Taking the Welder Plunge

Kratos · Aug 11, 2007

I am trusting that a good name and less bells and whistles will last me longer and not give me any trouble. I have to drive right past Harbor freight to get to the guys house to pick up this 15 year old $100 Lincoln 225 AC and this sure looks like a good deal, but you have to ask how they have enough supply of reconditioned welders like this to advertise on the internet this price. They must have a lot of them sent back broken.

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

2manyrocks · Aug 11, 2007

A 225 Lincoln stick welder in good operating condition for $100 is almost impossible to beat for welding 3/16 and up material. It's going to weld solid and you're not going to have the weld and wait, weld and wait duty cycle issues that you'd have with a small mig.

California · Aug 11, 2007

For a savings of $10.01 that HF welder is less than half the welder that the Lincoln is.

It weighs half as much, which is a simple description for the quality of transformer in it. It draws maximum 20 amps from your dryer outlet while the Lincoln maxes out at 50 amp draw. At 130 amp output, which would be normal for much work with 1/8 rod, the duty cycle is 10% which means you weld for 60 seconds then it has to cool off for NINE MINUTES before you can do another 60 seconds. And the large number of customer returns means many people bought one and were disappointed.

I expect it would be fine for welding light materials but I think you need a welder that can run 1/8" rod - and that one won't, realistically, if they rate it as 10% duty cycle. You can afford the $10!

Kratos · Aug 12, 2007

I just came back from picking up my new (used) Lincoln welder. My wife also noticed a plug by the front door of my garage that looks like what a stove or dryer would plug into. I am hoping that it is a 220 outlet with enough power to run the welder. Of course, I have two questions.

(1) The plug has a round hole on the bottom and two vertical straight holes up top parrallel to each other and one longer than the other. Does this sound like what I need and how can I test it. All I have is a cheap voltage tester that I don't suppose could handle high voltage.

(2) The plug on my Lincoln 225 AC has a bottom male plug that is a 90 degree angle and two top ones at an angle from each other. If my outlet is 220 volts with enough amps, can I get an adapter to make the two plugs fit or do I have to have either the welder or the outlet redone?

Thanks for the continued help getting me started.

John

dbdartman · Aug 12, 2007

If the receptacle on the wall is about 50% larger than a 110 outlet, id should be 220v, but checking it would be a good thing.

If it is a 220 outlet, either buy a new plug to match the receptacle on the wall, or buy a new receptacle to match your plug.

California · Aug 12, 2007

It sounds like somebody put a clothes dryer cord on your welder to match the outlet in his garage.

Maybe the previous resident of your home had a welder. That outlet is for the plug that was original on many welders.

The cheapest solution would be to replace the socket in the wall to match your welder. Dryer stuff is common and inexpensive, while the original-type welder plug is $12-15 just for the plug and may be hard to find. Get somebody who knows how to do this stuff to change the socket, or to replace the welder plug if there isn't space in the wall for a dryer outlet.

I made an adapter for a mismatch that is opposite to what you have. I had a spare 'pigtail' (plug/cable assembly intended for a dryer) so I put an outlet on the other end of it to match my welder.

Added: I put '50 amp welder outlet' into Google and found several explanations. The Welder's Handbook excerpt is useful - both the page that Google hits on, and also its adjacent pages that you find there.

Kratos · Aug 12, 2007

I was thinking that the best fix that would add versatilty to my welder would be to construct an extension chord with a male plug that would fit the receptacle in my garage and a femaile receptacle that would fit my welder and 25 ft. of the right cable. Since this welder has wheels, but the standard short electrode and ground cable, this would give me the ability to get to my work without extending the other two cables.

Does anyone see a problem with this? Does anyone know if both types of plugs are just three wires with two hots and a ground or neutral?

MJPetersen · Aug 12, 2007

Kratos, You are right--two hot and common or ground. Looks like you got a cream puff of a welder. Many happy hours in the garage making things and fixing things with that. Good for you.

Mike

cp1969 · Aug 12, 2007

Was that the $100 unit I pointed out to you on Craig's list? I'd have jumped on that myself except I'm 1500 miles away. Nothing that good showing up on Craig's list here.

Kratos · Aug 12, 2007

No, not that one, but another that you gave the link to. The $100 one was all the way in Samammish which would require me to go through Seattle traffic and the kid who has it, really knew nothing about how old or what condition it was in.

The one I bought had a picture and was listed for $175. This guy took the lower amount I was offering and threw in gloves, rods, and a slag hammer. He was an older guy who had it 10 years and only used it a few times and takes real good care of his stuff. He never mentioned the plug being changed, but after 10 years probably forgot.

I picked up a self-darkening helmet from Harbor Freight on the way home which was on sale for $49.00 with a 15% off coupon I had, I paid about $42. So all set other than being able to plug it in and learning how to weld. LOL

Here is a link that a guy on the welder forum gave http://frentzandsons.com/Hardware ...nfiguratio.htm
and shows the receptacle in the garage as 50A 2-pole, 3-wire grounding and the plug on my welder as 30A 3-pole, 3-wire. So not sure if the extension chord deal will be so easy. I guess this is why people make a living as electricians.