Hello everyone. I've spent many,many months now, trying to find one of those elusive "$50 - $100" 220v buzz boxes around my local area (south florida). I routinely search Ebay,Craigs List, Bargain Trader, l ocal newpaper and any other sources I might come across.
To date, I've been unsuccessfull. I seem to always be outbid on Ebay (sometimes the winning bids have been more than the welder would cost new, Donrt know what is up with that)
Anyways, here is one that no one seems to want:
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Was wondering if anyone could tell me what model it is?
Thanks! Art
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There doesn't seem to be a "Lincoln 225" listed on the obsolete list on the Lincoln site. There are DOZENS of VERY different models which contain the nuumbers 225 in the model number, but no "Lincoln 225" listed.
Are you sure that is the model? It wouldn't exactly be the first time something is incorrectly labeled on Ebay!
Google says about 8,650 hits for Lincoln 225 welder in 0.17 seconds. Literature says (for the new ones) that it is the most popular welder in the world, but there certainly does seem to be many variations and exact model designations.
This is a fine example of a $50-100 welder. Yes, it's old, but that might be good because back in the day they wound the transformers with copper and all of the modern buzzboxes are wound with aluminum. The multiple lead plugs are just taps off the transformer. This is the old school way of switching amperage, and it's a real good way because there isn't anything to wear out or go bad. Sometimes one of those plugs gets beat up to where you can't use it but you can always swap the plugs (easy rewiring) putting the beat one in a place where you hardly use it.
It looks retro, the welding leads detach for proper storage, price is nearly right, if welders are as hard to find down there you can hardly lose -- you can surely sell it when you find a better one.
I've owned a welder very similar to that. When I bought it (surplus) it didnt have any connector plugs to fit the multiple, tapered sockets for the welding leads I made the sockets but was never really happy with them. I dont see any leads or plugs in the picture. You might be amazed at the weight of this welder.
If you are anticipating welding with rod bigger than 1/8th and will be welding metal thicker than 3/8th inch, like farm equipment, this might be an interesting welder. If it was mine, I'd give it to you.
This little puppy predates the classic Lincoln "tombstone" welder. I'd guess the vintage at 40's or early 50's. These have lots of copper, there is not too much to go wrong with them other that pure overloading. It will likely need a new/rebuild on the cooling fan as well as the new power cord. And it will be HEAVY!
A bigger deal is the lack of any accessories like stinger, stinger cable, ground clamp, ground cable, the two cable ends to plug it into the machine, and a helmet. I bought a similar capacity Airco unit for $5, put $15 into repairs, the cables, clamps, and plugs ran to $60. So my $5 purchase cost about $80 to get it running right. that said, it does have a nice smooth arc from all that copper and iron.
Your benchmark is $235 for an equivilent brand new L> Hello everyone.
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Art, this looks pretty much identical to a welder I bought a couple of years ago. Mine is a Marquette rather than a Lincoln, but of course it is possible that one or the other was making the model for both. As others have said, it is basically just a big transformer (actually, two transformers) tapped to produce different amps. Mine does not have a cooling fan (not missing--it was never part of the design), but as best as I can tell it is rated at 50% duty cycle at 200 amps. I have never even come close to getting the thing significantly warm. Though it is AC only, it is the smoothest AC I have ever tried (though my experience is admittedly rather limited); mine welds really beautifully, and is so smooth that I keep finding no reason to upgrade to a DC-capable machine. My machine is quite, quite heavy, but it came mounted on wheels (well, three wheels -- I had to replace one that was missing), so it rolls around the shop easily.
As another post mentioned, if the auction does not include the leads, you would be facing some trouble and expense to make them. I had to make leads for mine -- first I had to dig the dirt dauber nests out of every single tap, and clean them up. I made the connectors out of brass plumbing fittings that I turned down using a mandrel and a file on my woodworking lathe (no metal lathe ... yet!). I also turned some oak handles that I epoxied the brass into. The fittings did not cost very much; I did have to spend about $20 for the stinger and work clamp, and I don't recall how much I spent on the wire (leads). Unlike someone else's experience, I have been completely satisfied with the results I achieved, though I did work at it a good bit to come up with the right shape and size. (I started out with wood mockups, looking for the rub points to see where I needed to fine tune the shape.)
But here's the kicker: I bought my welder for $25, and could have bought two for $40 at the time. So, $100 seems rather high as an ending bid, much less a starting bid!
It does take time, but eventually I've found a couple of auctions where fab shops were moving or going out of business -- lots of different welders of many different vintages to bid on. There were a couple of massive old Miller welders, AC only, 500 amp max output (!), that went for $5 to $15. Of course, just moving those things would take a forklift ... and they called for 90 amp 220v service.
Good luck -- I hope you find what you are looking for!
I also found your old post which had good info in it as well. Unfortunately, there is not much other info out there on these old machines. I tried to look up the patent, but that ebayer selling the patent, didn't provide the actual patent number (he claims he OCR'd the document. Funny how just the patent number was garbled).
I guess I'll wait till the welder auction is over and then contact the seller.
Thanks to everyone who replied with excellent information and comments.
Yep, that looks like the one I've got. I looked again at the face plate, but though it says it is patented, it doesn't list the patent number, so I don't know if this is exactly the same. Mine is a model "350BB." 1938, huh? I knew mine was old, but I don't know if it's that old ... but yeah, it could be.
Again, good luck. I hope you find something you like as much as I like my old monster Marquette! If you happen to be travelling up to NC in the next week or two, there are a couple of auctions that include welders coming up :)
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