Stick welder

[PHPaul]

Sounds good! I hope you've got a BIG generator. Welders draw a lot of power, especially when striking the arc.

[Bkeepr]

Sounds good! I hope you've got a BIG generator. Welders draw a lot of power, especially when striking the arc.

We’ll see— it surges to 9400 Watts, and sustains 7500. The 240 circuit is only 30 amps, though, so I am a little concerned. The guy I bought it from ran it on a 60 amp circuit.

Fingers crossed!

[GeneMO]

The Marquette is a great, old name in welding. If you can get it fired up, you will not be disappointed.

I have a small Miller, but have had it since i 1977. We had bought a new Miller in about 1972, but our shop burned in 1976, so we had to start over with everything. We at one time had a Lincoln "tombstone" welder, and it was OK as well.

Good luck, and have fun !!

Gene

[Bkeepr]

Update on the Marquette welder:
While changing the plug on the power cord, I have discovered that someone in the past mis-wired the cord. Almost made a serious error with the new plug for the generator as a result. So now I am at it with my multimeter and a copy of the 1936 operators manual to make sure I get it right before I power it up.

I am doubting that I will be able to run it at full power on a 30 amp circuit, but pretty sure I can get to 175 amps output or so, enough for my needs. Turns out this model (#300) was intended for professional use, and isn’t the normal farm version, which were models 100-200. I wasn’t expecting the weight—not sure how much it weighs for sure, but I think it is on the order of 200 lbs.

Anyway, so far it’s an interesting project and hopefully soon I’ll have a solid welder.

[GeneMO]

Can you run a heavy wire to it in a building/shop somewhere. Not sure what Amperage my welder plug is. Most likely 100 Amp. I will look here in a minute, headed to the shop.

Gene

[Bkeepr]

Well, it is up and running and I've run a half dozen beads or so with it. When I ran several sticks back-to-back at 150 amps the generator breaker popped, so I guess I exceed the duty cycle. Ooops.

But, it works at several different output levels and if I don't get greedy and run it too long I am still confident I can use 180 Amps or so without blowing anything. Now I just have to get used to starting and running a bead, which apparently harder than it is with my wire-feed because I'm having a heck of a striking an arc (is that why they call them "sticks"???) and running a good bead. But practice makes "good enough."

Paul-- thanks for giving me the green light to buy this thing. I am impressed with it for a lot of reasons, even if I never get to run it at full power. I bought it for one project on the tractor, but I suspect I'll be using it for a lot more once I get used to it.

[PHPaul]

Striking an arc can be aggravating. Different techniques work with different rods.

I find that "scratching" rather than tapping or poking works better for me. New, clean, dry rod helps too. Also easier at higher amperage, at least for me.

[Red Dave]

I've found that the stick seems to get a coating on the end of the rod that has to be knocked off to strike the arc. It must be non-conductive. So, my workaround is to lay a brick next to me when I'm welding. I scrape the end of the rod across the brick just before I go to strike an arc. Seems to help make that initial arc strike easier.

I'm sure that a "Real" welder would roll their eyes and snicker at the idea, but it works pretty good for me.

[PHPaul]

I'm sure that a "Real" welder would roll their eyes and snicker at the idea, but it works pretty good for me.

Well, I'm not a "real" welder - I don't even play one on TV - but that seems like a great idea to me! I'm gonna set a brick on top of my stick welder.

Of course, by the time I need to stick weld again, I'll wonder what the hell that brick is doing there...

[GeneMO]

If I had a nickel for every welding rod I had stuck solid, well I would have a lot of money !!!

Gene