reverse gloat
 

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

Grant Erwin wrote:
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.

Whenever I pass on stuff like that it occupies my dreams at night. Then
I rationalise it, and the next day I'm back there getting it...

Chris

"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...
..

Whenever I pass on stuff like that it occupies my dreams at night. Then
I rationalise it, and the next day I'm back there getting it...

Chris


Should'na gotten rid of the boom truck..... of course, that's why I sold MY
boom truck... it was just too easy to have heavy equipment follow me
home...

Mark