Hey, all. A buddy of mine has an old Lincoln short hood welder that was given to him and I'm trying to help him with a few items and I'm hoping you folks might be able to answer some questions about it for me, please.
What I'm trying to find out is 1) any general information about it (what kind of metal is used in the windings, good things, bad things, etc.), 2) what year was it made, 3) is there a way to get it to supply
110 volts for running DC grinders and such, and 4) what kind of regular maintenance is required on the unit (it mentions something about packing grease in a ball bearing on one of the tags but my buddy's not been able to find any ball bearings on it (even after removing a couple of covers on the snout of the generator/coil)).First, it has a metal tag on the wire-lug end that has the following information on it:
Rebuilt by Big Three Welding Equipment Company, Houston, TX. Code# 1422 Serial# A226423 Rebuilt# 1367
Close to the Positive Voltage Control knob there is written "Type SA
200" and below that, "1400 RPM". Close to the Current Control knob there is written, "200 Amp 40 volts NEMA".Second, there are 9 wires coming from the windings/generator housing; 3 are large-gauge, 3 are medium-gauge, and 3 are small-gauge. Of the three small-gauge (SG) wires, two run to an insulated plate that then runs to the Positive Voltage Control rheostat. The third SG wire doesn't run to anything. The face of the welder that has the controls has a hole in it that looks like the right size for a single outlet for
110 DC, but there is nothing in it. That hole along with the unconnected third SG wire make us believe that it probably did have a 110 DC outlet at one time. My buddy put a grinder across the welding terminals and it would run but it didn't draw enough amps to idle-up the engine so it ran slow, even under a load, FWIW.So, the short form of the questions are: what metal is used in the windings of the generator, what year was this thing made, what ball bearings are to be greased periodically (and, in general, what maintenance is to be done periodically on this unit), is there some way to power DC grinders and other tools from this unit, and what, if unrelated to the 110 DC question, is that third SG wire that's unconnected?
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
--HC