Old Marquette Welder

[dwall174]

Being that most of my woodworking & metalworking equipment is older rebuilt Rockwell/Delta machines, I thought it was fitting to rebuild this old Marquette Arc welder.

Doug

 

[jabberwoki]

Very nice job it works right?

 

[dwall174]

here's the back view that I ment to add to the first post!

 

[dwall174]

Very nice job it works right?

Works great! Possibly better than the newer units.
The welder probably weighs close to 200lbs. and all the coils are copper.

I do need to get some new cables for it, But the Marquette plug ends are a odd size. I'm going to get a friend of mine to machine some new tapered plugs so that I can make up new cables.

I completely disassembled the cabinet & cleaned & re-tightened all the connections. All of the connections to the outlet plugs are soldered & then covered in heat shrink tubing.

Doug

 

[jhn9840]

Very nice old welder. Is that an AC machine?

Jhn9840
John

 

[dwall174]

Is that an AC machine?

Yea it's a 20 ~ 200 Amp AC!
The pic's of the face plate are not that clear, I had a local sign shop that does truck lettering make me a new vinyl decal for the old face plate.

 

[jhn9840]

Very cool. Nothing like the old stuff. Show us some action pictures when you get your cables made up.

Jhn9840
John

 

[zkling]

Looks fantastic, great job

Good to go for at least 50 more years if not more.

 

[dwall174]

Very nice job

Very nice old welder.

Looks fantastic, great job

Thanks everyone for your replies & complements!

Doug

 

[Warpspeedpetey]

Wow, that 's a great looking welder you got there. Did it take a lot of work? I'm getting ready to start on mine. I don't know anything about it other than it's a Marquette Model 16, 250 . It's the coolest looking thing on steel wheels to me though.

 

[dwall174]

Wow, that 's a great looking welder you got there. Did it take a lot of work?

It wasn't really that hard since most of the connections are already wired straight to the transformer & the plug connections are soldered to each lead. The only moving part is the switch, Which I disassembled & cleaned the contacts with steel wool. Each one of those plug connections will have a lock nut & washer on the back of the front panel, Loosen the lock nuts & then the front caps should twist off. The wires to the plugs are fairly heavy & will stay in place once the front panel is removed, But I put a piece of tape & the amp# on each wire just to be sure! I did clean each solder connection with a wire brush & then applied heat shrink tubing to each connection, Mainly because I all ready had it on hand. Once the panels were all removed it was easy to sand & re-paint them. Then all that was really needed was a wire brush to clean some light rust off of the frame & re-paint the frame. I used a air nozzle to blow out the dust on the coils then wiped them down with some WD-40.

I needed to replace the ground connection plug since the wrong connector had been used & it caused the connection to become sloppy & not fit correctly. I had to use a Miller style connector since the Marquette plugs are a different size & not available any longer.

On mine the top & bottom are metal & the sides are fiberglass, There's a inner frame made of metal that the sides attach to. This frame's bottom is isolated from the main transformer's frame by some special fabric washers. This isolation of the main transformer & the inner frame is important, Since there's a good chance of getting a shock from the metal part of the cabinet after the welder is turned off.

In my case the previous owner had mounted some new casters to the base & he unintentionally (through the bolts used) made the connection between the transformer's isolated frame & the frame for the sides. This caused a good shock if you touched the metal top or bottom right after the welder was turned off! I'm not sure if it was from static electricity or possibly from the capacitor discharging? But “Trust Me” I wouldn't need any more coffee after that jolt! Once I figured out & fixed the isolation problem the welder is user friendly again, No shocks at all & it works great!

Doug

 

[camjeep3]

neat old welder. Got to love the old stuff! go ahead and make your leads longer than you think you will need. I got my maxstar used and figured 20feet of lead would be plenty on such a small portable machine. I wish I had at least 10 more feet!

 

[Murphy4570]

neat old welder. Got to love the old stuff! go ahead and make your leads longer than you think you will need. I got my maxstar used and figured 20feet of lead would be plenty on such a small portable machine. I wish I had at least 10 more feet!

Agreed on that. I find that about 50 feet is long enough. You can reach well into the driveway from inside the garage that way.

I'd also suggest you fabricate a 10-20 foot 220V extension cord as well. Those old AC stick welders had terribly short electrical cords for some reason. Or my Lincoln AC-225 from the '50s does, anyway.

 

[dwall174]

go ahead and make your leads longer than you think you will need

Yea I'm planning to get a 100' of cable & make up two sets, One set will be about 35' & the other set about 15'

Doug

 

[dwall174]

I'd also suggest you fabricate a 10-20 foot 220V extension cord as well. Those old AC stick welders had terribly short electrical cords for some reason. Or my Lincoln AC-225 from the '50s does, anyway.

I all ready had a 220V extension cord made up for another machine! Came in handy since this welder only has about a 4' cord on it. I was going to add a longer cord on it when I had it apart, But I left it as is & just wired in new a outlet under the bench the welder will be located next to.

Doug

 

[Warpspeedpetey]

Sounds like fun. I love restoring old equipment. I'm going to step up my game and buy a paint rig. This is a piece of art.

 

[Biwing]

I know that this is an old posting but I have just aquired an old Marquette 200A welder with the same round amp setting as your pictured 220A.

I was wondering if I could get a copy/picture of the serial plate off from the top of your machine with the factory data such as current draw/ duty cycle ect.

I can only read the serial number of from mine. (L-773084)

I'm curious as to the age of the machine as well as the data plate contents.

This welder works just fine. I aquired it from the spouse of the dead owner/welder's estate.

Thank you for any information that anyone can share about this machine......

Biwing

 

[dwall174]

I know that this is an old posting but I have just aquired an old Marquette 200A welder with the same round amp setting as your pictured 220A.

Not sure what happened to my original pic's?
I'll re-post them. BTW mine is also a 200 amp unit.

I was wondering if I could get a copy/picture of the serial plate off from the top of your machine with the factory data such as current draw/ duty cycle ect.

Sure I'll get a pic of the serial/name plate, My 200A welder states it has a 20% duty cycle, But I've only had it cut-out on me once & that was when using 3/16" rod at 160 amps. It was also during the summer & the temperature was in the upper 80's.


Doug

 

[Biwing]

I'm sorry for taking soo long to reply but it's been hectic around here.

Thank you soo much for the nameplate photo. It has the information that I've been looking for.

There is a serious lacking of information available on the internet for these machines.

Your box looks different than mine but the controls look in the same places. I assumn that the 'N' in the serial number is a two step up in improvements to my 'L' designated machine.

Rich

 

[dwall174]

There is a serious lacking of information available on the internet for these machines.

Yeah there's not much out there on them. You could try doing a search on "Old Forney Welders" They had a similar design to the Marquette's

One thing I can tell you, Is the tapered sockets & plugs are a unique shape & not common with either Lincoln or Miller tapered sockets or plugs.

I managed to come up with a couple of the sockets, But wasn't able to find any of the tapered plugs. I ended up replacing the ground plug & socket with a Miller style connector.

The old Marquette style sockets on my machine are all silver soldered on, No crimp or clamp style sockets.

Attached are some pic's of the old ground socket I removed.

Doug

 

[dwall174]

I'm curious as to the age of the machine as well as the data plate contents.

Judging by some of the old Forney's I've seen with a similar style, I'm guessing my Marquette is from somewhere around the mid 1950's ~ 1960's

Doug