Oldest welder you have run?

[William Payne]

There are welders on here who started out not long after wwll. I’d love to hear recollections of what some of the very old machines people have used. Whether that be when they were modern or recently.

[vwguy3]

I had a Westinghouse engine drive that had an Onan. I had a friend that worked at Onan and he traced the numbers on the engine and it was WWII surplus.

[CAVEMANN]

I have an old 300 amp AC welder from the 2nd war, it still welds great. I have also used a couple of the Lincolns in Tackit's first picture.

[KYBOY]

50's or 60's.. I passed my first bend test in 1992 on a old giant hobart machine the size of a volkswagen beetle . Amperage dial on the front was big as a steering wheel. LOL I think it was a 50/60 vintage

[Popeye an old miner]

The two oldest DC machines I welded with were Lincoln motor generators.

I took my first weld test on one those big ol Lincolns in the first picture, when I worked forBernie he had an old Engine drive 60 amp Hobart with a 6 cylinder Chrysler motor, start that thing up in the morning evryone in Cumbola PA woke up and it drank gas like crazy but that ol thing welded sweet as cotton candy, like butering toast with any rod in any size and any position, wish i had a picture of it, all the controls and such were on the side instead of the end of it, Bernies young lad still uses it too.

[lugweld]

Sure Weld Jr? Marquette? SA200? The sureweld didn't even have a fan...all copper. I was afraid of getting electrocuted on that one.

[William Payne]

I first learnt to weld on an old stick welder of unknown brand. I just remember it having a bunch of female plugs in the front and you just plugged into different ports for whatever amps you wanted.

When I did my first welding certificate test for TIG, I did my carbon steel test on an old Lincoln IdealArc SP200 and my Aluminium test was done on a Miller 330AB/P.

[Popeye an old miner]

There were some old Westinghouse welders in a fab shop I once worked at when I worked at the first job where I was called a welder many years ago, thats where I took that weld test withthe old Lincoln I mentioned earlier. These old Westinhouse welders were like a big transformer I guess and had a big ol crank on the side or the top I forget exactly which, with a dial that went up and down. You couldnt read the numbers anymore but they welded pretty good for what they were

[Sparkie1957]

Here’s an old Westinghouse engine drive I bought to restore and show at tractor shows. Driven with a flathead 6 cyl Chrysler industrial. Unfortunately the armature had slung itself apart and jammed against the field coils. I made my money back in scrap big time. Oh well it was quite a welder. The engine idler device used oil pressure to operate


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[William McCormick]

The oldest machine I used was a P&H TIG machine we bought at auction from Grumman Aero Space. It was manufactured in 1938 by Harnisfeger. I still have one that is mighty old but runs the same as it did when it was new about 60 years ago. All copper windings and copper bridge rectifier. Such a nice machine to weld with.





Sincerely,

William McCormick

[William Payne]

The oldest machine I used was a P&H TIG machine we bought at auction from Grumman Aero Space. It was manufactured in 1938 by Harnisfeger. I still have one that is mighty old but runs the same as it did when it was new about 60 years ago. All copper windings and copper bridge rectifier. Such a nice machine to weld with.





Sincerely,

William McCormick

I’d love to know the history of that machine d it’s life. I know Northrup apparently perfected TIG welding in 1941. I wish I knew more about the early machines and the early days of developing that process

[Sparkie1957]

P&H made great welders. They were designed and built in house for their heavy equipment manufacturing because they were not happy with commercially available welders of the day. I believe they stopped producing welders in the mid 60’s. It’s hard to get information on them and hard to find 2 models alike. It’s almost as they were custom built. I restored a 295 amp AC unit for a buddy. It’s built like a tank, have no idea it’s year of production. I’m guessing mid 50’s?



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[ljmelius]

I ran an older sae-300 like the gray one up a few posts. Build on 1941.


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[Louie1961]

My oldest welder is a 1969 Idealarc 250 (round top). I believe the oldest welder I ever used was a 1961 Idealarc round top

[Leogl]

I have used several of the old Lincoln motor generators used a 200 , 400, and a 600 great for air arcing if you had a big enough air compressor
Welded great too once you learned to use those dials

[Welder Dave]

P&H made great welders. They were designed and built in house for their heavy equipment manufacturing because they were not happy with commercially available welders of the day. I believe they stopped producing welders in the mid 60’s. It’s hard to get information on them and hard to find 2 models alike. It’s almost as they were custom built. I restored a 295 amp AC unit for a buddy. It’s built like a tank, have no idea it’s year of production. I’m guessing mid 50’s?



