Ive got an opportunity to pick up rather cheaply..a Lincoln
combination machine, stick, tig, ac/dc

It looks similar to this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

But is only 250 amps. It does not have the water solenoid, or the AC
outlet on the front, but its been fully tested while I was present.
Tested by a welder repair tech. He indicated that I dont really want
the water solenoid, as the coolant should be running whenever the
machine is turned on, 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.

I have a near new Weldcraft 250 torch and hoses and an outboard
water cooler (a bit over kill..about the size of an dorm
refridgerator) and of course stinger and ground clamp and welding
cables.

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?

I already have a Miller Dialarc 250 AC/DC welder for the gnarly stick
stuff, but was wanting this for mostly TIG welding

Ive very little experience with TIG and the price of this machine is
right...$200.

Any comments, suggestions, hints, warnings etc?

Ive got a Lincoln AC-225 and a Century AC/DC that Im selling locally
to generate the money for this, but dont want to sell them if this is
not a good machine for me to learn and grow on. I dont think they are
worth enough together to buy newer or better machine. Shrug. Least not
in this area of California.

I picked up a big assed Hobart Cybertig 2 some time back, that is
three phase and I cant run it at home, but its at my buddies machine
shop and he can use it. Ive been scrounging up accessories (tig torch,
cables etc) for it, but I can use them on the Lincoln.

Thanks in advance.

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

Gunner wrote in message
...
Ive got an opportunity to pick up rather cheaply..a Lincoln
combination machine, stick, tig, ac/dc


It's not a bad buy. Does it have the Hi Freq unit? You'll need that for
aluminum especially.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 23:32:41 -0800, "Michael"
wrote:


Gunner wrote in message
.. .
Ive got an opportunity to pick up rather cheaply..a Lincoln
combination machine, stick, tig, ac/dc


It's not a bad buy. Does it have the Hi Freq unit? You'll need that for
aluminum especially.

It has HF..the points inside that vibrate and make an arc between
them.. He said it had HF, so I assume that it did.

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

I'd go for it, then. If you don't want if after 30 days, I'll give you your
money back and pick it up in Taft.

Michael

Gunner wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 23:32:41 -0800, "Michael"
wrote:


Gunner wrote in message
.. .
Ive got an opportunity to pick up rather cheaply..a Lincoln
combination machine, stick, tig, ac/dc


It's not a bad buy. Does it have the Hi Freq unit? You'll need that for
aluminum especially.

It has HF..the points inside that vibrate and make an arc between
them.. He said it had HF, so I assume that it did.

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

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?

I already have a Miller Dialarc 250 AC/DC welder for the gnarly stick
stuff, but was wanting this for mostly TIG welding

Ive very little experience with TIG and the price of this machine is
right...$200.

Any comments, suggestions, hints, warnings etc?

I have nearly the same machine, an idealarc 300/300. It has been a great
unit, I use it all the time. Its done tons of weld repair work on my 6000
feet of AL irrigation pipe. Thin parts that must hold 150 psi I've never
bought any repair parts (yet) but they are all readily available. Lincoln
has all the manuals in .PDFs on their web site.

Good luck

Karl

I have the 300 amp unit great machine don't use it much but when i do it
works nice. I use a sump pump in a bucket of water to cool my torch, not
fancy but it gets the job done.
"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
ews.com...
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?

I already have a Miller Dialarc 250 AC/DC welder for the gnarly stick
stuff, but was wanting this for mostly TIG welding

Ive very little experience with TIG and the price of this machine is
right...$200.

Any comments, suggestions, hints, warnings etc?

I have nearly the same machine, an idealarc 300/300. It has been a great
unit, I use it all the time. Its done tons of weld repair work on my 6000
feet of AL irrigation pipe. Thin parts that must hold 150 psi I've
never bought any repair parts (yet) but they are all readily available.
Lincoln has all the manuals in .PDFs on their web site.

Good luck

Karl

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
--
John L. Weatherly
MacGyver Industrial Technologies
Nashville, Tennessee

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

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
Ive got an opportunity to pick up rather cheaply..a Lincoln
combination machine, stick, tig, ac/dc

It looks similar to this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

But is only 250 amps. It does not have the water solenoid, or the AC
outlet on the front, but its been fully tested while I was present.
Tested by a welder repair tech. He indicated that I dont really want
the water solenoid, as the coolant should be running whenever the
machine is turned on, 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.

I have a near new Weldcraft 250 torch and hoses and an outboard
water cooler (a bit over kill..about the size of an dorm
refridgerator) and of course stinger and ground clamp and welding
cables.

Is this a good machine?

Yes it is.


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

Absolutely. There were several years where I kept the kids fed (quite well)
with this machines big brother. I thing you will be tickled to death to
bring one of these home for the price you mentioned. I would be, it's a
steal, imo.

JTMcC.



I already have a Miller Dialarc 250 AC/DC welder for the gnarly stick
stuff, but was wanting this for mostly TIG welding

Ive very little experience with TIG and the price of this machine is
right...$200.

Any comments, suggestions, hints, warnings etc?

Ive got a Lincoln AC-225 and a Century AC/DC that Im selling locally
to generate the money for this, but dont want to sell them if this is
not a good machine for me to learn and grow on. I dont think they are
worth enough together to buy newer or better machine. Shrug. Least not
in this area of California.

I picked up a big assed Hobart Cybertig 2 some time back, that is
three phase and I cant run it at home, but its at my buddies machine
shop and he can use it. Ive been scrounging up accessories (tig torch,
cables etc) for it, but I can use them on the Lincoln.

Thanks in advance.

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

Gunner you will need 100 % AR not the 75% 25% for your MIG. You will burn
the torch tip with the mixed gas. Sounds like a great deal I love mine.

"Waynemak" wrote in message
...
Gunner you will need 100 % AR not the 75% 25% for your MIG. You will burn
the torch tip with the mixed gas. Sounds like a great deal I love mine.

75%-25% AR/CO2 is for MIG
100% Argon for TIG or Helium mixes for thicker Aluminum

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.

I've left both cables hooked up for years. I do hang it so the stinger
doesn't lay on the ground and accidently arc to something. Same with the
TIG torch when I'm not using it. I dunno, maybe switching to TIG unpowers
the stick and vice versa, I've never checked. I've only had it for ten
years.

Of course, you use the same ground cable anyway.

Karl

Gunner wrote:

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

I've thought about digging back there by the fan to see if one is installed,
but I've been quite busy. Plus, electricity is included in my shop rent,
so it ain't on the top of the list...


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?

That's how I leave mine set up. All leads on separate hooks & I've never
had a problem.

That's a good deal on the TIG torch. I think I paid about $100 for the same
model. Make sure you hook up the water flowing the right way, or you'll
fry your torch. Here's a diagram, thanks to Ernie L.

http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/...ater_TIG_1.jpg

Have fun with your new machine.

--
John L. Weatherly
MacGyver Industrial Technologies
Nashville, Tennessee

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 17:29:58 -0500, "Waynemak"
wrote:

Gunner you will need 100 % AR not the 75% 25% for your MIG. You will burn
the torch tip with the mixed gas. Sounds like a great deal I love mine.


ARRRRG! Ok..looks like Id best scrounge up a bottle most riky tic.

Thanks !

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