The transformer is on the side of the building. We are members of a very
small electric co-op.We didn't get electricity until 1960, and phone service
until 1965. Up until about 15 years ago all of our electricity was generated
by diesel generators. The first two were surplus from some kind of navy
ship. Power used to go off at 11 pm and come back on at 5 am for the first
few years. In 1990 they finally laid a cable to the island and hooked the
co-op up to the power grid when they built a bridge. Before that everything
came by boat. And then we had to threatened them with lawsuits, as they said
the co-op wasn't big enough and we would have to sign up a individual
customers and they wanted a young fortune, saying that everything had to be
re-done to their specs. Heck we just got cable TV (after the first week
there is nothing on worth watching) and our first cell phone tower.


"RoyJ" wrote in message
link.net...
440volts? No transformer??

Diamond Jim wrote:
"Kelley Mascher" wrote in message
...

If the welder is one of the original SP-100 models it is the
equivalent of the current SP-135. Check the service manuals on the
Lincoln Electric website. They will help you identify the welder.

The original SP-100 is a solid 110v MIG with a good duty cycle for
this type of welder. It's possible that the build quality is a bit
better than the SP-135 but I haven't checked.

The price is a little high but only a little. If it has really only
been used 5 time in 10 years it should look brand new.

I wouldn't challenge the seller on the price of the welder but I would
ask him if he would sell it without the $100C roll of wire. In fact,
.030" hard wire isn't very useful, generally, in this welder. You
would be better off with .023".

Obviously, I'm pretty happy with my SP-100, which dates from around
1990.

Cheers,

Kelley


I checked today, as I thought it was bigger but my small MIG is a SP100
from
back in the mid to early 80's at least. I bought it used in '92, from
the 2d
owner who had it 7 years. And its a good'en, still in great shape even
though the paint has faded to a kind of pinkish color instead of the
original bright red. It will handle .035 hard or flux cored wire easy.
In
fact with this size wire I can easily get burn through on 1/8" steel, if
I
don't keep it moving. This is on "D-3" setting. It won't feed aluminum
wire
worth a damn even with a Teflon liner, and new rollers, but it makes
some
hell of beautiful welds with mix and stainless wire or CO2 and flux
cored.
Heck I have used it with CO2, and flux cored wire to bridge some big
gaps
using old 1/8th and 3/32d, 6010 and 6011 rods with damp flaking flux on
them
for filler.

Of course the secret is to have a good power source. I have 440v ran to
my
shop, then break it down to 220v going to five outlet boxes, each with
its
own run of 8 gage wire. At the outlet boxes I have one 220v 50amp, one
120v
20amp, and one 120v15amp outlet. My lathe, mill, band saw, grinder and
air
compressor are all hard wired to a different circuit. This keeps voltage
drops to a minimum. Of course I have to pay a little extra for three
meters.
(House, boat/wood/welding shop, and machine shop w/central Air.) But it
is
worth it, with good power everything works like it is supposed to.