Thread: Late 1960's Stick Welder

Collectively we can certainly sort you out with your dad's old welder.
The best way forward will be to upload a couple of good photos of the controls, lead connections and name plate of the beast.
As far as choice of shield goes, I would suggest an auto darkening shield. There are several threads on this forum discussing the merits of various auto shields.
Generally I find that it is better qnd cheaper to buy your supplies from a welding supplier than the hardware stores. At a guess, $100 should get you into a serviceable shield.
One note on old welders and all old tools for that matter, check or have checked all leads particularly the primary lead (240 or 415 volts). 50 year old insulation is often very perished and ratty.

It's still in the boot of the car as it came home last night. I'll grab some photos when I take it out.

As for name plate or brand there is none. The knobs are labelled with that letter clicker tape that make the letters white and embossed. Maybe it was repainted at some stage???

Dad can't remember where he bought it McEwans or McPhersons nor how it works. He not as sharp these days as he's getting on.

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So the left is labeled work, as you can see they are screw terminals. The centre one 50Volts and the right one 80 Volts.
Then there is the plunger on top and the lock knob.

Which terminal takes the ground clamp, and which the rod?

When do I want 50 vs 80 Volts?

What is the plunger for?

Work is the ground clamp
50v is 10g rods
80v is for 12g rods
The plunger is the amps control with a locking screw in the middle.

Okay, we can sort this one dead easy.
It is an old AC "buzz Box" welder. The terminal on the far left is where your earth or work lead goes and the other two are to select your desired open circuit voltage. The 80V ocv terminal will allow you to strike an arc easier and with less tendency to stick, but will give a lower amperage output than the 50V setting. 80V will be needed to run traditional low hydrogen electrodes should you wish.
The plunger is to set your amperage and it will have two sets of numbers on it. One for the 80V range and another for the 50V. The locking knob on the front is loosened, the plunger set to the desired amperage and the knob then tightened to hold that setting.
Peerless made a very similar machine that was very similar to yours.
Certainly not state of the art, but a good solid performer with copper windings that will happily run 2.5 and 3.2mm electrodes. I suspect that it may well require a 15Amp power supply to reach its full performance, so be aware of this.

Thanks for the info. Like I said it is a 1960s unit.


I have several boxes of rods with the machine but I suspect they have past there serviceable state. The a lot of the blue coating has chipped off.


If I want to weld some 90x90mm SHS with a 5mm wall thickness to some 3mm thick angle iron using 2.5mm rods, I guess I should use the 80 Volt setting. What would you suggest would be a suitable amperage?
I will grind the surfaces back about 6mm of paint etc and put a slight chamfer on the edges of the angle iron.

Any good tips for a first time user??? I do a few practices on the offcuts first.

best thing to do now is grab your helmet and a crapload of scrap and practice, practice etc etc.... over time you will get to know the machine. Play around with the different settings (adjusting with the machine turned OFF at the wall) and you will start to see things happen for you in no time. Also check out ChuckE2009 on youtube. He has an extensive selection of tutorials for the beginner welder.

It looks like an old Compak or a Peerless welder .Both made good welders.Built like brick dunnies.

The welder will be copper wound ,most like 4 coils.

Material handling Safety warning. Be careful lifting it .Those buggers are heavy.
Ditto on what Karl said the the input lead. Also they tended to corrode at the connection lugs, so they are worth a clean up.

Grahame

I have a Peerless of similar vintage. The 80v is marked Special and from what I can work out is for unusual rods like hardfacing, low hydrogen, stainless etc.?
Kryn

Originally Posted by DSEL74

Welder_0224.jpgWelder_0226.jpgWelder_0228.jpgWelder_0227-1.jpg

So the left is labeled work, as you can see they are screw terminals. The centre one 50Volts and the right one 80 Volts.
Then there is the plunger on top and the lock knob.

Which terminal takes the ground clamp, and which the rod?

When do I want 50 vs 80 Volts?

What is the plunger for?

As per the comments about practice.

The BOB The Welder helmet is fair purchase for a $95 or so.

Also buy a decent set of welding gloves- Big Reds if you can get them or WIA make a decent pair.I am talking decent stitching and decent inside liner thickness. They are WELDING gloves - use them as such and get a pair of pliers for hot material handling. you may pay $15 or $20 but believe me they are worth every penny of the money and will last double the time the lesser ones do.
Why? because the closer you can be to the arc , the less shaky you will be . I'll explain that a bit later.

Practice Materials
Practice should consist of some flat material at least 8 -10mm thick.

Striking an arc & running a bead
To start any weld,you need to be able to strike the arc and maintain it by moving lengthways and at the same time incrementally move the burning electrode down into the arc pool.Both movements happen together.
This is the basis of welding and is practiced with the practice plate held flat on the bench.

Running consistent beads
The idea is to practice by running a series of parallel beads, each one slightly overlapping its predecessor by a margin of 2/3rds.This provides economy as will will need to do between perhaps 10 -20 surfaces. 100L x 75 will do nicely.

The goal is to deposit beads of:
Even width
Even height
Consistent ripple pattern
Devoid of any slag holes or inclusions- there are other defects but this is ok to start with as a learner.

2.5 electrodes or 3.2mm will do, follow the amps recommendations on the boxes.

More later

Grahame

There are some decent youtube videos out there. I prefere the one on the welding tips and tricks channel, jody is a professional welder whereas chuckE2009 seems to me a bit more like the kid who licked too many 9 volt batteries.
Just be aware that both these channels are American and Americans have an unnatural love affair with 6010 and 6011 electrodes which we rarely see here.
When I you first start out, keep your amps up as it will be easier to start an arc and keep it running. The 80V setting will also assist with arc starting.

Hi,
At the moment nothing has been mentioned regarding your home power outlet for the machine .Please know that this welder will undoubtedly will not run off your normal bog standard 10 amp GPO.

Some people trying to be helpful might say file the big earth pin down but I do advise strongly against it. It is illegal and you could burn down your house.

Sometimes you can be lucky and already have an 15 amp outlet already there in your house for an air conditioner or for a heavy duty washing machine.If you have to run an extension lead keep it as short as possible.

The good news is that these units are near bullet proof apart from the deterioration of the leads. My Compak went under in the 74 Brisbane floods and just needed a tub and dry to get it going.We are all interested to hear and see how you will get on.

Grahame

Git my supplies in order and the welder works & now to see if I work