Welder died

[rockrat]

Have one of the Lincoln "tombstone" welders. Was welding up a gong for the range, this morning, and was letting it sit to cool off for about 5 min. and put another welding rod in the holder and touched the work and the welder just quit. Let it sit for a few hours in case it has a thermal fuse and re-set the circuit breaker and still nothing. Any ideas on what might be going on?

If I have to buy another welder, what would you recommend?

I only used it a few times a year, at most, and the setting on the welder that I have is usually left on 135. Sometimes lower, but not higher.

Thanks

[BLAHUT]

I bought a cheap wire fed of just that reason.. Harbor Freight.

[country gent]

If it has done everything you asked of it and your happy with it. I would look for the same style arc welder maybe with inverter technology

[HWooldridge]

Does the fan come on? If not, it may just have a bad connection somewhere. They are extremely simple machines, so if it was my decision - I’d just pull off the rear plate and look for obvious problems.

I’ve got two of them and they are purt near bulletproof.

[rockrat]

Nothing. No fan or anything. Was welding 1" plate to 1/2" plate, gong to the hanger, so it would take a pretty hefty wire welder. A lot bigger than what I have.
Will pull the rear plate off this weekend. I have another with a bad fan, so might have to pull the older one out (quite a job, its behind a lot of stuff) and take the fan from the newer one and put in the older one, if I cannot find what is wrong with the other. Was going to fix the older one but came across the one I am currently using, at a garage sale, so bought it and retired the older one

[HWooldridge]

Yeah, a stick machine is ideal for heavy material. I learned with oxy-acetylene, then stick, then MIG and finally TIG - but I prefer stick over almost anything else for typical farm shop work. Almost nothing better than DC with a 6010/6011 rod.

[metricmonkeywrench]

Learned to weld on one of those to make fence gates. I would also have had the back off by now just to look for the obvious. I’m a believer in trying to make the attempt to fix first before condemning anything like that.

Of course that’s probably why I have a pile of “projects” floating around much the the wife-units dismay.

The secondary market is full of grandpas old welders as folks nowadays don’t know how to use.

[buckwheatpaul]

Have one of the Lincoln "tombstone" welders. Was welding up a gong for the range, this morning, and was letting it sit to cool off for about 5 min. and put another welding rod in the holder and touched the work and the welder just quit. Let it sit for a few hours in case it has a thermal fuse and re-set the circuit breaker and still nothing. Any ideas on what might be going on?

If I have to buy another welder, what would you recommend?

I only used it a few times a year, at most, and the setting on the welder that I have is usually left on 135. Sometimes lower, but not higher.

Thanks

I had my gasoline Lincoln die and after the research I bought a Forney....made in Italy and it has positive or negative welding....excellent well made machine! I did have to add a 220 line but that was ok....if ya look at them I think you would like it....more expensive than Harbor Freight but it isnt Chinese junk....good warranty and good American customer service!

[Winger Ed.]

If you didn't let all the smoke out of it* -- take the cover off and look. The problem might just be a simple fix.


*
Electric things are manufactured with a certain amount of smoke built into them.
If something happens and the smoke gets out, you can't put it back in, only the factory can.
If that happens, the thing is usually ruined.

[rockrat]

Learned about letting the smoke out, a long time ago. Was Using 6011 for the first pass and then over to 7014. Might try and pull the back off tomorrow.

[deces]

Start checking the fuzes, then look on the board inside the case, there will be fuzes there as well. Then look for swollen caps & burnt chip sets.

[HWooldridge]

Have one of the Lincoln "tombstone" welders. Was welding up a gong for the range, this morning, and was letting it sit to cool off for about 5 min. and put another welding rod in the holder and touched the work and the welder just quit. Let it sit for a few hours in case it has a thermal fuse and re-set the circuit breaker and still nothing. Any ideas on what might be going on?

If I have to buy another welder, what would you recommend?

I only used it a few times a year, at most, and the setting on the welder that I have is usually left on 135. Sometimes lower, but not higher.

Thanks

I hate to mention this but have you checked the electrical breaker for the plug? Those also age out and fail over time.

It's usually the simple stuff that goes wrong...

[rockrat]

Going to pull out my voltmeter today before I do anything else with it. Check outlet first for power. Easy stuff first

[jonp]

If you need to replace it then I guess the question is how much do you weld?

