Welders

I had a tractapac welder , the guy up the road was moving and the tractapac  was sitting for years neglected . Somebody had built a crude trailer , it had a Holden 179 red motor driving the welder. The drive shaft was a bit of pipe welded directly to the Holden flywheel. The trailer was all light angle iron and a bit flimsy. 

Over years of damp Winters, the moisture had attacked the valve seats in the 179,  I managed to reface the valves in my lathe but the seats were bad, using a stone manually, they cleaned up but one was very corroded, the head guy in town fitted a new seat. 

Got the welder running . Very scary, it shook and was unstable. When the arc was struck, the motor died, no governor.  Revving up the motor,  the noise and vibration was horrific.  

I gave up and I gave it to the neighbour down the road.  He has had horrible termite problems in the house , the welder is parked behind the house with the exhaust going under the house. He starts it up and fumigates the house with the exhaust gas. He also poured many jerry cans of  diesel under the house , he dug trenches and crawled under the low floor . He used creosote too around  the stumps . One house nearby had to be demolished , all eaten by termites. 

 

I got several Lincolns ,diesel and 3 phase ........one time I saw a Lincoln bullet out on the footpath for a clearing sale .....it was what they called an 'Airframe welder' from WW2 150 amp .........I took it in to work to use ,as they had 3 phhase ......used to take it home when it wasnt being used ,and I d take a load of welding lead home with it,and bring it back with no leads..........the sandblasters had tons of lead they took off jobsites ...........Brother has it now ,as he has three phase

Another time I bought 8 tons of Lincoln cellulose pipe rods at an auction ........used them for everything ......I was welding late at night ,and someone said I was sitting inside a giant firework .....lots of spatter from cellulose rods.

Have a tractor pack and engine driven one

But my very best Lincoln welder I bought maybe 15 years ago new
Stick and TIG
Suitcase size welder, 170 Amp, cost a packet compared to CIG suitcase welder
Like 2 1/2 times the price

But what a welder, big 3/8 plate has good penetration
Really good duty cycle, never gets hot
And light and easy to use, proper DC, so I can weld upside down and inside out no dramas
Certianly was worth the big price compared to a modern CIG weld

Paul

Those inverter welders are certainly magic ......you can weld with 3 lengths of extension lead ........originally they were very expensive and not too reliable ........now ,they are around $130 .....I havent used anything else since I bought one......... I see diesel Lincoln 400 s sold for a coupla hundred now ,no one wants them anymore. .

They are getting cheaper by the day. I have the twin brother to this one, two years old and has not missed a beat although flogged from time to time. I probably paid double two years ago.

 

The oldest engine power welders Ive seen are the various ClaytonJoel models ........real early ones had Ford T motors ,later they had Ford 10s and Standard 10s .......bigger ones had Ford v8s ,and there was one on F/B recently with a Dodge flathead........The ClaytonJoel factory is still there ,it was an appliance sales place last time I looked.........There is a really good catalog of all their models online ,dated about 1937........I used an ex army WW2 Clayton Joel 200A for years as a mobile welder ......the Ford 10 motor is now in a restored Anglia ute.........during WW2 ,the welding generators were also made by Waygood -Otis ,the lift makers.

A club member here had a American Lend-Lease WW2 Hobart welder, powered by a Dodge 6 industrial engine , all mounted on a Australian army trailer with 18" wheels. 

He used it around the property , he was moving house so he offered the welder to me , almost free.  I've not got it running yet, the large commutator looks rather worn, it needs machining . 

Of interest,  it has a Allied Works Council number on the chassis.  I was looking for a manual for ages, a guy in the U.S. kindly scanned the manual . 

The John's & Waygood engineering firm were a local establishment years ago. ( lift makers ) The business name changed a few times .  In the 1960s  they had a fleet of Mercedes Benz semi trailers , used to see them loaded with large steel beams. 

Waygood - Otis was some kind of merger in England with Otis and Richard Waygood (not sure of the exact company name). Got around "Empire" restrictions that way.
Peter Johns & Co started in Australia in 1856. They were the Victorian agents for R.Waygood, hence Johns & Waygood.
Standard Electric Elevator Co were the Sydney agents for R.Waygood, hence Standard Waygood.
Johns & Waygood and Standard Waygood merged about 1950. Around this time, Waygood Otis dropped the "Waygood" from its name. A bit weird having two direct competitors sharing part of their name.
The resulting Johns & Waygood firm merged with Perry Engineering about 1966, eventually was called Johns Perry Lifts (was when I started there). Boral bought it in 1986 and later renamed it Boral Elevators. This is the short version!
The industry was deregulated about 1993 +/-. The company was bought by Otis. I am still there. Will get my 40 years up in 3-1/2 years.

Jarrod.

Ive still got one Clayton Joel welder that I put a different WW2 engine on .........but I think its just a CJ ..........Ive also seen the welders with a General Electric plate ,Ive sold a few over years .........they do weld OK ,and the army used them for many years ,because the later VW welding plants were hand start ,and the army guys hated them.........The army fitted proper governors to the CJs ,originally they were just cable throttle and would die on arc strike ,or if you stuck a rod.