In northeast Seattle Washington for most of my life was a US Navy installation
called Sand Point Naval Air Station. Now it's a closed base, and a city park.
Today I responded to a free ad in my local craigslist which simply said arc
welder in good shape. Wow -- a really cool old Westinghouse Flexarc commutator
type welder, 220 V 3 phase input, 300A DC output. Still wired up, I freaked the
kayak shop guy out by throwing the big wall switch and then turning on the
welder. Spun right up. Must have 200 pounds of copper, on a wheel kit, about the
size of a world champion pig - HUGE. They also had 3 free fab tables, 2 4x8'
steel tables I didn't look at much because they were just tables and buried, but
they had a really wonderful hot table. 8x3', top lined with firebrick, first
ledge below the table separated to hold O/A rod (still had quite a bit of rod in
there), integral vise stand, place at the end to secure tanks to and lock them,
swing-out operator's stool, solid fabricated steel. I hitched onto a corner and
went "ughhhh" and I thought it was welded to the floor. But it wasn't - sucker
is just *heavy*. Finally, they had what looked like a regular chemical storage
cabinet, double doors, about 6' tall 4' wide, but it was a heated rod cabinet.
The heater unit looked like it would still work.

Everything was WWII era but has been in the back of a clean dry shop and looks
to be in good shape.

I had to pass on it all. But I wanted it, every bit, all 3000 pounds or
whatever. A few years ago I would have loaded every speck onto my boom truck and
hauled it all home.

This was the coolest welding table I've ever seen. Dang.

Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington