New welder in the shop.

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Bought a new Lincoln welder yesterday.

This machine has so many bells and whistles that I have to learn, that I know I’ll be asking for a lot of help here. Now for some background, I’ve been welding since I was 14, and I’m in my 70s now. Went through a welding school in my 20s, taught welding a bit in adult ed night classes, and in grad school studied welding engineering a bit. The former newest machine is a Miller MiG weleer. And my old tig is a Lincoln Square Wave 175, the big old transformer type machine that is basically bulletproof, but doesn’t really like to work at lower power levels. And has no way to adjust any parameters other than the amperage.

So, I’ll be getting it up and running today and starting to get the feel of it. In the meantime any suggestions are greatly appreciated and welcomed. I’ve got a couple of projects coming up that will need the lower power setting capability, and some aluminum stuff that I’m looking forward to using the wave manipulation capabilities for. Just what I’ll need to adjust is ??? in my mind. So give me some hints, suggestions, experiences or anything else that comes to mind. Thanks…

 

[Jacko264]

Very nice and with all your experience I am sure you will soon get it dancing
we must be like twins I started welding at 14 and still am at 69
Graham

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Very nice and with all your experience I am sure you will soon get it dancing
we must be like twins I started welding at 14 and still am at 69
Graham

Brothers from different mothers, as they say. Tell us more.

Just been reading the instructions for the new one. Not much to say. At least it explained how to control the machine. The old one has two controls, ac or dc, and amperage settings. The new one has a couple of new ones that I have to learn about. More with regards to ac settings than dc. I have a bucket full of scrap metal, well 2 actually, so I’ve got stuff to practice on. Set it up today, but a migraine kept me from doing that. Maybe tomorrow if I get all of the running around done.

 

[Jacko264]

Sorry to hear about the migraine I hope you soon feel better
Graham

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Sorry to hear about the migraine I hope you soon feel better
Graham

It’s Friday am and finally feeling better. I’ve had these since I was 6 years old. I’m in my early 70s now. The doctors keep telling me that they will go away by the time I’m ** years older. Starting in my teens, then 20s, and ratcheting up every decade. I guess I’ll be over them before I get to 100. Which, btw, I’m not planning on…

 

[NUTTSGT]

I've looked at them but I find it kind of hard to buy red. . . I did see the price jumped a few bucks on June 1st.

 

[Jacko264]

How often do you get migraines?
A mate of mine gets them and goes to bed and in the dark to get rid of them

 

[no704]

My dad would suffer migraines. His doctor gave him a list of foods to avoid them slowly add back in. Turned out to be dark chocolate.

 

[Brianf60]

we must be like twins I started welding at 14 and still am at 69
Graham

Why did you guys wait until so late in life to start welding?

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

How often do you get migraines?
A mate of mine gets them and goes to bed and in the dark to get rid of them

Couple times per week. If I recognize the onset, the blind spot followed by an aura, and take medication right away, then it doesn’t progress to a bad day long or worse headache. However the worst are the ones that I wake up with. Then I’m in for a day to two days before it’ll subside. The real problem isn’t that I get them, it’s that my wife is disabled and I can’t take a full day off from helping her. Meals, bathroom breaks, etc. Stress and not sticking to a routine are my main triggers. I’ve done the cutting out just about everything for diet, and adding stuff back in over time. I don’t drink anything alcoholic anymore, that was a big trigger as it turned out. And like Tom T Hall’s song, I like beer, it makes me a jolly good fellow…

So I didn’t get out to the garage again today to try out the new machine. I’m hoping tomorrow is a better day so that I can give it a shot.

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Why did you guys wait until so late in life to start welding?

My excuse is I’m a slow learner. That was the year I graduated from fifth grade…

 

[Jacko264]

My father had his own company repairing cars so I started gas welding at about 14 years old.
then I moved onto stick at my first job and when mig and tig came along moved to them and plasma cutting .
I also did plastic welding on bus Lino floors that took me to 66 and retired
but I still have welders in the garage to play with

 

[Brianf60]

I started brazing at 13. Learned how to Arc and Mig weld in high school.

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Seems to be a consistent path for learning about welding.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Any progress ? I was at the LWS and checking out the same welder coming out of the box.

 

[Tim_with_a_T]

Hey Dave,
Keep us posted on the welder! For the migraines, I've never tried this, but the internet says this helps:
Heat and cold therapy. Try this the next time you feel a migraine coming on: Put a cold pack on your neck and forehead. Meanwhile, put your hands and feet into hot water (as hot as you can stand). This draws blood away from your head and into your extremities, which can ease pain.

