old Forney welder

- "Cristobal & Lisa Sanchez" - spluttered in news:NyKXb.5429$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net:

Does it have a cooling fan? Check for some sort of date there.

If it's *that* old, I'd take a look at the condition of wire insulation.

It does not have a cooling fan. I had to fix a few of the connections that the leads plug into. It works great. 220v. I put a new power cord on it. I just wonder what year Forney made this model. It goes from 20 to 180 amp. It shows where you plug the leads into for soldering and brazing and it is heavy as hell. Maybe I should add a cooling fan to it, but I've never had any problems with it getting hot.

Cris,

I have an ancient welder that sounds like it is of a similar vintage. Mine is a Marquette; it is massively constructed, with one huge transformer and one smaller transformer internally; leads go from the transformers to the different plug connections. There is no cooling fan, and as you said with yours, I've never noticed it getting even vaguely warm. Mine has a range from 20 to 275 amps, and I normally never need to weld above 135 amps max, so I don't think I've ever approached the limits of its duty cycle. (Actually, I keep wanting to pick up some 1/4" rods just so I can try out the upper end of its range!)

I was fortunate in that all of the connections internally were intact; however, I had to clean out all of the taps -- some kind of insects had built nests in every single hole. I also had to make a set of connectors to fit the taps; I did this by turning down some brass plumbing fittings to the right shape.

Mine works very, very well also -- even though AC only, the AC seems to work about as smoothly and well as the DC setting on the machines at the class I took at the local community college. When I set the machines at school to AC to compare -- well, there was no comparison; my old "beast" was much, much smoother.

One thing that I try to keep in mind about my machine is that its OCV is 90 -- if I understand correctly, that is a higher voltage than is legal these days. The highest OCV I've seen on modern machines is 80, and often it is less than that. My own suspicion is that the high OCV is part of what makes the machine work so well, but I try to remember that it also is more dangerous!

What kinds of welding are you doing with your Forney? What kinds of rod are you running? I have been doing a lot of projects for my woodworking shop -- mobile bases, saw fences, stands, etc. Mostly 1/8" thick material, and some 1/4". I've done a little bit of welding on steel down around 1/16" thick, but find that to be a bit tricky. I tend to use 6011 to make an initial pass, and then I'm filling with

6013 for now -- I'm using up a stack of rods that I have on hand. Once the 6013 is gone, I will switch to 7018-AC, which runs absolutely beautifully on this machine. I've also got a stack of 7014 rod, but I don't really like it very well. It runs just fine, but I don't like the way the bead looks.

I use 1/8" 6011 & 7018 rods. I'm just playing with the welder. I've never taken any classes so I'm learning by just trying it. I have a bunch of scrap

in

Sounds good. If you get a chance to take a class, go for it -- I learned initially on my own, and was able to make some projects with half-way decent welds ... but when I took a class, my welding improved immensely.

One word of warning -- it sounds to me like you may already be addicted. If so, there is no going back. You will find yourself spending "just one more minute" cutting and grinding and welding, and three hours later wonder why your supper is so cold ... :)

replying to Cristobal & Lisa Sanchez, Ken , from Appleton Wis. wrote: Ken here, Sounds like you have a Forney stick welder like I have. 20- 180 amp. Bought mine back in high school (1969 ) and it was used back then. I'd say the welder goes back to the late 50's -60's. I don't have any paper information,that came with it.Like you say,it's heavier than hell. It's bright red color,and has bake a lite insulator plugs,where the wire goes.

replying to Cristobal & Lisa Sanchez, Ken , from Appleton Wis. wrote: Ken here, Sounds like you have a Forney stick welder like I have. 20- 180 amp. Bought mine back in high school (1969 ) and it was used back then. I'd say the welder goes back to the late 50's -60's. I don't have any paper information,that came with it.Like you say,it's heavier than hell. It's bright red color,and has bake a lite insulator plugs,where the wire goes.

replying to Cristobal & Lisa Sanchez, Degarmo86 wrote: This model was made in the early 60s I have the exact same model that I'm refurbishing but can't seem to find the breaker buttons anywhere

replying to Cristobal & Lisa Sanchez, Degarmo86 wrote: This model was made in the early 60s I have the exact same model that I'm refurbishing but can't seem to find the breaker buttons anywhere