Refurbishing two old Lincoln SP-250 MIG machines.

[strantor]

Looking good !!! Yeah, Spoolguns are ok and work ok. They start cold and finish hot but you can work through that a little by starting in the middle. Wht does the other max=chine need to get it going?

The 2nd machine was not smoothly feeding. Possible causes that I identified are/were:
1. excessive friction in plastic reel spooling assembly
2. bad liner in MIG gun
3. insufficient pressure exerted by idle roller due to deformed idle roll arm

I've fixed 2 and 3, and plan to add some lube to the spooling assembly, so really it's probably good to go. I just haven't tested it yet because I'm tired of moving my one spool of wire back and forth between the machines. I have one working MIG right now, so I'll just keep using it until I get a 2nd spool of wire.

 

[tc429]

View attachment 574102View attachment 574101View attachment 574100View attachment 574103

man, did that turn out nice! great job on the find and the refurb! they had these types at work for a long time, think only one still works, theyve got ESABs now for whatever reason. our main fab guy still uses the lincoln, seems to like it maybe just because its been his 'daily driver' for a decade, nice machines. pretty sure one of the mothballed ones had a busted front panel, like something fell on it, but know they hung on to a couple for parts...

at home I got a miller 210- the simple 2 knob thing, i'm no welder to say the least, but can stick things together when needed... I bought it to rebuild a frame on a old ford a friend/neighbor left me back in 04...learned to weld out of necessity, dont use it a lot, but at least a few times a year something comes up

 

[strantor]

man, did that turn out nice! great job on the find and the refurb! they had these types at work for a long time, think only one still works, theyve got ESABs now for whatever reason. our main fab guy still uses the lincoln, seems to like it maybe just because its been his 'daily driver' for a decade, nice machines. pretty sure one of the mothballed ones had a busted front panel, like something fell on it, but know they hung on to a couple for parts...

at home I got a miller 210- the simple 2 knob thing, i'm no welder to say the least, but can stick things together when needed... I bought it to rebuild a frame on a old ford a friend/neighbor left me back in 04...learned to weld out of necessity, dont use it a lot, but at least a few times a year something comes up

Thanks! That Miller is an excellent machine. I was hoping to find a broken Miller in my searches but never one came up at a good price. The Miller 252 we had at the last place I worked set the bar for me. These old Lincoln machines may have raised the bar... not sure. The specs aren't as good and I haven't got much use in with them yet, but they sure do have a lot of features.

 

[tc429]

Thanks! That Miller is an excellent machine. I was hoping to find a broken Miller in my searches but never one came up at a good price. The Miller 252 we had at the last place I worked set the bar for me. These old Lincoln machines may have raised the bar... not sure. The specs aren't as good and I haven't got much use in with them yet, but they sure do have a lot of features.

if I remember right, our fab guy liked some 'prestrike' thing or something that made them purge a little early and spike the volts a bit at starting, can make the start super clean...been a long time ago, but thought it was something like that that he really liked on the lincolns...they ARE durable- all our machine lines are over floor harpoon chip conveyors, and the whole line has a 4" quarter plate lip around it- seen them weld 200' nonstop other than moving down a few feet at a time...pretty brutal duty cycle, and they handled it...I do recall seeing some with steel fabbed spool holders too- the plastic ones with the big rolls didnt hold up

 

[yomax4]

You are refering to Preflow and Hot Start. Preflow is good and even better if you can set the preflow time. ( post flow too is nice ) Hot Start is wonderful for heavier material and Aluminum. Even better when you can adjust how hot the start is and for how long before it resumes the regular setting.