use for old but functional 150A AC welder?

There's an old but solid multitap AC welder in a garage in my neighborhood. The guy would probably take $20 for it. I'm only guessing as to the amperage but looking at it, I'm guessing it's good for 150A or maybe more (it's probably 30" tall by 15" wide by 15" deep) with no information whatever as to duty cycle. I never ever weld with AC, but I wonder if maybe there might be some other use ..

ideas?

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin
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Those old AC welders hold the entire US ag infrastructure together.

They work just fine for connecting good sized chunks of steel.

Reply to
Jim Stewart

neighborhood. The

Inductive ballast.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

Most of the older buzzbox welders were in the 180 to 225 amp range with copper windings. Duty cycles are in the range that lets you run 5/32 rod pretty continueously with the usual stops to clamp a new rod in and chip the slag a bit to inspect. They will also run 3/16" rod but not at high duty cycle.

If it is just going to wind up in a dumpster when some one passes on, go collect it. Check it out, add some proper cables and proper clamps if required. Then sell (give) it to some young person who has no money but wants to learn to weld. I got an old AIRCO buzzbox for $5, added the cables, it almost left to a deserving student last year but not quite.

The other choice is to just have a spare for "> There's an old but solid multitap AC welder in a garage in my

Reply to
RoyJ

I have yet to weld anything with more than 140 amps..

i
Reply to
Ignoramus8862

Bucky Balls

Dan

Grant Erw> There's an old but solid multitap AC welder in a garage in my neighborhood. The

Reply to
dcaster

Thawing frozen pipes.

Reply to
Shawn

This based on your experience of two months with a few novice easy "in-position" welds on 1/8" steel that were servicable in strength if turkeyshit in appearance -- right?

Reply to
Don Foreman

ROTFLMAO!

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Yes!! This machine and an hour of your time in tutoring could be a wonderful gift to the right recipient. I think the measure of a man is more what he can give than what he can score from others.

Reply to
Don Foreman

Thaws water pipes pretty well.

Or buy it, and then pass it on to someone who wants to start welding. Cheap beginners machines are in demand. Better to have a newbie get it, then let it collect dust.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

Chuckle..you will...you will.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

X-ring!

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

I don't think you can use a buzz box for thawing pipes. If so, let me know how. I think that a (pretty much) dead short de-tunes the transformer so much that the current is close to zero.

Pete Stanaitis

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Shawn wrote:

Reply to
spaco

My lincoln buzz box has a setting marked and a process for it.

Reply to
carl mciver

The transformer is designed to have a lot of leakage inductance. That is the secondary is not closely coupled to the primary. So it acts as a constant current source, not a constant voltage source. The transformer is not tuned. With a dead short, the current will be approximently what the current setting says.

To use it for thawing pipes, you set it at a low enough current so that the duty cycle is 100 %. And connect to each end of the frozen pipe. The current through the pipe melts the ice close to the pipe first. So if you have the water turned on, you start to get a trickle of water and when that happens you can shut off the welder. The flowing water will melt the rest of the ice.

If your welder does not have a setting where the duty cycle is 100%, just use the lowest setting it has and shut the welder down so as to keep within its duty cycle. ie if the duty cycle is 20%, turn the welder on for two minutes and then off for eight minutes. Repeat until water starts flowing.

Dan

spaco wrote:

Reply to
dcaster

My old 180 amp Emerson is marked for pipe thawing at 40 amps. At 25 volts or so, that is 1000 watts going into the pipe. Keep in mind that any high resistance joints will concetrate the heat. Soldered copper pipes should not be a problem but a corroded galvanized pipe might get a bit sparky. No one uses this method any more for that reason.

Keep the water pressure turned on and a valve open down stream so that once it thaws, the water flowing through the pipe will finish the job. Watch the whole thing carefully because it is likely that you have a split pipe, usually in the worst place to get at it.

I've heard the old timers talk about thaw> I don't think you can use a buzz box for thawing pipes. If so, let me

Reply to
RoyJ

"spaco" wrote: (clip) I think that a (pretty much) dead short de-tunes the transformer so much that the current is close to zero. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Then why does my welding rod turn red hot when I stick it?

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

"Don Foreman" wrote: (clip) I think the measure of a man is more what he can give than what he can score from others. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Amen! May I add that to my list of quotable quotes?

BTW, if you buy that welder cheap, AND pass it on, your pleasure will be double, 'cause you will have scored, AND helped.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

Cheap welders abound in my area. At any time there are at least a couple of inexpensive welders in the $0-100 range on my local craigslist. If I ever run into a newbie who wants to start welding, I can just point them thataway without storing a bulky machine for perhaps years. My shop space is limited and my pipes never freeze. It sounds like a cheap AC welder, even a cool old big one with multitap (the kind that should never wear out) isn't that useful.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

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