Won a civilian welder this week from a VA VDOT auction. Lincoln 250 AC/DC

[storeman]

Jerry, check out "shop floor talk" and I'm sure you already found "weldingweb". They are very handy to have around, but now you will never throw out any of your scrap steel. Next you will be buying grinders by the case, watching out for lathes, and inspecting every weld you see.

I'm already seeing items as welds and I haven't even struck an arc. weldingweb yes. Shopfloortalk I will search for. Thanks.

 

[bphillips]

What a sweetheart of an old IdealArc! After seeing your photos of the inside, I have to agree with your assessment that it wasn't used much. As others have said, that machine is built much heavier than the new machines. The down side is that they use lots of juice and require heavy wire and an expensive breaker. Otherwise, it's a sweetheart. I'm sure it will run as smooth as glass! Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[storeman]

Wired it in today on a 40 amp breaker and my wife will pick up a 50 amp tomorrow. Sounded fine on idle and I'll fire it up tomorrow on the 40 amp. First time I've ever struck an arc so I don't expect much but the videos will help, I hope.
Jerry

 

[gimpyrobb]

Jerry, you'd be surprised how much current that will put out on 40 amps of 220. I have a Linde welder that puts out 200amps(DC) at 100% duty cycle. These old welders are stout!

 

[storeman]

It has the power factor capacitor option installed. One fellow on welding web said with the PFC option, all he has ever used is a 40 amp. I know I'll never need its heavy capacity but want it on the right breaker for peace of mind. The welding shop next to my store has the same unit and has had it for 20+ years trouble free.
Jerry

 

[Ray70]

Looks Awesome all cleaned up! I'm sure you have already done lots of research on SMAW welding. Once you've gotten in some practice time you'll quickly get the hang of it. You'll learn lots of tricks as you go. Also do a little research (Bet you already did ) on the rod designation for different applications. Make sure you get the right rod for the polarity and thickness of metal you want to practice with. 6011 is probably a good general purpose rod to start with, unless you're using thin metal, then start with 6013. PS, how's the snow situation where you are? Is coming downpretty good up here in NE right now. Heard VA got dumped on yesterday.

 

[storeman]

Ray,
What we got in snow melted via rain overnight. I'm on the Chesapeake Bay. West of here and north to DC they have 12-14" and it is still falling. I've bought some 6011, 6013 and 7018. Weather hasn't allowed me to do any practice. My welding space is outdoors with only a shed roof. Maybe next week.
Jerry

 

[1800 Diesel]

Ray,
What we got in snow melted via rain overnight. I'm on the Chesapeake Bay. West of here and north to DC they have 12-14" and it is still falling. I've bought some 6011, 6013 and 7018. Weather hasn't allowed me to do any practice. My welding space is outdoors with only a shed roof. Maybe next week.
Jerry

Start with the 6011s first--that one used to be the shipyard standard before flux core & mig machines but easy to control the arc & good penetration and also forgiving on fairly dirty material...

Kevin

 

[Jimc]

haha yeah jerry its not somethin you really want to do standing in a big puddle of wet slush and rain. we got about 8". now the rain has that down to about 3.

 

[storeman]

I'm soooo ready for warm weather.......got to replace the #8 to my panel with the #6 that is resting on my bench in basement. (#8 is now a dedicated 50 amp to the welder but could be quickly switched back in an emergency.) Got to learn how to weld, plant a big garden, remember my name, etc, etc.
Jerry

 

[Jim Timber]

You'd do better to remove that power factor correction module and bump your breaker up 10% over the peak current - look up de-rating for welders in the NEC. Those caps leak current across their poles and you might be upset when you see your electric bill.

Those kits are meant for industrial facilities where you have multiple machines on a given leg. They temper the spike loading, but in doing so they end up drawing more current over time. So if you had 6 machines on a circuit, and all of the weldor's struck an arc at the same time it would overload the breaker. By putting the capacitor in the line, the cap releases that energy when a spike is produced (when you strike the arc) and then recharges itself right away.

They also bleed current across their poles, and you electric meter will read that as consumption.

 

[storeman]

You'd do better to remove that power factor correction module and bump your breaker up 10% over the peak current - look up de-rating for welders in the NEC. Those caps leak current across their poles and you might be upset when you see your electric bill.

Thanks Jim,
That is what I understood and planned to do just that. My understanding was it drew 20 amps 230 at idle. Asked the question on welding web and got strange answers like the power company doesn't see it. When weather allows I'll stand outside at the digital meter (now that I have a feel for how the meter operates) and do a compare with idle on and machine off. I also had a hard time figuring out why it would be an advantage. I'll never use full capacity anyway.
Jerry

 

[Jim Timber]

Some meters behave differently than others. Our new(er) digital meter thinks my variable frequency drive driven machinery generates more than it uses from the reverse current generated through the deceleration cycle. I actually save money running my machines more than when I don't. But then when I'm TIG welding the bill goes up again because of the arc starts through the big transformer.

I haven't had any conclusive evidence to differentiate what happens when I'm using my inverter based MIG.

When I had a rotary phase converter, the balance caps on that thing caused my old mechanical meter to just about fly into orbit. Our bill was substantially higher when I was machining than when I wasn't using the shop. The cost savings from the electric bill (prior to finding out they pay me now) switching to the VFD's was a no-brainer even with the added cost of the drives.

 

[storeman]

I think I understand. The fellows on WW said the meter would run backwards with this transformer machine at idle. I'll confirm when I can.
Thanks

 

[Jim Timber]

Everything I've ever read about power factor correction has said that unless you have a very high duty cycle (production welding with humans isn't even capable of achieving this), the effect is an increase in current consumption, not a savings. The correction can only be tuned for a certain sweet spot, and anything above or below that range is negatively impacted. So when the machine is idle, it's correcting the same as it is when there's an arc.

Try running it through a kill-a-watt and see what happens. I've also seen people get used power meters to do the same monitoring of heavy loads. Ebay often has them for <$50.

 

[Jim Timber]

True "unity" should show up as invisible to the meter, but it's impossible to strike an arc with zero potential difference on both sides of the gap.