Vintage Arc Welders

[crash]

I have inherited an old arc welder from my late father inlaw. This thing is huge but can it weld! It has been sitting in my shed for the past few years wondering what I should do with it. It is 3phase powered, and it would cost me more to wire it in than what it would be worth using (so I bought a TIG instead)
Is it worthwhile trying to sell it? Do people actually collect these? or should I strip it and take it to the scrappers(hate to know how much copper is in the thing)

[wrinklearthur]

I have inherited an old arc welder from my late father inlaw. This thing is huge but can it weld! It has been sitting in my shed for the past few years wondering what I should do with it. It is 3phase powered, and it would cost me more to wire it in than what it would be worth using (so I bought a TIG instead)
Is it worthwhile trying to sell it? Do people actually collect these? or should I strip it and take it to the scrappers(hate to know how much copper is in the thing)

Is it a pilot arc ?

Take it to a farm clearing sale, the rural community love these things as most farms already have three phase power.
.

[Bigbjorn]

Make? Model? Photos? Some of those old girls really put out and often have very fine adjustment and are great for powering a TIG setup. Don't throw it out or scrap it. Heavy fabrication shops love them for outdoor work.

[Kev the Fridgy]

I agree, don't scrap it. Even though I love the modern inverter welders etc, I have a 60 year old "Adelaide Electromagnetic Company" arc welder, it has been in our family since new, will break ya back when you lift it ... BUT ... stick a 10 gauge rod in the clamp, strike it and one continuous weld till the end of the rod.... dad used it for years to power a TIG converter for commercial kitchen installs, most of the S/S Sheeties loved it... bloody good welder

[Ancient Mariner]

Check to see if it is 3 phase or 415 volt 2 phase We have a TAD 1 (pie warmer) 415 2 phase been running it on 480 volt for the last 35 years without complaint fantastic welder but a finicky HF system but adjustable not like our inverter unit

[101 Ron]

I have a 415 volt stick welder in my workshop that runs about 250 amps flat out.
It is great for heavy work.
I figure it is about WW2 vintage.
Amperage is changed by throwing old fashion open knife switches with changes resistances coils inside the frame of the unit.
It is air cooled.
I purchased the thing from my old boss many years ago.
When working for him, he used to get me doing any welding work just before morning tea as he would do the toast on the cooling mesh opening on top of the welder.
Interestingly this welder has factory TIG A/C high frequency for welding alloy..........I have never seen a welder/TIG machine so old.
It has removeable points sets that are adjustable to allow the the TIG high frequency operation.
The old stick welders, especially the oil cooled ones are liked as they will run all day and the amps settings will not change when set.
Sitting in my yard at work is a old 500amp Lincon which was purchased for 150 dollars......belongs to a semi retired bloke.........what in the hell do up do with a 500 amp welder????.........burn 1/2 inch thick welding rods???
A very good unit all the same if you want to weld the old fashion way.

[wrinklearthur]

I rather the tidy weld's that I can do with the old pie heater myself, the MIG suffers way too much from the wind's we get here.

The pilot arc is great to get the rod to run when I am doing some hard facing on scarifier points.



I didn't know that I could use the pilot arc machine to do aluminium TIG welding, I thought you needed DC for that?
.

[101 Ron]

For aluminium you need the high frequency which most early machines don't have .

[Bigbjorn]

[QUOTE=101 Ron;2093864The old stick welders, especially the oil cooled ones are liked as they will run all day and the amps settings will not change when set.
Sitting in my yard at work is a old 500amp Lincon which was purchased for 150 dollars......belongs to a semi retired bloke.........what in the hell do up do with a 500 amp welder????.........burn 1/2 inch thick welding rods???
A very good unit all the same if you want to weld the old fashion way.[/QUOTE]

A mate has a heavy fabrication shop involving a lot of outside work in their yard where MIG is useless. He bought at auction a monster welder of WW2 vintage that originally was installed at Evans Deakin shipyard. It sits on a concrete foundation. He says it can run six operators using 1/4" rods on very long leads at 100% duty cycle. Add to that the copper scrap value is far more than he paid for it, $600 about 10 years ago.

[Bigbjorn]

[QUOTE=wrinklearthur;2093873]I rather the tidy weld's that I can do with the old pie heater myself, the MIG suffers way too much from the wind's we get here.

[IMG]

Arthur, I can hear the voice of my TAFE teacher. "The beat of a butterfly's wing will disturb the gas shield." oft repeated until it sunk into the thick heads of students.

In other words, don't use MIG outdoors unless you can arrange adequate shielding.