SA-200 Copper vs. Alum & Copper

Date 07-22-2008 00:51

Ok fellas, lets beat this dead horse one more time. If the 100% copper windings are preffered by all the pipe gods why did Lincoln change them in 73 and continue to use them for almost 20 years. I have used both and the only difference I can tell is that the alum/copper tends to lose heat throughout the day more so than solid copper but still has a great arc. I have an 85 SA-200 and have used alot of 300D's and every one of them was different. The 330D was awesome for LoHi but doesn't seem to dig to me. The 85 is solid all around. Is this just personal preference or pipe welder voodoo?

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 07-22-2008 04:27 Edited 07-23-2008 03:35

All I know about these machines I got from this website, and most of that from Kay Sellon. She says that they all have some aluminum windings, but in the '73 & '74 model years there were more of the windings done in aluminum. Some of those 73 & 74 machines have had the aluminum windings replaced with copper.

I was talking to a guy in My area who has a bunch of SA 200 machines, He says they each weld a little different.

I have a '66 Idealarc 250 transformer/rectifier machine in My shop that has all aluminum windings. The guy I got it from was going to "scrap it for the copper" if nobody would give Him $75 for it. He didn't know it was aluminum wound.

By sbcmweb (****)

Date 07-22-2008 22:49

A lot of those Lincoln shop machines were aluminum wound. I think it's all a matter of what one prefers. I do like the older transformer/rectifier machines for stick welding much better than new inverter based machines IMHO. :-) S.W.

By jkin

Date 07-22-2008 04:38

What is a 330D never heard of it, And the only ones I know of like your talking about were early 70's didn't hold up.

By JohnJohn (**)

Date 07-22-2008 21:39

330 D is a typo, meant 300D.I thought the machines with the hexagon barrel generator wer 80% copper 20% alum and the round barrels were all copper.

By texwelder (***)

Date 07-22-2008 22:10

I have a 97 SA-250 with both copper and alum. welded all day long for months with 3/16 5p+, and 5/32 7018, cooked them with no problems.

By JohnJohn (**)

Date 07-22-2008 22:50

My 200 welds great too, just seems like it gets a little cold after lunch. Someone once suggested it could be the insulation in the armature is worn out, others say it's because it's not all copper. The 300 D I used were somewhat the same. I try not to burn more than a 5/32 7018. I had to lay down some 3/4 fillets once with it and it did fine, just don't prefere to do it all the time if I can avoid it.