tombstone

Darn fine machine for the money, and one with the DC gives you a lot of range to weld.

Steve

"Darn fine" s exactly the right word.

i

I actually used mine last for welding some 6" well casing to make parking bumpers and it did ok. I could weld half way around before it would start to get hot and produce crappy welds. By switching back and forth between cutting and welding I was able to get the job done ok.

I used the Miller buzzbox (Thunderbolt) for many years, at least 20. I loved the way that machine welded too. You just have to live with the low duty cycle. I wish they'd come up with a higher duty cycle version.

GWE

Ignoramus13081 wrote:

Do you know what is the duty cycle at the 130 amp setting? I thought it should be at least 60%?

i

I used mine for scratch start tig on SS for an ice cream company. IIRC, I paid $179 for it about 1983. Yer right, it was only for small rods, but one hell of a little machine for 3/32 rod and small TIG.

Steve

Not sure, but there is a reason that "75" is usually circled, that's the highest is will run at 100%. This is the setting recommended when using it to thaw pipes... --Glenn Lyford

I don't care what you guys say about the tombstone, I like the thunderbolt better. It has stepless output control and I've seen "tombstones" that had dead or low power positions on their rotary switch because of bad contacts. Never a problem with the Thunderbolt. Engineman

Well, when WE were as young as YOU are, Thunderbolts weren't around. It was a tombstone or a torpedo welder. Take yer pick. You young whippersnappers got all the good stuff, and didn't have to learn on crappy equipment. We did and we turned out okay...... okay ...... okay ........ okay .......okay ......... SLAP!

Steve

I don't know how old you are but I'll be 76 on the 22 nd. I had to leave my T-bolt behind 20 years ago when I moved to California because of too much baggage. Now I have a real POS, a NCG welder. But I still have fond memories of my belover T-bolt.

Eng> I don't care what you guys say about the tombstone, I like the

ng whippersnappers

Engineman

I'm 60. Thought the Thunderbolt was an early eighties introduction. Guess I was wrong. Again.

Steve

They are actually a very usable welder. The AC/DC version is pretty decent as well, all things considered.

One of the best "portables"....(cringe)...that Ive ever found..is the old Lincoln Idealarc 250 or 300. Looks like an Tombstone but one blown up like a ballon.

Oddly enough..Ive never run across a dead one either, though most Ive seen look like hammered shit after being beaten on by maint shops everywhere.

I scored one in the last couple weeks, and it welds beautifully with any stick I can clamp in the holder

Gunner

"Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us today. Now the useful idiots can be found in the chorus of appeasement, reflexive anti-Americanism, and sentimental idealism trying to inhibit the necessary responses to another freedom-hating ideology, radical Islam"

Bruce C. Thornton, a professor of Classics at American University of Cal State Fresno