weard lincon

[migwelder05]

anyone have clue what this is? i never seen anything like it before.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Electric-Lincoln...ayphotohosting

[Hotfoot]

That's a "Dildo 5000"...You can't use it , because its a three phase machine. Plenty of them still in use! (Some call it a "Lincoln Torpedo")

[moya034]

I believe that is a motor/generator machine as opposed to a transformer based machines.

[migwelder05]

That's a "Dildo 5000"...You can't use it , because its a three phase machine. Plenty of them still in use! (Some call it a "Lincoln Torpedo")

your not serious right?

[Sberry]

I worked for an Ironworking contractor that bought several of them from a defunct school or upgrade, some deal like that. They worked good. They were perfect for what he was doing.

[Krunch]

I don't understand what the "3600 RPM" refers to in the ebay description.

Do welding machines rotate?

[migwelder05]

idk the machine looks like it could fly if it wanted to but it wouldn't get very far im sure there heavy.

[MAC702]

I don't understand what the "3600 RPM" refers to in the ebay description.

Do welding machines rotate?

This one does, just like one powered by a gas or diesel engine on the back of a service truck, only it's powered by a big 3-phase motor tied to the shaft of the DC generator. Very common before transformer machines became feasible.

[dda52]

Its a Lincoln DC 250 MK. Basically it is the welding generator of the SA series engine drives set up with a three phase motor. There are supposedly some single phase ones out there somewhere. They are good machines if they work.

[Krunch]

Interesting...I guess it never occurred to me to use an electric motor to drive a generator (to power a motor to drive a generator to power a motor to drive a generator)...

[Zrexxer]

Interesting...I guess it never occurred to me to use an electric motor to drive a generator

A generator is a generator; it doesn't care if there's a gasoline engine, an electric motor, or a waterwheel driving it. I've never used one of these, but from what I've heard they're supposed to be a really smooth pure DC arc. I guess just like an SA-200 without the noise

[dda52]

Oh, they can get plenty loud. With all thaat junk inside spinning at 3600 rpm's, they get loud and whiney. Add some dust and a bad bearing and it can be a screamer....... But, they are just like running an SA.

[Krunch]

A generator is a generator; it doesn't care if there's a gasoline engine, an electric motor, or a waterwheel driving it.

I understand that. Maybe I wasn't clear. What puzzled me is that a generator is basically nothing more than an electric motor that's being driven by some power source (waterwheel, gerbils, whatever) and vice versa...an electric motor is nothing more than a generator that has had some electricity applied to it (off the power grid, Uncle Fester's teeth, etc.) Motors and generators are basically they same thing, just mirror images of each other.

So it seemed kind of dumb to me to USE electricity to RUN a motor to DRIVE a generator to produce...ELECTRICITY. Kind of wasteful and inefficient, what with all the friction, noise, heat and other losses. I didn't realize that a transformer-based welding machine wasn't something that's been around forever.

It reminds me of a story my Dad told of a paper mill that he ran back in the 1950s. The operating engineer called him in the middle of the night and said, "The steam engine is running backwards but there is no fire in the boiler!" My Dad went to the mill figuring he was going to have to fire the guy for drinking on the job...but by golly, the steam engine WAS running backwards...and there was no head of steam!

Well, they scratched their heads and looked around and finally figured it out. The steam engine was linked in tandem with a water wheel, so that when the river ran low and they couldn't get power from the water wheel, they could fire up the steam engine to generate electricity and have power to run their long line shafts, etc. Well, something went whacky (I may not be remembering this exactly right, and my Dad has passed on now, so bear with me) but there was water running over the water wheel and turning it, and that converted the electric motor that was linked to the water wheel shaft into a GENERATOR...which sent current to the idle GENERATOR on the steam engine, which turned THAT generator into a MOTOR...which drove the steam engine BACKWARDS (I forget whether it was a piston steam engine or turbine steam engine)...whatever, but I remember my Dad said it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up to see that steam engine turning backwards in the middle of the night when there was no fire and no steam...

Not to go 17 MILES off topic!

Edit: The waterwheel was a turbine. And I think the steam engine was piston type. The waterwheel in question was filmed in one of "The Perils of Pauline" silent pictures of the old days. (That old film of the gal tied down to the railroad tracks was filmed just upriver of there.)

[TozziWelding]

A generator is a generator; it doesn't care if there's a gasoline engine, an electric motor, or a waterwheel driving it. I've never used one of these, but from what I've heard they're supposed to be a really smooth pure DC arc. I guess just like an SA-200 without the noise

10-4 on that, plenty of them running off tractors and old truck motors burning more rods than most of us

[johnboy1234]

lincon welder

Hi chaps .I have just purchessed one of these welders .I am going to use it as a tig welder .They say this type of welder is very good for tig as they have a very fine setting for tig .Has eneyone else used one of these welders .they go back a few years .regards john