Welders? Any welders on this site?

It was where I ran my tree business out of and was decent for that. Although a boom truck was never fitting in those bays unfortunately. I feel very fortunate to have it that's for certain. For a strictly personal shop now it suits my needs just fine. Bonus is the setting is very private too and I've got some great views out the shop doors all summer too. It's gotta be pushing 50 years old and not a crack in the floor. It was built well.
 
Curious if anyone here knows anything about this welder? Brand or whatnot? Seller wants $100firm but is a good distance from me(about 4hrs one way)I may take my car and try and go get it next weekend if it's legit and still available. It's been up for sale for a few weeks.

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Edit. I guess it's a rebranded century welder if that means anything to anyone.
 
It's an old century one, an off brand but we're as virtually good buzzboxes back in the day (when that was made). It will be all copper and suit your needs just fine. Price is about right too, so yes especially if it comes with the leads. It should pretty much last forever. You must be pretty rural to have nothing closer, but that is what it is i guess.
 
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  • #280
At a $100 you should be good to go. You could make most of your money back in just recycling it if need be.
 
It's an old century one, an off brand but we're as virtually good buzzboxes back in the day (when that was made). It will be all copper and suit your needs just fine. Price is about right too, so yes especially if it comes with the leads. It should pretty much last forever. You must be pretty rural to have nothing closer, but that is what it is i guess.

I have nothing closer that strikes me as a deal. The cheapest ac/dc machine local to me(under an HR) is another thunderbolt for $500 ask. And then there's a AC only buzz box for $250. Not a whole lot. I'm fairly certain that other thunderbolt I was watching for $400 didn't sell. I think the guy just pulled all his ads, he had a number of things for sale. Probably got tired of being pestered by tirekickers. So that kind of burns me. There is no cached, or way of looking up his pulled ads now that I know of.

Thanks everyone for the input. I'll see how things go, might just watch for awhile more or maybe even put out a wanted ad, see if that turns anything up.
 
Now don't be teasing me Jim. If I had the time someday that's a trip I'd love to make. But it'd look odd strapped on my bike. :D

I had a click on your link Gary. It looks like it'd take a bit of figuring out in order to work it effectively? But I am still waiting on my first cup of coffee this morning so maybe the brain is just not firing on all cylinders yet?
 
It has been a long time since I used the service...I'd have to squirm back down that rabbit hole again...let me know what you find down there :D
 
While I do truly appreciate the offer. The logistics seem to be a limiting factor?

Quick question here. Are the newer Lincoln tombstones the same transformer tech as the old ones? I may have a lead on a ac/dc tombstone. Used twice, basically brand new. $375cdn ask plus some extras, gloves, hammer, rods, a book. The ac/dc tombstone retails at $800cdn up here. Seems it might be worthwhile. Any thoughts on whether a tombstone or a thunderbolt would be considered a superior machine?
 
They are the same technology, as far as i know the exact same machine. Either will perform similarly, i think the thunderbolt is slightly more adjustable. However this is less important than you think, rod angle and manipulation is more important. When welding pipeline, you have a remote in the ditch with you, which your helper adjusts on the fly to help react to conditions as you go. While this would seem necessary, it's not, it's for speed. On building trade jobs, you string out a few hundred feet of lead, ground the machine to the closest steel i beam, and set your heat on about what you think you need. Then you go and weld with it set at that heat all day, with different rods, thicknesses, and positions. You use rod angle, arc length, and other tricks to achieve the same thing. If you need more heat, you angle the rod slightly towards the direction of travel, if you need less you angle it back towards the puddle. A tight arc will increase the amperage, but will lower the voltage, leading to less heat spread out. This will allow more control, because metal flows to where the heat is. Really, that simple fact is welding in a nutshell.

