Thread: Tool Forum

Got a new STIHL!!! Ok, it is a STIHL FE 55 electric string trimmer off of Craig's List that I found while trolling for saws. Guy sold it along with a Sears electric hedge trimmer and 2 extension cords for $35. My electric string trimmer needs a little attention, so I could justify this. I like electric tools around the house and yard. Must be an old model - manual is not available for download on the STIHL site - had to order it.

On a separate note, I stopped by an estate sale yesterday a few miles from my house - they usually have a few old tools in the basement or the garage. This guy had an entire wood shop: band saw, radial arm saw, jig saw, drill press, wood lathe, all kinds of hand tools, a full fly-tying bench, etc. Had an electric chain saw in the garage and a few bars for the consumer Homelite saws.

Really did not need anything, and did not see anything that was on 'my list'. Some good deals. Some over priced, etc. Will go back tomorrow to see what is left at 50% off.

What really struck me was that this guy would have probably been neat to know when he was still around. My kids will probably do the same thing with my 'stuff' because they don't really understand it or know what it is 'worth'. Wonder what else might have been there before the sale.

Philbert

(Forgive me if I posted this link before)

George Carlin Talks About "Stuff" - YouTube

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MvgN5gCuLac" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hey Fellas
Well I have found out that while my CAD has been in remission for awhile now another addiction flared up.TAD. Now I don't know whats worse CAD or TAD ( Tool Addiction Disorder) LOL.
I needed to get some money off to a a fellow member on here but I slipped and fell at a garage sale last weekend and THANKFULLY he is understanding and will wait a little bit for some funds to come his way.NO,I havent taken posession of any goods and not paid for it,I try to play all on the up and up.
Anyway a fellas father passed and the son was selling off some tools so I picked up an older Lincoln LINCWELDER AC 225-S and a 6X9 belt disc sander on a stand something you would find in a small shop but not a toy both machines for $150.00. Is that a good deal ? Pictures to follow soon.
Lawrence

I think you got a good deal on the belt sander... I saw one of those cheapo Craftsman disc/belt sanders at a garage sale once... I think it took a 2x5 belt, and a 4" disc... guy wanted 90 freaking bucks for that little plastic turd.

The welder, it is a really good deal if it is an AC/DC. Probably just an AC buzzbox though. Nothing wrong with that, for the most part. It does reduce the number of rods you can run through it, since there are specific polarities to use with them. But it'll weld, and that's important.

Well those welders are upwards of $300 or so new alone, so if it works (and especially if it came with any goodies) you done alright. Yeah, they're AC-only, but you can still use 6011, 6013, and 7018 rods with that just fine, and those will cover 98% of the welding the average joe-blow will want to do. I bought one of those "tombstone" Lincoln AC 225A machines from Canadian Tire about 6 years ago and it served me fine until I got the nice Miller I have now. I did go and buy a set of four high-amperage diodes off eBay to build myself a DC rectifier for it though so I could have DC output as well; took the guts out of the welder and rebuilt the whole works inside another larger sheetmetal box. Ugly but it works!

You'll need a 40A two-pole breaker to run that thing off of, minimum, and 8 gauge wire to the outlet; a 60A and 6-gauge would be better if you plan on using it much above 150A.

With the welder came a whole wack of welding rods some of them were in two brand new waterproof plastic rod cases.Also one regular welding helmet,one auto darking helmet,two pairs of gloves,three magnetic angle holders,two chipping hammers and something else, can't remember what.Heres a couple of pictures.









Lawrence

I presently have an outlet that is the garage that I had an electrician wire up last hear for a 230V heater but have yet to use it.It's a 40 amp breaker with #8 wire but the outlet is different than the plug on the welder.I can't really change the tech cable but could upgrade the breaker.Would this work.I have only 100 amp service and I KNOW NOTHING about electricity.
Thanks
Lawrence

That is a nice old buzzbox... don't see the that old in that kind of shape too often.

Lawrence - # 8 wire is normally limited to 40 amps. You might be able to change the outlet to match the welder, but if the welder draws more than 40 amps you will trip the breaker.

We used to use our old 180 amp Lincoln turned all the way up for cutting up rough steel and iron parts, the 60 amp fuses would blow out on a regular basis...

Mark

Originally Posted by heimannm

Lawrence - # 8 wire is normally limited to 40 amps. You might be able to change the outlet to match the welder, but if the welder draws more than 40 amps you will trip the breaker.

