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rancherfred abt electric branding iron

S

sandhiller

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 27, 2005
Messages
92
Location
cody nebraska
rancherfred, below you mentioned running a small electric branding iron off of a car battery & inverter .

Tell me more about that. What is a small iron? I have a 3" single letter iron, i think made by l&h. Is that similar to your iron?

How long will the battery last?
Size / kind of inverter?
Is it hooked up to atv to charge while using it?
do you have it in any kind of housing to keep the wind off of it to conserve battery power?
Do you warm the iron up off the power line before plugging into the inverter?

Been thinking of building a calf catcher for my atv. Putting a shelf in back to stand calf on. Make the shelf so it would tip up, so the calf is on his side to cut/band them.

Also for any other ideas, was wondering is anyone had built a small small propane one iron (quiet) branding stove?
 
I am out of town right now and I don't have my laptop with me. When I get home I will put a few pictures up of what I use and do. Should be back home mid week.
 
Got back late last night. I can't find the pictures I thought I had so I will try to describe what I do. We use Polaris X2 ATVs so I built a metal box for the bed that will hold the largest deep cycle marine battery I could buy, which if I remember correctly is about 700CCA. I built a mounting bracket for the inverter as well so that it could attach directly to the box the battery is in. There is also a square tube about 6X6 that I welded a cap on one end and dumped some pea gravel in to hold my iron. That helps keep it hot and clean. The iron is a two figure 2 inch iron from L-H. The label says 375 watts but you need at least double the wattage to do an adequate job of branding. I typically will run at least a 750 watt or larger. I tried shutting it off and turning it on with every calf but it had a hard time keeping the iron hot enough. If I leave it running I can usually get a couple of hours of use out of every battery. As slow as I process calves that translates to 15-20 calves. That doesn't sound like a lot but I don't usually have more than that to work in any given day.

I have several batteries charged all the time so I just switch them out when one dies. I tried several different smaller inverters running off the ATV but it quickly drained the ATV battery and then the iron quit heating because the stator output wasn't high enough.

I will try to get some pictures yet and put them up. If I need to clarify anything feel free to ask.
 
Thanks, that helps. I have a old square wave 1500 watt inverter, guesd i need to play with it. Don't know if newer would be more efficient.

I'll have to look at my iron for a label. Maybe need to get a smaller iron
 

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