On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 08:33:01 -0600, "John L. Weatherly"
wrote:

Gunner wrote:

so I figured I could pull a 110v off the
contactor and install a fuse and so forth, so the coolant runs
whenever the machine is turned on. It comes with a pedal that works
just fine and the gas solenoid and post flow timer works properly.

When in TIG mode, the contactor only engages when you actuate the pedal.
You could probably install a relay powered by the TIG/Stick selector switch
to control the water solenoid.

Is this a good machine? Will it suit my needs for basic around the
workshop puttering, gunsmithing, small aluminum welding and perhaps a
bit of small cast iron welding?

It's a good machine. I have the TIG 300/300. Short of a transformer
failing, you can repair the thing with standard off the shelf parts
available at any industrial supply house. Call Lincoln tech support & they
will answer any questions you have about it. They sent me a photocopy of
the original manual, gratis, as well.

It does suck some juice, though. When in stick mode, the contactor is
engaged all the time. Mine pulls about 30 amps at idle.

Good Luck

I see some mention about power correction capacitors on the Lincoln
site, would these help reduce the idle current?

The seller has offered to toss in a Lincoln water cooler for $5, but
it has a bad pump motor. It looks quite nice with the internal
radiator ete. I browsed the net last night looking for small
centrifical pumps that will do 1 gpm at 40 psi, but was unable to come
up with much on any of the few surplus sites I know of. Anyone have
any secret sources?

The seller, a real welding machine repair shop, has a similar machine,
the 300 amp jobbie, but it has a blown transformer.

Evidently he bought all the welders from a rental company and has
slowly been going throught the stacks of machines.

Chuckle..Ive been haunting the place, to find Stuff for my an other
peoples welders, he has a nice sized bone yard and found this welder
on the bottom of the stack. When I asked, he said he would sell it for
$150, as is. Which of course I couldnt do as neither of us knew if it
was working or not. Over the course of several more visits, I kept
expressing interest, and finally last week he said if I came in with a
6 pack of diet Coke, the two of us would dig it out, and put it on the
check out bench. If it was good, he would sell it to me for $200,
with no warranty, where is as is, or if it was bad, he would give me a
good deal on repair parts if I decided to take it.

So yesterday I brought in a case of diet coke...G and we did just
that. It was very interesting to go through the checkout procedure. He
uses a big tank of salt water for a load tester.
He took the time to show me how to diagnose this machine, what each
component did, and why it did it. I probably learned more in that 30
minutes about how welders in general, work, than I ever knew.

So when it was all checked out, he said Ok, its yours for $350. When
I gently reminded him of his agreement...he sorta turned white for a
second as he did indeed remember, but was thinking it was a dead
machine when he made the agreement. (it had some internal shorts as
the result of being mishandled, but were easily fixed by simply moving
some wirng around and wrapping in tape). Chuckle..he is a good guy and
said..ok a deal is a deal...G

So he gave me 2 weeks to come up with the money, or he would put it up
for sale for $750. So Im scrambling to come up with the cash. Ive
already got most of it G so may be able to bring it home this week
and play with it over the holidays. Ive already got a tank of 25/75
for the mig machine and a torch and the plumbing stuff and the big
assed mould water cooler, and he let me go through his bone yard for
cables, ground clamps, stingers etc. Another shop sold me near new
Weldcraft 20 tig torch for $25 and tossed in the water/power adapter
that goes to the output terminal of the welder.

The first thing Ill do is tig up a cart for it, to learn how to use
the tig side. Ive done only a tinsey bit of of Tig welding in the
past, so it will be a learning experience.

Ive already got the steel for the cart, but Ill have to scrounge up
some wheels. And sooner or later, another Argon bottle.

Is it ok to leave the stick lead and the tig torch hooked up to the
same terminal all the time, or do I have to swap them out?

I expect to use this mostly for tig.


Gunner



Come shed a tear for Michael Moore-
Though he smirked and lied like a two-bit whore
George Bush has just won another four.
Poor, sad little Michael Moore

Diogenes