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Oil cooled welders in the US

Are oil cooled welders that common in the US. I read about tombstone welders frequently on here and just wondered as in the UK the oil cooled Oxford and Pickhill welders seems to be common 2nd hand. I started with a 180A buzz box, most likely of Italian origin, and then got a Pickhill oil cooled 180A @ 50V OCV and 135A @ 80V OCV, lovely not having the buzz. Made re-instating a roughly 2" x 2" section of missing anvil hardface with 1/8" hardfacing rods a breeze as after laying down rod for a couple of hours it was only warm to the touch. A brief google showed USCO? as doing them for high duty cycle applications.

Reply to
David Billington
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I've never heard of a single oil cooled welder in the US, or any that have cooling of the power supply other than convection or fan forced air cooling.

Reply to
Pete C.

Can confirm there's loads over here in UK - oil-cooled welders. Cost far more new now than an inverter - at least twice as much I'm told. But most are pre-electronics - many are 40+ years old - because they keep on going. Some DC - great big tank things on wheels by "Murex" from the 1960's(?). Lot of "Oxford"s - cubic tank on 4 little trundle-wheels. Beauty is no vents or anything for dust to get in. Very very smooth rod-burn - if rod which will run on AC, need a good inverter to beat. And no duty-cycle restriction as I've ever heard of.

In boatyard came across this tall small-square-section oil-cooled welder which one person could carry and two people could easy stroll along with it. Again - no duty-cycle. Keep putting in welds.

On construction sites often crane one into out-of-way position and run leads from it. Sits there and can only be moved by crane - which will only work when site generator is on...

Was a thread on here - people reminiscing using some device which must have been an inductance or something which they used to fine-tune the current locally to where they are working. Never seen such a thing, but must have been doing that - large oil-cooled welding machine, long leads and then this whatdyamacallit.

Richard S

Reply to
Richard Smith

I've got a 180A Pickhill and my first TIG set was that with an old MaxArc HF unit and then a MaxArc rectifier so could do AC and DC TIG but no current ramping. I still have both if I want to use them although they're on loan to a mate. I have a Hitachi 200A TIG unit now with lots of bells and whistles but still use the Pickhill for stick welding.

Reply to
David Billington

OLD...Oil cooled....I'm thinking PCB oil. Did they have that over there? Or is PCB's an American thing?

Remove 333 to reply. Randy

Reply to
Randy333

I presume we had it as well but I bought the unit I have around 1989 and by that time I think it was banned to sell items with PCBs and I bought it 2nd hand from a reputable local welding supplier. How would you tell if it had PCB oil anyway. It was mentioned to me by someone that the oil can go off but draining and refilling with new oil was an easy process and not that expensive , especially considering the durability of the oil and welder.

Reply to
David Billington

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