recomended arc welder or possible home built one?

Peter Morrison of Peatol was attempting to flog a s/h Oxford arc welder at Donnington - might be worth checking to see if he still has it.

Regards, Tony

I've got a little Oxford spare/for sale. 120 Amp as far as I remember, email me if interested. North Ches/Warrington.

Cheers Tim

I have an oil cooled Oxford 110B that is idle. Max output 110 amps plus a brazing attachment (though I never had much success with it)

Fairly heavy though easily moved in the workshop on its trolley, or easily carried in a car boot, but lacks the potability of air cooled models.

Please Email if interested.

snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com (Leicester)

I do appreciate the offers its only that i'm actually overseas in the usa so shipping would be way to much. i just posted here because there really isn't an us version of the newsgroup and i've been following this one for a while now. So i guess i'm looking more for unit suggestions for a basic one or possibly plans to make my own. The making my own thing was only a thought to keep the price down, now that i'm looking at them i'm not sure that it would. again any input is welcome

In article , Ryan Kremser writes

Ryan, you're more than welcome here, of course. But there is a more US-centric newsgroup (rec.crafts.metalworking).

It has a terrible habit of wandering off into pointless flamewars about politics and guns, but there are some good people over there.

ahh, didn't know about the other one, i suppose i should have looked first. Thanks though, I"ll see if they have any additional input. I'm not to sure how long i'll be reading there though, if they indeed do have the habit of the meaningless posts.

Any opnions on this welder?

again i'm a beginner and looking for something to start out with

Not impressed at all.

70 amps isn't a lot for max power and from the picture there are just two setting for power and rod sizes. You really need the type with the adjustable knob on the front so you can vary the current to suit the job. Often one turn makes all the difference. The low end type welders such as this tend to come from the same stable so you don't have as much choice as you think. I'd go for the 110 to 140 amp range if you can afford it. I know you are in the US so shopping around for price/ carriage details may pay better. Welders are heavy. Do you have an machine supply store near you where collection can make the difference.

On thing the makers don't publicise on welders is the duty cycle. This is always expressed as a percentage but they never say what. In fact it's based on a ten minutes duty cycle so a cheap 140 amp welder will be rated for 140 amp at 10% , i.e. weld one minute, wait nine at max power. As power goes down duty cycle goes up so eventually you will get something like 40 amps at 100% You need to find one that will fit into what you want to do, remember you are not welding continuous most of the time, it's setting up, tacking and a small run, then setup again. It's always a price / performance graph. Many of the cheaper welders are straight air cooled, no fan. Fitting a fan will increase the duty cycle quite a bit, possible two steps up but power will always be the same.

Hope this helps.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Specificly for welding and housing some of the better folks from rec.crafts.metalworking is sci.engr.joining.welding This group is more international but majority American.

Cheers,

Kelley

Hi Ryan, Have a look in (sci.engr.joining.welding) and ask Ernie. Regards, Rotty