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P&H sold the rights to the welders in 1968 but then the company that purchased them discontinued the welder line. The welder line started in the 30's.

[William McCormick]

I’d love to know the history of that machine d it’s life. I know Northrup apparently perfected TIG welding in 1941. I wish I knew more about the early machines and the early days of developing that process

TIG welding is still somewhat of a taboo subject because anything high tech is going to be welded with TIG or electron beam in a vacuum. TIG has always been around but not often pushed on people like other types of welding. Even in the eighties, it was sold like it was a Rolls Royce, that you probably couldn't afford, only boatyards that did high-end work, cutting-edge race shops, and of course Aero Space had them. I think the original patent for the gas lens was in 1931. Northrup bought Grumman after Roy Grumman became just a figurehead and the company ran into trouble after he died.

If my mission was to take out another country and I had a choice of radioactive bomb materials or a TIG welder I would take the TIG welder.

I have noticed a pattern after countries have started to TIG weld for some reason they seem to come under attack from the U.S. and England. It is probably because they advance very quickly being able to make prototypes overnight with TIG welding equipment, and get them tested. Their stuff very quickly starts to look like our stuff.

Sincerely,

William McCormick

[William McCormick]

I’d love to know the history of that machine d it’s life. I know Northrup apparently perfected TIG welding in 1941. I wish I knew more about the early machines and the early days of developing that process

I grew up with the guys from Grumman Aero Space, developing anything was just a couple of weeks away. If you had an honest project there was nothing that couldn't be done in a very short period of time. Today most things take many years, but once you start moving towards perfection, not building only perfect things, but in the direction of perfection it goes very quickly. I would imagine they made quick tests and changes to their machines and were using them in weeks.

Sincerely,

William McCormick

[William Payne]

TIG welding is still somewhat of a taboo subject because anything high tech is going to be welded with TIG or electron beam in a vacuum. TIG has always been around but not often pushed on people like other types of welding. Even in the eighties, it was sold like it was a Rolls Royce, that you probably couldn't afford, only boatyards that did high-end work, cutting-edge race shops, and of course Aero Space had them. I think the original patent for the gas lens was in 1931. Northrup bought Grumman after Roy Grumman became just a figurehead and the company ran into trouble after he died.

If my mission was to take out another country and I had a choice of radioactive bomb materials or a TIG welder I would take the TIG welder.

I have noticed a pattern after countries have started to TIG weld for some reason they seem to come under attack from the U.S. and England. It is probably because they advance very quickly being able to make prototypes overnight with TIG welding equipment, and get them tested. Their stuff very quickly starts to look like our stuff.

Sincerely,

William McCormick

Yeah I’ve always found that kind of funny. TIG even predates Mig yet it gets treated like it’s a fancy newer process.

[William Payne]

The oldest machine I used was a P&H TIG machine we bought at auction from Grumman Aero Space. It was manufactured in 1938 by Harnisfeger. I still have one that is mighty old but runs the same as it did when it was new about 60 years ago. All copper windings and copper bridge rectifier. Such a nice machine to weld with.





Sincerely,

William McCormick

Also does anyone know who makes those cable sleeves?

[Gus1032]

Bought a 1950s Idealarc 180 a year ago. Still going strong.

[TomA]

I had an old Hobart engine drive, 6 cyl Chrysler. It must have been pre 1939, if it was a tractor it would be called unstyled, it had a cast iron radiator tank. It welded good. I started welding grouser bar on a D4. I had gotten one side done and it quit. I looked and the armature was wound with copper bars about 1/8"x3/4" and they were red hot. Two or three were burned through. I guess I had exceeded the duty cycle.

I had been welding with 5/32 7018. All I had to finish the job was my old Lincoln 180, it would not run 7018 so I finished the other side with 5/32 6013. This was years ago and both sides have held up well. The old Hobart went to scrap, I wish I had kept it for yard art.

[Popeye an old miner]

Also does anyone know who makes those cable sleeves?

Im not sure if Tillman makes those sleeves out of that material but I know they them out of leather, you could check with Tillman about it

[ttoks]

I'm definitely not one of the old breed, I'm only 29 at the end of the day, but the oldest machine I've run is this old idealarc TM300/300 which I think is from the late 60's.

runs like a dream to this day, has been in a dusty production shop its entire life, never maintained and run an arc smooth as butter, I wouldn't want to be the one paying the electric bill though.