New welder... probably multimatic 215 but not sure

[Oldoak]

"When you bought a welder back in the early 80's you could expect to put it in your will."

I know my Lincoln Idealarc 250 will outlive me. Purchased new in November 1980 for $668.00.

 

[dragoneggs]

"When you bought a welder back in the early 80's you could expect to put it in your will."

I know my Lincoln Idealarc 250 will outlive me. Purchased new in November 1980 for $668.00.

View attachment 541867

Gotta love the stuff before plastics!

 

[Will S]

"When you bought a welder back in the early 80's you could expect to put it in your will."

I know my Lincoln Idealarc 250 will outlive me. Purchased new in November 1980 for $668.00.

View attachment 541867

What paint did you use, and was the original color more a bit like orange-red?

 

[cqaigy2]

That's a pretty welding machine.

 

[mikehaugen]

That's a pretty welding machine.

Sure is... I used one of them at my old job. It was tucked away in the corner under inches of dust with just a lead "permanantly" routed to the 60ft roof. If you had to weld up there you'd have to radio down to someone to turn it up or down . The ground clamp was just clamped to the i-beam next to it and the stinger would just lay around on the roof until needed again.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

As far as ESAB goes, I just waited almost 3 weeks on a Victor welding (#3) Tip. Airgas didn't even have any in stock in the region, or I think in the nation from what I gathered. They lent me some old stock ones until the new ones came in, but they did not work well with the journeyman size torch and edge regulators. I had to wait the same amount of time to get RG 60. The store had one pound of 3/32 and one pound of 1/8" in stock. Air gas doesn't sell bulk rod anymore like this. I bought 10 lbs locally at a smaller store in bulk. Airgas seems to only be selling in 1 lb packs at 5.00 + per pound. I bought the other at 2.00+ a pound in bulk. Yesterday, I got my other 38 lbs of rod I ordered. Order was placed the same day for both.

Moral of the story (I think): On even common name brand stuff that has been around for ages, don't count on the local welding supplier stocking or being able to get parts quickly. They did a good job in getting them and making worth the wait, and more than made up for it to me, but still if you need it, you need it... Or maybe the moral is that ESAB has ruined Victor completely and can't get stuff out in a timely manner...and Air Liquide has ruined Airgas.

 

[BukitCase]

I REALLY miss the days when CEO's of companies actually KNEW what their company DID ...Steve

 

[dragoneggs]

I REALLY miss the days when CEO's of companies actually KNEW what their company DID ...Steve

This is hitting way too close to home for me now. I know, way off topic but I hate getting old and feeling like I am the one putting a damper on things, but the new gen management thinks if we just collaborate and group think, things will be great. Someone please tell them that Kumbaya around a campfire is not going to win. Sorry for this little rant.

 

[tkevan]

As far as ESAB goes, I just waited almost 3 weeks on a Victor welding (#3) Tip. Airgas didn't even have any in stock in the region, or I think in the nation from what I gathered. They lent me some old stock ones until the new ones came in, but they did not work well with the journeyman size torch and edge regulators. I had to wait the same amount of time to get RG 60. The store had one pound of 3/32 and one pound of 1/8" in stock. Air gas doesn't sell bulk rod anymore like this. I bought 10 lbs locally at a smaller store in bulk. Airgas seems to only be selling in 1 lb packs at 5.00 + per pound. I bought the other at 2.00+ a pound in bulk. Yesterday, I got my other 38 lbs of rod I ordered. Order was placed the same day for both.

3 weeks for a nozzle? One of the reasons I quit going to Airgas. Too many online stores that can ship next day, like Cyberweld or IOC. We have TWS local, it's a shop out of Tyler Tx. A few stores around the Arklatex. Sells filler in bulk, gas and rod at a fraction of AG.

 

[mikehaugen]

So... I picked up the welder today . It didn't go exactly as planned, but I'm still happy. The Bernard gun he was going to give me had way to big of a "backend?" On it and wouldn't fit through the face plate, and I didn't want to start hacking up my new welder to make it work so he said he'd just give me the one that would have come with it (10ft m100). I asked if I could upgrade to 15ft and pay the difference, he said I'd have to upgrade to m150 gun so I did and it was about a $30 difference.

The m150 gun comes with .030-.035 liner and I'm pretty sure I'll want to use .023 wire so I bought a smaller liner. It kinda sucks because the smaller liner only does .023 so I'd have to switch liners everytime I switch wire... I think it will come down to me never doing it or buying another gun if I feel I really need to run .023.

I haven't tried mig yet because I need a new bottle, but for curiosity's sake I ran a small bead of flux core and a little 3/32 7018 and so far it did well. I'll pick up a bottle tomorrow and hopefully this weekend I'll be able to really try it out.

On a side note, I've never fc welded in my life so I just ran a small bead on some 1/8" with 0.030 using the "autoset" feature and I was pretty impressed. I expected a much uglier weld.