Arc welders anyone?

MatthewD wrote:

Cool welder! Pull start? Bet that uses plenty of gas!

It's electric with emergency pull start

Anything you dont like about the engine drive welder? The general welding experience about the same as a non engine drive unit? Do you need to hold when you start the arc and wait for it to rev up?

Ive had the opportunity to run a few mig beads from a big engine drive miller, I dont really remember anything in particular about it... ha.

I bought it broken and just had it fixed so I've only ran 2 beads with it so far. Its and older model that doesn't have the auto idle so there isn't any delay in power when you strike an arc. So far I like it, only bad thing is day about them is that they can be expensive to buy and expensive to fix. I bought mine for 400 and put 400-500 more dollars into it to get it working with new 25ft cables

So it would run full bore if youre welding or not? How big of a gas tank does it have?

I think you can control the throttle with the lever onto of the engine. The gas tank doesn't look that big for an opposed twin.

It's not the original gas tank, I think its about a gallon. It has 3 speed settings, Idle rpms, generator power rpms, and welding power rpms

TedTheDestroyer wrote:

It's not the original gas tank, I think its about a gallon. It has 3 speed settings, Idle rpms, generator power rpms, and welding power rpms

I bet that old girl will weld some heavy stuff. What was wrong with it when you bought it?

Airgas service tech told me there was a missing diode and some wires were hooked up wrong, so not much really

I use an old westinghouse welder sometimes for heavier stuff. Everything else a 110 hobart flux core mig. I used the stick welder to hook the frame together on the simplicity adventure edition. The stick can lay down a lot more steel quickly compared to the small hobart.

TedTheDestroyer wrote:

Airgas service tech told me there was a missing diode and some wires were hooked up wrong, so not much really

Oh yeah. At least it wasn't the motor, I've heard Onan parts will break you.

Yeah stick welders are much better at laying down deeper beads faster.

For sure, I've filled a quarter inch gap with one before.

I have a Craftsman Colormatic 230 amp AC Arc welder. :-)

I finally joined the club!



I'd like to build a roller cart for it. It's a bit heavy for that 2 wheel dolly my dad had it on. Something I can store electrodes and keep the cables up neat.

Nice mighty! Yeah a cart would be handy, these old buggers are heavy haha. Our old Lincoln is mounted on an old push mower frame with hooks on the handle so the cables wrap around in and my helmet hangs on there as well.

My Dad has an old Lincoln Tombstone. I like it. Can crank that sucker all the way up and melt through about anything. Has about 20ft of extensions for the leads. Gotta kick it once in a while to quiet down the cooling fan bearings also you gotta watch the stinger, the insulation on the clamp lever thing has worn through and itll get ya good once in a while

Yeah ours is a tombstone as well and she's a great machine. I left the machine screw that holds the plastic cover on the gun sticking out a bit one time after I took it apart, and since it was threaded right into the body on the gun it was live. As me how I know hahaha.