We used to use our old 180 amp Lincoln turned all the way up for cutting up rough steel and iron parts, the 60 amp fuses would blow out on a regular basis...

Mark

Hi Mark
Thanks for the reply. I thnk I mentioned my grasp on electrical is not great so if the dial face on the welder stands for amps and you set the lever to anything more than 40 amps it's going to trip the breaker ? If so I guess it won't be good for much then unless I change the wire and breaker out ,hard to do because of the way we put it in, and just had it put in last year for a 230 Volt heater which I never used. Doesn't the amp setting on the welder reflect what you can do at that setting and what type of rod you use? If you or someone else could explain with out getting to technical I would greatly appreciate it.Oh yeah, I will take some sort of welding instruction before trying to use this thing.Maybe I should have thought the purchase out a bit before buying it.I mean it won't be any good to me just sitting ther unused.
Many Thanks
Lawrence

Originally Posted by petesoldsaw

Is that a good deal ?

You done good.

Get someone to help you with the wiring and either get a book on welding or look into some basic classes at a local community college or adult ed program if you don't have someone who can show you some of the basic techniques and safety stuff. It will be worth saving the frustration, and still be cheaper than buying that welder new!

Congrats on a good deal.

Philbert

Originally Posted by petesoldsaw

. . . so if the dial face on the welder stands for amps and you set the lever to anything more than 40 amps it's going to trip the breaker

Lawrence,

The dial on the face of the welder is the OUTPUT. Note the INPUT rating printed on it: 230Volts 50 Amps. That welder is basically a big transformer that takes the input electrical current and changes it for welding use.

You should be able to find a manual for that model on the Internet if you did not get one with it. It should have more installation info.

Depending upon where your electrical panel is, and where you plan to weld, you can could put in an outlet close to the panel fairly cheaply if your heater outlet cannot be used. Of course, that might mean that you only weld on the driveway on clear days, instead of in your garage, but it could be a start!

Philbert

Originally Posted by petesoldsaw

Hi Mark
Thanks for the reply. I thnk I mentioned my grasp on electrical is not great so if the dial face on the welder stands for amps and you set the lever to anything more than 40 amps it's going to trip the breaker ? If so I guess it won't be good for much then unless I change the wire and breaker out ,hard to do because of the way we put it in, and just had it put in last year for a 230 Volt heater which I never used. Doesn't the amp setting on the welder reflect what you can do at that setting and what type of rod you use? If you or someone else could explain with out getting to technical I would greatly appreciate it.Oh yeah, I will take some sort of welding instruction before trying to use this thing.Maybe I should have thought the purchase out a bit before buying it.I mean it won't be any good to me just sitting ther unused.
Many Thanks
Lawrence

I think that for 90% of what you will want to do, that 40A service will probably work for you. The 50A input rating is based on the max capacity of the machine; the "normal" range of what the vast majority of welding is done at is between 75-130A for 3/32" and 1/8" diameter rods. Unless you're dealing with really thick steel that must be welded in a single pass, or as someone else mentioned, having to cut or gouge steel, you won't often need to go much higher than that. As an example, the Miller DialArc 250 machine that I have can put out up to 300A and calls for a 100A breaker - I only have a 100A service in my house to begin with, so that's not gonna happen. So I run it on the same 60A feed that I ran my Lincoln like yours on, and it does just fine, and I've run it up to 180A as a test without problem.

Also as mentioned, welders are just big transformers, so the amperage out can be much more than the amperage coming in. Welders put out very high current but at a much lower voltage - usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35V depending on the type of machine. So as you transform the voltage down from 230/240/whatever to ~30, the current capacity increases proportionately. Microwave ovens do the opposite - they transform from line voltage up to a few thousand volts but at much lower current.

Those welders only have a 20% duty cycle anyway, meaning that for every minute of welding you do with it, you should let it cool for 5 minutes before striking an arc again. This, again, of course is the rating for when you're using it at the upper end of its capacity - if you're running it at 100A you could run it 50-60% duty no problem. I never gave it a second thought with mine and would run it solid for 8-10 minutes at 120A and it never flinched.