Miller and Lincoln are the two main welding manufacturers anymore. Esab is up and coming, arcon is the old powcon, airco have disappeared (Miller bought then?), and Hobart is now Miller (They used to be a very viable alternative). Miller is usually seen in shop settings and cheap engine drives. They are lacking in arc quality and stability compared to comparable Lincolns, although they are closing the gap. Miller is known to push the envelope of technology, sometimes before they have perfected what they are trying to do. Lincoln seems to get it perfect before they release it, which means Miller will introduce something and then Lincoln will improve it. If my prejudices haven't made it clear, pipe welders are very particular :lol: Most welders i know will take a Lincoln anything over a Miller, but will do xray work with whatever you give them. In the end they are both reliable machines, kinda a ford Chevy thing (until you start talking downhill machines). In pipeline (downhill) until quite recently if you showed up with a Miller the inspector wouldn't even let you test. Even now there are only 1 or 2 Miller machines they will allow on most ROWs.

Basically either machine will serve you well bud. If i had a choice, i would go with the Lincoln.
 
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I found myself squarely between the Union Thugs on the floor and the Corporate slave owners on the 33rd floor.

Muffler cracked out on my 85D Cat Challenger. Called Cat.

Muffler used to be 600 bucks. The new part number is 2500!

It was so damn thin I tried to braze it.

No way. I believe it was aluminized. Would not whet at all.


Welded it with my wire feed. Basically one puddle at a time.


Looks like shit, but what did you expect!

Maybe keep it going until...well...who knows.


Just ordered a set of tracks for the C model.

20 thousand smackers. Felt like trying to save the muffler after that....
 
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  • #294
Works for me, franken cobble at it's finest! Thin rusty is never fun or pretty.
WTF $2500!! Bend over.

Don't forget to check the sprocket.
 
Nice! I gave up on my exhaust patching. Think I've had one more go at it since I posted about it here.

Had a ton of stuff on my plate here recently but have still been watching locally for welders. The few I was watching all sold. The Lincoln tombstone I was asking about sold in a day. Even the other thunderbolt local that was $500 sold. Spring rush I guess?
 
2500.00 would piss me off to no end and I would find a away as well.
A certain CAT comes to mind. Double the cost for a .CA version that is no different than any other version. Just can't ship here. Grrrr.
 
Hell for that kind of money i would build my own before i would ever pay that!!! Ugly but it should work just fine, exhaust pipe is crappy to weld on. Brazing won't wet on rust, you have to get down to clean metal. A wire wheel on a grinder works wonders, as does a sandblaster if you have one. Completely good fix there tho Jim, tough job on that.

Keep hunting Justin, you'll find one.
 
Kyle, I had that thing shiny with a wire wheel.


I could get the braze to whet on a weld bead around the flange but not on the base metal.

What ever they coated that metal with was quite tough.


In fact, when I was welding on it with the wire feed, I would have to drag the puddle from that original bead to the base metal. The wire would stub otherwise.


I did not hit it with a grinder, only a wire wheel. Was worried about how thin it was....and removing more.


It is essentially a 12 inch straight pipe now. The guts are mostly gone.

We will not be giving them 2500 bucks for another.




Hope you realize it was a little gentle ribbing anyway.....
 
Lol yup, i like some ribbing :D I need to show you my braze job on my exhaust manifold for my welder, you will get a good laugh. It looks absolutely horrible, galvanized pipe to 50 year old cast. It didn't want to wet out either, so i ended up all but pouring braze all over it :lol: Damn thing pissed me off so much i ended up not even grinding the globs that rolled over the edge off. It's like the exhaust gases embedded in the cast, and it didn't want to play nice at all.

Repairing stuff that's been in service is sometimes a complete bitch, and sometimes ugly gorilla welds are a best case scenario. Here's a ss exhaust pipe i had to repair in an acid wash tank. It heats the acid wash by using a 6" burner exhausted through this pipe which loops back and forth, then went up through the roof. Of course this is a horrible design for efficiency, and the guys turn the heat up so much it cooks the alloy out of it and the acid just goes to town. Ss stick is bad enough, but welding the existing pipe is horrible. You get it to stop leaking by slathering it on there so they can run for another 6 months, then go do it again. We've replaced the pipes multiple times too, no matter what we do the ss just gets ate up and they don't want to change the design or material. And yes, that's 316 ss pipe, that's how messed up it gets grrrrr

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Geeze! Looks like a bloody sacrificial anode.


Surprised you guys can work in there like that.




Last time I was in an old crude oil tank doing some cutting, it tasted like rotten orange juice in my mouth for a couple days.


An acid tank must be irritating.
 
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