostly because I haven’t welded anything in several months, at least. The second pass looks much better. Certainly good enough to fix a broken bracket, mount, etc. on the trail.

I then tried some 18 gauge. This is much thinner than anything I’d be welding on the trail, but I had some scrap lying around so I figured what the hell. Probably a skilled welder could to better, but the issue for me is that the welder runs too hot for such thin metal. I burned through at the end of the first pass. The backside shot shows that I nearly burned through on the entire weld. Maybe if I moved the gun faster I could have avoided that.

I’ve only done four passes so far, but I’m pleased with the results on the thicker metal. I’ll pick up some more scrap and get more practice with the Karnage. For now I’ll say this is definitely an option to consider if you’re looking for a portable trail welder.

First pass, 3/16”:

74786BE1-68E8-4BA7-9F53-BEF533A81A3E.jpeg

Second pass, 3/16”:

79B3258E-6A9A-4868-AB0C-A4322E0831D0.jpeg
First pass, 18 gauge:
46D8462D-C56B-4648-8A13-E62BE1F451E8.jpeg
Backside, 18 gauge:
7AEC7AB9-76A7-45BA-88EF-8E546AB436F8.jpeg
 
Seems similar to the ready welder but yours holds a much smaller footprint of storage in the Jeep. Sucks that it runs so hot, but on the trail, it's GOLD. Thin or thick, you can get your rig running again or at least get it back to the parking lot. I've learned to just weld FAST to compensate for the lack of amperage adjustment. It is what it is and still a valuable tool to carry.
 
Good post! I actually like that it runs hot as the only kind of welding I'd do with something like this is trail repair and most everything that would need it would be thick.
 
Thanks for reviewing this. Definitely something that I have been considering, as I currently carry cables and welding rod for emergencies. The lack of amperage adjustment shouldn’t be a major concern as you are gonna use this type of welder to get you home, not for production quality welds.
 
Cool write up... When I use Flux core, I can prevent HOT burn throughs by making the wire longer (between the metal and gun)... and shorter bursts with the trigger. Almost a pulsating method allowing it to cool for a split second... Not sure if that would help.
 
Great post. Some of those weld look ok, probably chaulk up the rough ones to needed some more practice with it.
Does the welder take regular spool wire or do you need proprietary spool sizes from the manufacturer? What's the wire grade? My HF welder came with E71T-gs wire and I used to get sporadic results. I replaced the wire with E71T-11 wire and get better results. The GS wire isn't rated for multi pass and it seems to not clean up as nice. The 030 wire size is my go to, but you might want to experiment with other sizes if the welderwill accommodate them.

Any indication on how many inches of weld you can get, or if the power drops off significantly as the batteries discharge? Can you recharge it from 12V?
 
Great review Fiend!

I also picked up one of these, and I echo his review.

A little practice with it will go a long ways, as I improved from pass to pass.

Short bursts seem to help on thin stuff, with some grinding and clean up in between.
The spool gun takes standard rolls of wire, so you can choose. What they included seems to work well, for trail repairs.

I love that it is compact and easily portable. I will probably end up with it in my work truck, as well as the Jeep.

They advertise approximately 60" of weld on a charge, plus I got the cables to be able to run it on Jeep batteries in case that's not enough.
It won't charge on 12V, as it is a 24V nominal system, but the NoCo charger they recommend will charge off of the AC adapter, if your Jeep has one. I may add an inverter in Vengeance for this reason, when I get time.

This is an item I am glad to have, and hope to never, or at least rarely use.
I will also carry a small assortment of metal to use for repairs, braces, etc, as most common trail breaks can't be simply welded back together, but need some sort of splice or brace to have a hope of surviving the trail.

Here is a couple of my test welds, showing I need more practice with it as well.
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20210509_180830490_copy_600x800.jpg
    PXL_20210509_180830490_copy_600x800.jpg
    176 KB · Views: 30
  • PXL_20210428_174411619_copy_600x800.jpg
    PXL_20210428_174411619_copy_600x800.jpg
    260.8 KB · Views: 28
  • PXL_20210428_180112078_copy_600x800.jpg
    PXL_20210428_180112078_copy_600x800.jpg
    209 KB · Views: 28
  • PXL_20210428_174405503_copy_600x800.jpg
    PXL_20210428_174405503_copy_600x800.jpg
    230.4 KB · Views: 30
Thanks for the reviews. It’s always hard to know how well a small welder is actually going to work without someone sharing their experience 👍
 
jdofmemi said:
Great review Fiend!

I also picked up one of these, and I echo his review.

A little practice with it will go a long ways, as I improved from pass to pass.

Short bursts seem to help on thin stuff, with some grinding and clean up in between.
The spool gun takes standard rolls of wire, so you can choose. What they included seems to work well, for trail repairs.

I love that it is compact and easily portable. I will probably end up with it in my work truck, as well as the Jeep.

They advertise approximately 60" of weld on a charge, plus I got the cables to be able to run it on Jeep batteries in case that's not enough.
It won't charge on 12V, as it is a 24V nominal system, but the NoCo charger they recommend will charge off of the AC adapter, if your Jeep has one. I may add an inverter in Vengeance for this reason, when I get time.

This is an item I am glad to have, and hope to never, or at least rarely use.
I will also carry a small assortment of metal to use for repairs, braces, etc, as most common trail breaks can't be simply welded back together, but need some sort of splice or brace to have a hope of surviving the trail.

Here is a couple of my test welds, showing I need more practice with it as well.
Click to expand...
Happy you jumped in here Jerry. Between the two of us, and Don, we’re well covered in the trail welder department. 😂Only thing I’d add is that you can charge off a 12 volt system (eg, using the cigarette socket in your vehicle while the vehicle is running), but you can’t weld using a 12 volt source (instead of the internal batteries). Hope that makes sense?
 
That's right, I misspoke on that one.

It will be a good bit of piece of mind in case something unexpected happens.
 
rubiDave said:
Great post. Some of those weld look ok, probably chaulk up the rough ones to needed some more practice with it.
Does the welder take regular spool wire or do you need proprietary spool sizes from the manufacturer? What's the wire grade? My HF welder came with E71T-gs wire and I used to get sporadic results. I replaced the wire with E71T-11 wire and get better results. The GS wire isn't rated for multi pass and it seems to not clean up as nice. The 030 wire size is my go to, but you might want to experiment with other sizes if the welderwill accommodate them.

Any indication on how many inches of weld you can get, or if the power drops off significantly as the batteries discharge? Can you recharge it from 12V?
Click to expand...
Yes it uses regular wire. It came with E71T-GS, .030”. It will run .035” as well.

The manual says it will do 60” of weld.

Yes you can recharge it from 12v, but it needs to be a live system (running car, ship to shore, etc.).
 
Thinner metal, do tacks 2" apart. Come back and do tacks halfway between the first ones. Repeat until you have a solid bead all the way across.
Allows the base metal to cool and you aren't carrying all the heat.

Yes, it takes longer, but you end up with a stronger weld without distorting the base metal.

I realize on the trail you want to fix it and move on. But if it breaks again 30' down the trail you have to start all over.
 
I'll put in a third opinion .. that being I won't hit the trail without it. I also did a few test welds (no pics) and also found it ran very hot.. As already noted most anything on my Jeep I'm likely to need it for is thick so hot is good. I purchased both the AC and DC chargers for it.. So far a big thumbs up
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom