Machine Builders Network+ Forums Machine Builders Network General Discussion What do you weld with?

I use a 225 amp AC Miller Thunderbolt that I bought for $40 bucks years ago. I recently converted it to AC/DC by adding a rectifier and additional new plugs and recepts for the DC. Used a block of aluminum for a heat sink, mounted it all inside to benefit from the fan cooling and it seems to work ok on what little I have used it since the conversion. I can't really tell much difference when I use reverse polarity vs. straight, but definately like it better than AC. I'm just using 6013 and 7014 these days so if itt'l burn those two, i'm good. I think I took some pictures of it during the conversion, but cant find them right now.

Stan, if you want it to be even smoother arc than get a 300VDC capacitor or two with 20,000MFD or better rated and put it across the output for DC use only..hell I might even have a few of em going around in the shop..eBay is a good place to find capacitors like that cheap..new they are hundreds of $$ new.

I started welding back in 1983 with a Miller Gold Star stick welder, 400lb big blue box on wheels, then went to MIG in 1989, Ive had two Miller XMT Inverter welder machines since then, an XMT is a lightweight 70lb 350amp inverter welding power source, you can do stick or MIG at the flip of a switch..uses a separate MIG wire feeder and gun...the first one lasted 30yrs(bought it brand new)..the second was a used XMT welder,had lots of hours on it,they have a definite lifespan due to electrical stresses..second one blew up in grand style,fireworks show for sure,unrecoverable except with a $1750 IGBT transistor kit and new driver control board..not for me..Miller had lots of problems with the later XMT machines,they have gotten much more reliable now but at a tune of $5000 new..so to replace mine I bought a used Miller CP300,works great, its a big transformer based industrial 250amp 100% duty cycle CV MIG machine, i reused my S22A MIG wire feeder and gun off the XMT..I also have a Synchrowave 250 AC/DC TIG machine as well for doing TIG work with aluminum,magnesium and ferrous steels and stainless. Water cooled Weldcraft 400amp TIG torch, Bernard water cooler for the torch,bought it used at a power company shop auction, best investment Ive ever made,worth every dollar..Many will argue but one rule I have is to UNPLUG the welders when not in use, it cuts electrical stresses on the parts if unplugged,even with a power switch on em.

Ive got a Lincoln TIG250 somewhere on a dolly back in the storage container barn, its an old 1970s TIG machine hasnt seen light of day for 15yrs..prolly will fire right up, little electronics in it to go bad..old school for sure. A lot of these older welders you can't get parts for anymore, be careful when buying one..unbeliveably a lot of the older Miller Synchrowave TIG machines now you cant get parts for.

I still have an old 150lb Marquette 300amp stick welder, AC only, crank on top-adjustable output..with no regard to duty cycle LOL I burnt the power switch up on it long ago so I replaced the switch with a 60amp industrial circuit breaker..still works good. Built a lot of shit with that welder..Kinda been replaced by the Hitbox stick welder but still works..I might give it away to a kid whos interested in welding if I ever meet one without a damn smartphone in his hand as thats all they want to spend time with nowadays..like Jackie Gleason-Buford T Justice said in 'Smokey and the Bandit'--"What the-hell-is-the-world-comin to?"

One of the latest welders I just bought is a Chinese made MMA200 'Hitbox' 200amp stick welder, its the size of a shoebox, DC stick only, adjustable amps output with digital display, works on 110 or 220V, altho on 110V its worthless, it has to have 220v to really do much..and then it works great, good for quickie jobs, I run it off a genset with a 240v L1430A twistlock, just throw it around, easy to carry up ladders or on scaffolding,and if ya trash it or have an accident it was only $150.. altho I did upgrade the stinger and ground leads to longer ones..I'm not much on Chinesium welders but this one impressed me enough to get a used Pelican suitcase for it to keep it together and ready to go

Happy New Year all, be safe..Im stayin home with a good cigar or two and some Buffalo Trace bourbon..

I guess we all know who has the welders!! LOL! We started out with a Hobart 200 amp dc/rev.switch welder. It was 220/440 v 3ph ( which nobodyhas) and had a 15hp ac motor wound inside it to run it, and was runnin on 440 when I bought it. It also had a broken end stickin out of one end to hook to engine drive. (somebody forgot to unhook the drive, hit the go button, and ya took the shaft off in a flash! --- anyway I managed to write to Hobart and x'plain what I needed and they sent me a phone # to call and see if they had what I needed. ( this was in 1962 BEFORE internet!!! ) anyway I called the parts dept and they had a new stub shaft in stock, $25.00 mailed to my door back then! Dad an I put the shaft in and tried to flat belt drive it of the wc allis tractor and that got interesting cause the old wc had more than it could chew! BUT it did work. keeping the belt on was always a problem but we knew the welder would weld without being plugged in to line power.
Dad had a 1939 chevy 1.5 ton truck at the time that he didnt use anymore so decided to cut the cab off,-- cut the frame a ways behind the transmission, ad a hitch to the front and mount the welder behind the transmission and direct drive it.
Lacking lifting power back then and since I was in ag and industrial arts class in high school, I talked the teacher into using the shop to put the welder in the truck frame and it right then became a demo to the shop class as a project. Course dad and the teacher became friends right off the go and my classmated took to dad too, anyway we rigged a chain hoist hung from the building trusses, ( building was made from 18" I beams so no chance of breaking one),
We lifted the welder off dads 48 gmc grain truck and pushed the frame under it and lined it all up then made the drop frame for the welder to sit in. The teacher welded the frame up and while he was doing that the rest of us were mounting a governor off an oliver 70 tractor to the chevy motor.
After we got it all together and tested it, dad wanted all the guys to do some test beads with it to see what the had been missing out on by using the ac 225 welders the school had.
All of them were shocked at the ease and smooth job the old Hobart did! One of the guys was really struggling with the school welders but he took right off runnin perfect welds with the dc!
I got an A+ for the year in the class, dad got a welder running and all was well!
We used the Hobart for many years on many jobs. Dad did a lot of outside welding with it too. The local grain elevator always had something broke so he was up there a lot.

Later I ran into a new Lincoln 225 ac jobber at tsc on sale. --- $84. tax included out the door so I had just enough money to cover it. Took it home and later as I earned the money got cords to hook it up in our shed at the home place. It was/is a great little welder and yes I still have/use it here! ( the fan squeels like a caught hog but still welds)

Along the way I came across a Century wire welder 200 amp 220 1 phase and it had a feed wheel and a couple tip parts gone. local welding dealer said "obsolete" and dropped it. I got looking on the internet and ran into Summit Racing site and found all kinds of stuff for it so thats how I got it running. It had solid wire in it but not having the gas stuff, I use flux core in it. Kinda nasty looking welds but strong so I been getting used to it lately.

At one of the auctiond last summer I ran into another Lincoln 225 ac with helmet and homemade handle and wheels on it. Got it for $40. and it looks new! It is a much newer one than my old one and welds smoother almost like dc! I wonder if in later production they added more stuff to make it more like dc?
Anyway thats my welder history and I'm stickin to it!!! LOL
HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a job in HS working maintenance in a food processing plant and got to play with stick and scratch tig a little, hooked to big blue. They had gas torches too but I was too intimidated to try those.

Fast forward a few years and I needed to fix my wife's driver seat, so grabbed a lincoln AC225. Did a fair amount with that, a trailer from a ford ranger (since sold), my garden tractor loader (on its 2nd tractor) and a whole mess of repairs and odds and ends. I got a hold of one of the everlast DC stick units and haven't looked back. Small, does everything I need (mostly 3/32 and 1/8 7014). I have a HF flux wirefeed but haven't really payed with it yet. Swapped the Lincoln to a friend in exchange for some work.

