Rewinding alternators

oil pan 4

I did some searching around trying to figure out a good instruction on how to rewind an auto motive alternator for 6 pole single phase. The only people I can find talking about rewinding stators on auto motive alternators for any reason are wind turbine people.

I want to rewind an automotive alternator to build an old school motor generator for tig welding aluminum with AC.

I have an idea what the windings will look like but I want to eliminate as much trial and error as possible.

GreenPowerManiac

Google your title.  It will get you closer to some answers or to your destination.
I've noticed that the smaller copper wiring is easily wound yet difficult to contain.  And yes, it's coated with clear casing.  The casing on the tips will have to be burnt off to put terminals onto.  .020 - .030 wires should be easy enough and flexible to wind up.
We're looking at 50+ amps DC to weld aluminum, and that's with a stick rod Mig.

magneticwinder

I rewind AC stators for a living and have done for the past 5 years. Any dc motor with copper windings in it is the same principle. You need to know the original winding data to rewind it correctly and for it to run efficiently. The data you need is; the guage of the wire, the number of turns per coil, and the span of the coil. The span of the coil. The so an of the coil is how many slots are between one side of it and the other. So say you have a coil in one slot and then it misses two slots and the other side of it goes in the next your span would be 1-4.

Redfredg

Alternator becomes more efficient at 2000rpm and higher, the amount of parasitic HP needed to energise the coil is negligible compared to the engine output.

A windmill's range is from 50rpm, or cutin speed, to the max or furling speed usually 500rpm or less, but its largely dependant on blade dia and material, ie composite fibreglass 1.2m dia max - 800rpm max.

In conclusion the wind doesnt consistently produce enough HP to overcome the HP needed for a geartrain to spin an alternator in its 3500 rpm range.

I've seen them pop up in my neighbourhood with bicycle gearsets, they're never up and working for longer than 6months, by then the owners have figured out the above info.

oil pan 4

I was thinking about using an automotive alternator for a single phase high frequency AC power source for welding aluminum.
But I have my doubts because welding aluminum takes so much power and automotive alternators can't make a whole lot of amps. Then rewrap in them for single phase makes them even less powerful and less efficient.