Old welders.

By arrowside (**)

Date 03-24-2009 00:41

Those old red Lincolns that look like R2 D2 run smoooooooth. Cat's pajamas for carbon arcing on ductwork.

By jrw159

Date 03-24-2009 12:07

Yeah, This guy said these four welders are the best ones he has.

jrw159

By Oregon Jake (**)

Date 03-24-2009 02:43

I agree, those old Lincoln torpedo's have the smoothest DC I've ever run.

By jrw159

Date 03-24-2009 12:08

I hope to get back there on a weekend sometime and play with them. Can you say "Kid in a candy store"?

jrw159 :-)

By KSellon (****)

Date 03-24-2009 13:58

Aircrafter... awesome.. pulls lots of amps on start up...

By scrappywelds (***)

Date 03-25-2009 01:17

I love the old welders. BIG, METAL, and HEAVY love to push them around.

By Metarinka (****)

Date 03-25-2009 02:54

ahh I thought you were talking about all the old foggies that go around this forum thinking their "life time of experience" trumps my 4 year degree?

Of course you've been welding for longer than I've been alive, I thought you needed the head start to catch up.

just kidding I appreciate all the knowledge and skill ya'll have and a lot of it will never be found in a book. also I hear a lot of the times those old welders ran nice because it was back in the day when they could afford to use copper windings for everything.

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 03-25-2009 04:07

Those bullet & torpedo welders are motor driven generators with continuous amperage and voltage control. You can get any ammount of arc force You want, once You figure out how to fine tune it.

I have a 1966 Ideal Arc 250 transformer/rectifier stick welder. It is wound with aluminum. The guy I got it from was going to "scrap it for the copper" I doubt there is more than 1# of copper in it, He would have been dissapoointed and ruined a good machine.

By Metarinka (****)

Date 03-25-2009 04:11

I guess I can learn something from the old welders...

I've heard they run nice but I'm a Tig guy more than stick and all my jobs have been in shops, never struck an arc in my career with a motor driven unit

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 03-25-2009 04:22

These are shop machines, driven by a big 3 phase motor. Before rectifiers came into play that was the prefered method of making high amperage DC. In today's world it is the most expensive way. By the way, good luck with the interviews.

By pypLynr (***)

Date 03-25-2009 04:29

I've been lookin' for one of those old torpedo's (red R2 D2 ) for EVER to buy !!! Those are highly regarded and rarely sold . I learned my trade on one of those old boogers .

By aevald

Date 03-25-2009 05:42

Hello pypLynr, I'll break your heart then, I scrapped one because it was 575V only and had no power to run it and no one interested in taking it. As all of you are saying though, the motor/generators of just about any make are really smooth and a joy to run. We've had a couple of the "torpedoes" in our shop and I also have a Hobart "Micro Wire" motor/generator CV machine, it runs wire like you can't believe. Have a good one gentlemen. Best regards, Allan

By arrowside (**)

Date 03-25-2009 12:01

Pyplnr- I don't know how bad you want one, but I MAY know where there's one in Rochester, NY that might be available. Better hurry up though, the old timer that used it retired from the company a couple of weeks ago, and I KNOW the maint. super will scrap it. I worked at the joint for 12 yrs. and still have a good relationship with them.

By jrw159

Date 03-25-2009 13:22

PypLynr,
I can give you the contact info for this guy if you are interested. He did say he would consider selling. PM me if interested.

jrw159

By Mat

Date 03-25-2009 13:35

The biggest in shop machine I've ever used was an SA 800. The place I was working for at the time used them for gouging. They burned 5/8" gouging rods no problem! (Not that I was ever that good at it, mind you!)

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 03-26-2009 02:27

They turn up every few months on eBay, often go cheap. I got My SAE 200 J for $35 with an old set of cables. Mine is really old and grey. I need to build a phase converter big enough to run it...someday.

By mastermetal (*)

Date 03-28-2009 15:44

I learned on the R2 units. They are heavy as hell. In the field, every time you plugged one in you had to, hit the start button, check the rotation, unplug them, rewire if rotation was wrong, what a pain in the butt. I burned one up that way. Had to drag those damm things all over Lockeed and Genral Motors plants in southern Ca. Also saw an apprentice drop one off a flat bed, completely destroyed it, put a dent in the asphalt. Great memories. God I must be getting old. Thanks for the pics.