Just gotta show off my new toy! :D

[oldanvilyoungsmith]

Well, considering I am a welder, it's really bugged me that I have had no real welding machine in my home shop. I've been shopping for the last two months, and finally found what I wanted, I found and got a deal on an used Lincoln 250 ac/dc.

I was able to talk the guy selling it down to half his original price since I had to buy leads and and the amperage indicator was broken.

I was holding out to get a dc capable welder, as tig welding is my favorite process, and I really wanted to be able to do it. And with DC, you can get a rig to hook up to a stick welder, you just can't weld aluminum.


Well, a week after I got the stick welder, I was at a local pawn shop looking at some guns, and I happened to browse over their tools, and happened upon a complete tig setup for a stick welder. Leads, weldcraft tig rig, and victor flometer. All in good condition for $150 . Needless to say, I jumped on it



So, I am happy to say, I am now welding capable, both stick and tig. Yay me!

And I went ahead and made this so I would have a good area for welding.

Angle iron and 3/8" armor plate. /> It measures somewhere around 2.5' x 2.5', the table top itself weighs a good 100 lbs. :huh:/> I had to build it on the barn side like you see as I have very little shop room, and space is a premium in it. I have enough lead length I can just pull them out the door.

And yeah, I'm making a little shield for that electrical box

 

[VaughnT]

Beauty! I love old-school tools!

I'm trying to learn stick welding, but not having a lot of success. Picking and choosing between rods, amps and volts is a bugger! I'm beginning to think you professional welders are just making that garbage up to confuse us regular folks and force us to hire more welders!

 

[JCaswell]

Nice old welder. Probably works great!

 

[oldanvilyoungsmith]

I'm beginning to think you professional welders are just making that garbage up to confuse us regular folks and force us to hire more welders!

Maybe.....


What kind of application are you tring to do, and what stick welder are you using? I might be able to offer some advice.



JCaswell, you aint kidding, this thing is an older welder (looks to be about 30 yrs old, and weighs a good 400lbs), but man will it burn up those rods. I've found that in a lot of cases, if it was well taken care of, older machines are much better quality than todays.
The only thing that bugs me, the maintenance guys at the plant this welder came from, decided to paint it green. Green! I mean come on, it's a Lincoln, it should be red.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I had to pass on buying one like that last year. I dropped in by a yard sale where someone was moving out. He had this behemoth of a welder that weighed over 500 pounds. Took something like 240VAC 50 amp input? He wanted $75 for it. I had no way to even move it. The main difference between his and yours was his looked like it had never been used....and had 100 foot leads. Still kick myself sometimes for not calling a tow truck to haul it to my place. If I was more of a welder, and knew about adding the TIG hookup, I would have.

 

[12345678910]

I had to pass on buying one like that last year. I dropped in by a yard sale where someone was moving out. He had this behemoth of a welder that weighed over 500 pounds. Took something like 240VAC 50 amp input? He wanted $75 for it. I had no way to even move it. The main difference between his and yours was his looked like it had never been used....and had 100 foot leads. Still kick myself sometimes for not calling a tow truck to haul it to my place. If I was more of a welder, and knew about adding the TIG hookup, I would have.

A flatbed tow truck is a really effective and relatively cheap way to move some things like machinery.


I've been looking into "scratch start" TIG lately- now you will have no reason to hold back next time.

It works for steel and stainless, but not aluminum.
It helps if you can start on a carbon or copper block.



http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/homemade-tig-welder.html

That "TIG finger" he's selling may just be a nomex heat insulation sleeve from McMaster Carr, or a spark plug insulation sleeve from an auto shop.

[video=youtube;9lV4tzg4zn0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9lV4tzg4zn0[/video]


This
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/200334186437?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/190735103815?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-16-X-7-2-Lanthanated-Tungsten-Electrodes-/140096760891
2% lanthanated, maybe you want to step up to the next size 3/16 depends on the material size you want.

Plus an argon bottle from your local welding supply
Be sure you can get it refilled before you buy it.

Nice info chart -
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/512/tippartsselectiononebay.png

 

[JCaswell]

Maybe.....


JCaswell, you aint kidding, this thing is an older welder (looks to be about 30 yrs old, and weighs a good 400lbs), but man will it burn up those rods. I've found that in a lot of cases, if it was well taken care of, older machines are much better quality than todays.
The only thing that bugs me, the maintenance guys at the plant this welder came from, decided to paint it green. Green! I mean come on, it's a Lincoln, it should be red.

Looks earlier than the 80s to me... You'd probably know better than I, though.
I agree! Green is an abomination on a Lincoln!

 

[oldanvilyoungsmith]

Stacy, if you don't mind, I'll kick you some for passing that up to. I got mine for $200, without leads, and thought myself lucky. That price would have been good for just the leads, copper aint cheap these days.

As for tig, yeah, if you have a dc option on your stick welder, you can get a scratch start tig rig. You hook the ground to your work, your stinger clamps to a connecter on the tig lead which also hooks to the argon. They're a great option for tig welding, you just can't run on aluminum cuz you don't have high freq. The college I went to taught us tig on these style rigs to start with.

And I always use 3/32" dia 2% lanthanated tungsten for my electrodes (when not welding aluminum).



JCaswell, I don't really know how old it is, it doesn't have a date on the info plate, that was just a guess the guy I bought it from had. And no, I don't really know that much about older welders, I'm still a fresh welder, finished my cert this spring; give me 20 years experience and I might know more.

 

[JCaswell]

JCaswell, I don't really know how old it is, it doesn't have a date on the info plate, that was just a guess the guy I bought it from had. And no, I don't really know that much about older welders, I'm still a fresh welder, finished my cert this spring; give me 20 years experience and I might know more.

Congrats on the cert!
My guess just from looking at it is late 60s early 70s.
These are known to be good machines and rebuilds are cheap. Probably works better than my later model Lincoln 180 tig.

 

[mad bodhi]

Love the old Lincoln "tombstone" and an AC/DC version too.They started making them in 1956 .Earlier ones had copper windings then aluminum.They are still quite prized,iv'e been looking for one myself off and on.