Another "Help me buy my next welder" thread

[Kyle_in_Tex]

In the middle of the first pic, there was one of those for sale on the local CL. It was $450 IRC but it was "parts only", so obviously, they didn't know if it worked. It was too far away to chance it (3 hours one way).

Doing daily searches on "welder", Lincoln" and "Idealarc".

Funny that if you are selling the right thing on craigslist and such, it can sometimes sell in less than an hour. Other stuff you might not get a hit on for weeks.

What was that "Tempest" thing that somebody mentioned?

 

[woodlandfarms]

I am no welder, ask the group, but I get by. I started with a Lincoln Tombstone (THe red one that looks like a headstone). It was AC DC. I think I bought it for $150 which was a deal, and I sold it for $300.

I picked up one of Marks Everlast 200 stick welders for a heck of deal and I will tell you it is night and day different from the tombstone. Not knocking it, a well treated tombstone will outlast any electronic welder, but for around the farm this thing is killer. THe chips make the welding rods act different, you get a better weld with less power needed. Meaning I can drage my 30 Amp generator out and get one heck of a weld, where with the tombstone it was just enough to hold together till it got back to the shop.

A modern miller, Lincoln and the rest are great machines, maybe better than Everlast, maybe the same. but if you are not welding professionally, I am not sure the value is really worth the higher cost.

 

[GManBart]

I'm doing almost all of my stick welding now with an older (mid 1980s) Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC machine I picked up for $200 off Craigslist. I can't imagine any sort of typical farm welding it wouldn't be able to tackle.

I also have a Hobart Champion Elite welder generator (225amps DC) if I really need to burn some big rod, but I doubt it. In addition, I have a new inverter welder that's been broken for about two months...went through all the troubleshooting and finally determined it needs to be replaced. I'm not certain what I want to do since I have an opportunity to use it as credit for a different machine. Some times, simple isn't all that bad. The Thunderbolt has surprised me how nicely it welds and I plan to keep it no matter what else I wind up with....hard to go wrong with only $200 in it.

 

[FTG-05]

Gman, is this what you have?

Is the machine shown below AC only or AC/DC? What's a good price for it?



Thanks,

 

[downsizingnow48]

This is my 80's ac/do Thunderbolt.

 

[bubbacuse77]

The thunderbolt is a great welder for the money but if you do buy new get the Hobart stick mate LX. It is the exact same machine with a different color cover on it made in the same factory. I had a stickmate for 5 years and it is a great machine foe $450

Thunderbolt XL vs Stickmate LX: "Verified" difference?

 

[FTG-05]

This is my 80's ac/do Thunderbolt.

View attachment 484165

Ok, comparing pics, I see yours said "Constant Current AC/DC welding blah blah blah"

The pic of the machine I posted says "Constant Current AC welding blah blah blah". Didn't notice that the first time.

Pass, especially for $300.

 

[GManBart]

Ok, comparing pics, I see yours said "Constant Current AC/DC welding blah blah blah"

The pic of the machine I posted says "Constant Current AC welding blah blah blah". Didn't notice that the first time.

Pass, especially for $300.

You got it....the one you posted was AC only. I actually have a second Thunderbolt AC/DC I picked up at an estate sale because it was cheap and have it listed on Craigslist now...looks like a new welder is going to look at in a few days.

The one thing I've been told to look for with this style welder is to crank the amp control all the way up and down and make sure it doesn't get really hard to move at any point...that's a sign it overheated at some point. In short, a consistent feel the whole way is what you're looking for.

This is the first one I bought....$200 with a set of leads, an extra 400amp electrode holder, a cart for it with wheels and 35lbs of Lincoln Excalibur 7018 1/8" rods. All of the recent pictures I've posted on my "Ugly Beads" thread have been of welds done with the Thunderbolt. If it can make a good bead with me learning overhead, it's got to be a decent welder!

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

No doubt these are good Units. I"ve used them, but what you will see when compared to an inverter is the difference in the DC arc.
Neither unit provides a pure DC arc. It is a rectified arc, made AC.
In an inverter, it is made from chopping up AC that is cycling at 40k-100K plus Hz. In a transformer it is from 60 Hz.
Sort of a laymans explanation:
Basically it turns it into a pulsating DC, with little bits of DC with gaps between each little bit of DC. Think of it as a dotted line. The more dots, the smoother the arc will appear to you, just as if the dots were fine enough to appear as a solid line. A dotted line with more visible gaps would appear as more broken.

 

[sd455dan]

The thunderbolt is a great welder for the money but if you do buy new get the Hobart stick mate LX. It is the exact same machine with a different color cover on it made in the same factory. I had a stickmate for 5 years and it is a great machine foe $450

Thunderbolt XL vs Stickmate LX: "Verified" difference?

interesting article, what surprised me was the question as to whether these welders would burn a 5/32 7018.
From the specs posted in the article limited to 150-160 amps dc??

If the OP wants to have amps to spare on DC these specs seem a bit tight.

This seems to point to an advantage for a new inverter or some models of Lincoln Idealarc , Miller DialArcs

If FTG was near my area this is under $1000 and has 300 amps for both ac and dc comes with leads and tig set up to with HF and also a cooler.Miller Dialarc HF AC/DC GAS TUNGSTEN-ARC OR SHIELDED ARC / TIG WELDER