As for hooking the welder into your existing outlet, you can make an adaptor cable for a few bucks. You can get surface-mount welder outlets at Canadian Tire etc. for about $20, all you need then is a few feet of #8 or #6 wire and a plug that fits into the heater outlet for the other end and you're all set. I did this up in my truckshop - for some reason the fool that owned the place before me put in a big clothes dryer outlet instead of a standard 240V outlet, so I just bought a 4' replacement dryer cord and a welder outlet from CT and I was in business.

Wish I could come down and hang out with ya for a weekend and show you a few things. Not that I could show you half of what a proper trainer could, but I could get you going on the basics. Glad you got enough gear with it to get started though, that'll save you a few bucks for sure. One thing though - and I've found this is personal preference among the welders I've worked with - but I'd recommend losing that "tweco" clamp-style electrode holder and go pick up a good twist-lock type. The clamp ones are handy to disengage quickly if you happen to "stick" the weld and short it out, but I find them a lot harder to maintain the proper angles with. The twist-lock holders lock onto the rod so tight that you can just grab it and bend it at the base to whatever angle you need to get into a tight spot etc., whereas the clamp holders only hold the rod at 0, 45, and 90 degrees generally and don't hold tight enough to let you bend the rod easily. To each his own though!

It's a K3.86 serial number #1811541-1750 PSI.I'll wait just a bit before I type a whole long winded post on the problem with this unit until I have some gurus willing to try and help.Let me know when I have some ears boys.
Many Thanks
Lawrence

Originally Posted by Brmorgan

I think that for 90% of what you will want to do, that 40A service will probably work for you. The 50A input rating is based on the max capacity of the machine; the "normal" range of what the vast majority of welding is done at is between 75-130A for 3/32" and 1/8" diameter rods. Unless you're dealing with really thick steel that must be welded in a single pass, or as someone else mentioned, having to cut or gouge steel, you won't often need to go much higher than that. As an example, the Miller DialArc 250 machine that I have can put out up to 300A and calls for a 100A breaker - I only have a 100A service in my house to begin with, so that's not gonna happen. So I run it on the same 60A feed that I ran my Lincoln like yours on, and it does just fine, and I've run it up to 180A as a test without problem.

Also as mentioned, welders are just big transformers, so the amperage out can be much more than the amperage coming in. Welders put out very high current but at a much lower voltage - usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35V depending on the type of machine. So as you transform the voltage down from 230/240/whatever to ~30, the current capacity increases proportionately. Microwave ovens do the opposite - they transform from line voltage up to a few thousand volts but at much lower current.

Those welders only have a 20% duty cycle anyway, meaning that for every minute of welding you do with it, you should let it cool for 5 minutes before striking an arc again. This, again, of course is the rating for when you're using it at the upper end of its capacity - if you're running it at 100A you could run it 50-60% duty no problem. I never gave it a second thought with mine and would run it solid for 8-10 minutes at 120A and it never flinched.

As for hooking the welder into your existing outlet, you can make an adaptor cable for a few bucks. You can get surface-mount welder outlets at Canadian Tire etc. for about $20, all you need then is a few feet of #8 or #6 wire and a plug that fits into the heater outlet for the other end and you're all set. I did this up in my truckshop - for some reason the fool that owned the place before me put in a big clothes dryer outlet instead of a standard 240V outlet, so I just bought a 4' replacement dryer cord and a welder outlet from CT and I was in business.

Wish I could come down and hang out with ya for a weekend and show you a few things. Not that I could show you half of what a proper trainer could, but I could get you going on the basics. Glad you got enough gear with it to get started though, that'll save you a few bucks for sure. One thing though - and I've found this is personal preference among the welders I've worked with - but I'd recommend losing that "tweco" clamp-style electrode holder and go pick up a good twist-lock type. The clamp ones are handy to disengage quickly if you happen to "stick" the weld and short it out, but I find them a lot harder to maintain the proper angles with. The twist-lock holders lock onto the rod so tight that you can just grab it and bend it at the base to whatever angle you need to get into a tight spot etc., whereas the clamp holders only hold the rod at 0, 45, and 90 degrees generally and don't hold tight enough to let you bend the rod easily. To each his own though!

Great post, thanks for the info also.

Originally Posted by petesoldsaw

It's a K3.86 serial number #1811541-1750 PSI.I'll wait just a bit before I type a whole long winded post on the problem with this unit until I have some gurus willing to try and help.Let me know when I have some ears boys.
Many Thanks
Lawrence

What's the problem Lawrence? Motor or pump?