A method and apparatus provides welding-type power and preferably includes a removable battery or other energy storage device, a converter connected to the battery, and a controller. The controller may have a CV and/or a CSC and/or an AC weld control module, and/or an ac auxiliary control module. The converter is a boost converter, a buck converter, a cuk converter, a forward converter, an inverter, a bridge converter, and/or a resonant converter. The controller may include a battery charging control module, and may have one or more charging schedules, and/or data for stored charge, thermal information, expected life of the battery, maximum amp-hour charge for the battery, maximum charging current and/or feedback. The battery charging schedules may include at least 3 phases, such as a phase of increasing voltage and a phase of decreasing current, a substantially constant power phase. The controller can wirelessly provide data to a display or pda. A generator may provide power to the battery, charger, and/or the weld. It can include a vehicle and use its dc power system.