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Any progress ? I was at the LWS and checking out the same welder coming out of the box.

No, I’m such a slacker! I got it all set up later last week, but things just keep getting in the way. I’m hoping to get into the garage tomorrow and give it a little bit of a shake down. I’ve got lots of scrap metal in the garage, so I should be able to find some stuff to weld together…

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Hey Dave,
Keep us posted on the welder! For the migraines, I've never tried this, but the internet says this helps:
Heat and cold therapy. Try this the next time you feel a migraine coming on: Put a cold pack on your neck and forehead. Meanwhile, put your hands and feet into hot water (as hot as you can stand). This draws blood away from your head and into your extremities, which can ease pain.

Never heard of both at once. I’m going to have to try that next time. Have you seen the company over here in Pennsylvania that is manu new Devin bodies? Look up devinsportscarsllc.com. They are making new 295 bodies. Might be worth checking out for a future project. I’m thinking about one for Sonny, Son of Whatever. I’ve been collecting all sorts of parts for it, and I have pictures from the internet of new Kurtis style sports car chassis that could be easily replicated to have beam axles front and rear. Just wondering how much it costs. Haven’t sent an email yet to ask about the body.

 

[Hohn]

I've looked at them but I find it kind of hard to buy red. . . I did see the price jumped a few bucks on June 1st.

Just swipe the card, easy as pie!
Kidding aside, I really wanted to get into a "branded" machine, but just found the price increment about too much of an obstacle.

It's really hard to find stuff between the fly-by-night social-media hyped brands (yeswelder, primeweld, everlast, etc) and the big guys. I figure buying used and branded at least gets you some support. Unfortunately some of the branded stuff isn't such high quality now. The Maxstar 161 is a board-killing machine with poor reliability. It was crossed off my short list.

Alas, my Sanrex does a lot of what a Maxstar does (but is missing stuff like pulsed TIG), but $600 vs $1600 I figure I can live without some of that.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Just swipe the card, easy as pie!
Kidding aside, I really wanted to get into a "branded" machine, but just found the price increment about too much of an obstacle.

It's really hard to find stuff between the fly-by-night social-media hyped brands (yeswelder, primeweld, everlast, etc) and the big guys. I figure buying used and branded at least gets you some support. Unfortunately some of the branded stuff isn't such high quality now. The Maxstar 161 is a board-killing machine with poor reliability. It was crossed off my short list.

Alas, my Sanrex does a lot of what a Maxstar does (but is missing stuff like pulsed TIG), but $600 vs $1600 I figure I can live without some of that.

Oh, I know the easy as pie routine and have no issue doing so. . . I won't be making minimum payments on it either.

I know the Lincoln 205 the OP bought is probably a nice machine but I believe I will be staying with an ITW brand.

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Well, a little update. I have done some practice welds with the machine. So far just steel, but it works really well. No rod beads nice and clean but a little concave. Using rod, got nice beads, certainly not stacks of dimes, more like dime, dime, dime, nickel, dime, nickel, dime, nickel… you get the idea. But that’s just me. My hands shake a little bit these days, I call it my automatic weave bead when stick welding. All in all, I think with more practice I’ll be able to make better welds. I’ve got some aluminum that I want to try soon, and I’ll see if it looks better than what I could do with the older machine.

 

[Tim_with_a_T]

Well, a little update. I have done some practice welds with the machine. So far just steel, but it works really well. No rod beads nice and clean but a little concave. Using rod, got nice beads, certainly not stacks of dimes, more like dime, dime, dime, nickel, dime, nickel, dime, nickel… you get the idea. But that’s just me. My hands shake a little bit these days, I call it my automatic weave bead when stick welding. All in all, I think with more practice I’ll be able to make better welds. I’ve got some aluminum that I want to try soon, and I’ll see if it looks better than what I could do with the older machine.

Thanks for the update- how do you feel about navigating the controls? Is it intuitive or difficult to understand?

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

Thanks for the update- how do you feel about navigating the controls? Is it intuitive or difficult to understand?

Pretty easy to navigate the controls. I’ll try to get a few pictures of the controls next time I practice with it, as I don’t want to misstate what they are are and what they do. Remember that I’m not a spring chicken, and really don’t like computers, even though I used them for most of my career as a research scientist. And I am comfortable using the controls. I’m going to be mostly using it for steel, so in reality I’ll probably use just the function that cycles the amperage from where the max setting is, or the pedal, to the lower part of the setting. But I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress