3 Phase welder in a 1 phase world?

I use a 3 phase welder

It works, although my 10 HP idler is not quite enough for this welding machine, but it goes all the way to 200 welding amps. The reason why I think it is not enough, is that the phase converter starts vibrating and making strange noises at full load. But it runs it.

Getting a 3 phase welder and building a phase converter could be the cheapest way to get a quality welding machine. The side benefit here is that you can also buy other cheap 3 phase machines.

I initially thought about that, but wasn't sure if a phase converter would work on a welder. I confess that aside from reading about them, don't have any direct experience with converters. Isn't there a "loss" in the output of the converter? Seems I read that motors run off a phase converter can't develop full rated power. Would the "lower output" (if that is true) affect the welder? For example, would it only develop 2/3 of the rated amperage?

Here is an interesting link via a woodworking site on setting up a 3 phase system. For a welder at full output you would need a good sized idler motor probably in the 20+hp range. I have never done any 3-phase conversion myself.

It works for mine.

The job of the phase converter is to provide a third leg of power, at

It provides a high quality sinewave power, however, when the demand for power exceeds capacity of the phase converter, the third leg sags and the voltage is reduced.

An extreme example, a 1 HP motor run off a 10 HP phase converter would develop 100% of rated power. That would be the case up to perhaps 2/3 of the nameplate HP of the phase converter idler motor. As the load current goes higher, the power in the third leg cannot keep up and efficiency suffers somewhat.