A HF might do everything you need for a decent price. The new line is much nicer than the original Chicago Electric but my cheap electric wire is still running

[akajun]

Those Lincoln tombstone welders are pretty simple to work on and there's lots of info to diagnose them on the web. take the back and cover off, look for a burned or shorted wire (spiders and mice are good to cause this), loose connections, anything that stands out.

[.429&H110]

Welder died...

First thought was who?

Teenage me was taught to cut pavement with a jackhammer
(good job, I ended up at 315 pounds, paid for college)
other duties as directed was to set a ground clamp two or three pipes down.
Welder sat in the ditch banging his stick on the pipe so he would know when I was done.
Ground clamp in one sweaty paw, do not touch the pipe with the other paw.
First time I got zapped, considered killing the welder. Nah, it's funny once.

[Txcowboy52]

They are normally pretty solid little machines. I would disconnect the power and pull the back off , blow the dust and dirt out of it and check for any dirt dobber nest and look for anything obvious. Some times if you have a good welding supply store they can be helpful. If you know this machine and like how it operates, I would go back with it. Good luck!

[5090SS]

If your machine is AC/DC you might have a failed rectifier bridge. These can be rebuilt or you can see if you can bypass it and weld with just AC. I am a bit surprised to hear there is no cooling fan. These are pretty simple and tough little welders.

[rockrat]

Its working now.
Went back out to try the voltmeter thing, but probes wouldn't go far enough in to make contact. Re-set circuit breakers again, no go. Decided to pull it out of the shop and plug into an outside outlet on the other side of the shop door. Started pulling stuff out and unplugged machine and buried down in amongst other stuff was an extention cord for the welder, to which it was plugged in. Forgot all about the extention cord. My other welder was on wheels , so would just roll it out of the shop to weld in the driveway. Unplugged the extention cord to check plug, things OK. Plugged it into the to outside outlet and it powered up!!?????. Went back and disconnected extention cord/welder and plugged welder directly back to the inside outlet and it powered up just fine???

Only thing I can think of was that the extention cord/welder have been connected for over 25 years and looks like a bottle of oil had fallen off a shelf on a bench next to the welder and some fluid got on the connection and finally interferred with the circuit with a thin film of oil. When I unplugged the extention/welder connection and reconnected it, it re-completed the circuit. Something complex, yet simple.

[HWooldridge]

Glad you had success! And no need to buy another one...

[deltaenterprizes]

Its working now.
Went back out to try the voltmeter thing, but probes wouldn't go far enough in to make contact. Re-set circuit breakers again, no go. Decided to pull it out of the shop and plug into an outside outlet on the other side of the shop door. Started pulling stuff out and unplugged machine and buried down in amongst other stuff was an extention cord for the welder, to which it was plugged in. Forgot all about the extention cord. My other welder was on wheels , so would just roll it out of the shop to weld in the driveway. Unplugged the extention cord to check plug, things OK. Plugged it into the to outside outlet and it powered up!!?????. Went back and disconnected extention cord/welder and plugged welder directly back to the inside outlet and it powered up just fine???

Only thing I can think of was that the extention cord/welder have been connected for over 25 years and looks like a bottle of oil had fallen off a shelf on a bench next to the welder and some fluid got on the connection and finally interferred with the circuit with a thin film of oil. When I unplugged the extention/welder connection and reconnected it, it re-completed the circuit. Something complex, yet simple.

Lucky for you it didn’t cause a fire!

[elmacgyver0]

I usually find out about stuff like that AFTER buying a new machine.:oops:

[Lloyd Smale]

If your machine is AC/DC you might have a failed rectifier bridge. These can be rebuilt or you can see if you can bypass it and weld with just AC. I am a bit surprised to hear there is no cooling fan. These are pretty simple and tough little welders.

my 220v lincoln doesnt have a fan either. its over 30 years old and has been used ALOT and never overheated

[HWooldridge]

The mud daubers often get inside and plug up things. Those little motors on cooling fans don’t have much torque and a good sized mud nest will stop it from turning. I’ve had that happen more than once.

[ebb]

The 225 Lincoln I bought when I was 14 quite in much the same manner. But it was obvious to me it was the switch, YMMV. I bought a new switch and when it came in I picked it up. The switch was $65 and that was 10 tears ago. I told the shop owner that I had only paid $99 for whole welder when I got it new. I works great now, but I had another one just like it given to me so Ive got 2 now.