I have a small selection. I have a Chicago electric set up with flux core wire, the Hobart has a spool gun for Aluminum. the yes welder is ac or DC tig or stick. there's a Chicago Electric tig, that's mostly for sheet metal. then there's the two plasmas cutters. 1 is a lotus 120 vac input for light stuff and the other is a 220 VAC Chicago electric good for up to 1/2 " with a clean cut. That's just here at the house.

AND THE WINNER IS------------! Great assortment Jim!

I have two more welders and a plasma cutter at the warehouse. Smaller ones I can drag around and run off the generator.

dont know if my 8,000 watt gerator would run a Lincoln 225 or not , could be interesting test. BUT I have the little 180? weld-n-power that I forgot about!

sure it would Sonny if the engine is in good shape..most stick welder applications only need about 30A/240V on the primary..unless you're doin a heavy pass at 200amps and a 3/8"rod..8kw is about 36amps on a 220V circuit..arc voltage might droop a bit but then come back

14 hp B & S twin on it ---near new unit. also have the 6,500 with a single 16 on it.

When I was a kid about 12 or 13 my dad bought a 75 Amp Craftsman with various taps up to 75A. He could weld ok with it on 110V but I would stick the rod every time. He had it for years and then when he bought a bigger farm, he stored the little welder in a corn crib. He gave it to me after I was married and didn't have squat to spend on a welder. I cleaned out the mouse nests and rewired it for 220v and added a cooling fan and I loved that welder. It was heavily wired in copper so it handled the load just fine. My son even learned on it. My brother wanted a welder and I took it over and wired it up in his garage. He only had it for about a month and gave it away to someone.

Dad gave me another welder along with his torches and tanks when he got too old to do anything. I converted that Monkey Ward 225A stick welder to AC/DC using some used, huge 150A diodes we changed out on a resistance welder at work. There were quite a few to change out and I saved a bucket full. I wired up a bridge netwok on the outside of the welder on insullating board and made a mech cover over it. I sold it when I moved to Florida in 2012. It welded great and the guy who bought it sold me the Miller Thunderbolt for $40 and gave me a dozen 64 1/2 inch band saw blades for free. I still have a few of those big old diodes around her somewhere. I tried one of the Harbor Freight 100A flux core welders but It was only good for thin stuff so I sold it last summer.

I still weld a little bit but not as pretty as I'd like.

I can still write my name in the snow though, but have trouble crossing the Tees and dotting the eyes....LOL

The little 110 volt welders suck.. ok for exhaust pipe & body panels and that's about it. I have the 220 v models, and they handle pretty much everything I need one for.

MY work collection.

I love this little guy.. TIG / stick. weighs about 15 pounds. great for all the little sinks, tables, etc. & can run it off the little generator I just put together.

I have all my 220 stuff set up with L6-30 plugs. in order to plug into the generators, I needed an adapter. Expensive to make at the cost of the plugs but I found this on Amazon.


L14-30 to L6-30 adapter. $19.70 on Amazon Would be about $25 to make one.

That looks like what my generators use! Right now I cant plug anything into the 220 on either generator.

It is what the generators use. L14-30.. I cut the plugs off every thing & put the L6-30 twist lock plugs on because when I'm working outside, I tend to pull it out of the receptacle & got tired of that crap.

Ya I think thats all that will plug into my generators 220 outlets and I need to see about finding at least 1 plug.

I made ALL my adapters Except the one I just got on Amazon. IT takes up less space when out in the field.

Sonny,
you need 1 of these. not too hard to put together.

I only use this one until the warrantee expires. then I cut the plug off and put the L6-30 on. I currently have 2 welders still under warrantee so I need to use this until they're out.

Ya,--that 4 prong thingy,--looks like twist-loc on my generators. I can out anything on the other end to fit my needs. The front plug is what I need numbers for, ---L1430P? gotta look that up! Thanks!

yep should be able to get one at any decent hardware store.. I got this one at home depot. I know lows has them too