Welding Tips and Tricks

A fella i know gave me a buzzbox today. I took it apart tonight and did maintenance then sanded it and gave it a coat of old school grey paint instead of the red that I usually do them in. I dig it!

I did it this time because this is an old 60s model with solid copper leads from the transformer to the switch (instead of wires) and dual power transformer. The work and stinger is side by side coming out. I've not seen one in a buzzbox before. I've had a few copper models, but the earliest one has been 73.

Luckily I've wired a few idealarc and knew the h3 was a high voltage lead. I tried it on it because it came that way and the welds were super cold and it threw a breaker at only 115 amps on the dial.

So how rare are the dual voltage ac225s? This is the first one I've had out of ten of them, 3 being copper models pre-75. None of the diagrams I've looked up for the 225 refer to dual voltage models.
















Direct links
https://s20.postimg.org/rvfjohz6l/20180318_175557.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/4tyyiqrt9/20180318_175704.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/7bapq0yv1/20180318_184302.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/7o23w7wkd/20180318_205621.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/hld4p9wgd/20180318_214200.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/skyc0ukal/20180318_214240.jpg
https://s20.postimg.org/p1ceb24q5/20180318_223424.jpg

Things that don't add up; The Brady labels appear to be plastic. In 61 Brady was only producing fabric labels.
Plastic Brady labels didn't come into production till the late 60s. Also note the #2 printed above your bird finger in that pic. That printing is factory.

Second, Lincoln 225 machines used a steel spindle & knob in the range switch until 65± when Lincoln cheapened the machine to get into the then new homeowner market. I have a 64 vintage floating around someplace and spindle & knob are steel.

That machine appears to be all copper wound, so the transformer is correct for a 61 machine. Lincoln wasn't able to produce an aluminum wound machine with copper flying leads until they either worked out licensing with Miller who had invented the process for welding aluminum windings to copper flying leads. Miller held Patents and guarded them with pitbulls. There was very little love between Lincoln and Miller back then as both were trying to get into the emerging low cost welder market. It was an interesting point in time when LWSs fought by day and filled each other's cylinders in dark of night.

I'd opine your off color Lincoln has had the range switch replaced, or at least the shaft and pointer replaced. The steel shafts did lock into the bearing occasionally and responded poorly to hammer adjustment even when correct technique was used.

Call it a 61 with an update kit.
I have great doubt it's a dual voltage machine.
If you really want to turn heads paint it blue. One of my vertical rotarys is blue and I've been informed it is illegal in 38 States to paint a Lincoln blue. It was company blue when I bought it, and it will stay blue. I have yet to see a Welder Cop car nu Neuevo Hillarea.

If it was mine I'd replace the pinwheel fan with a pair of 5" muffin fans and save future problems.
Back in the early 60s there was strong speculation the only difference between the 180 and the 225 was the pinwheel blower added for cooling. I never measured wires on either machine so I can't say.

Thanks for the info. I know it's pre-71 and thats good enough for me. I'd agree that knowing how bad the original selectors were it could have been modified, but that doesn't work out the h1, h2, h3, labels. Those were later 60s.The holes are side by side on the work cable, and the amperage output is different from the aluminum versions (faceplate reads different output). I've changed the voltage already and the machine welded completely different. H2 is 208 to 220 and h3 is high voltage. On H3 it was welding around 50 amps on 115 amps setting. Barely would run a 3/32 rod. On H2 it smokes rods like it should. Interesting note, the transformer is mounted backwards in this version.

This is something seen in idealarc 250s, but not usually buzzbox's. The difference in how it welds is exactly like when I ran my idealarc 250 on H3, then switched it back to h2. I did find 1 reference to this buzzbox on welding web and was said to be rare. here is the pic of it.





As you seem to be aware there are at least 4 versions of ac225 transformer. 3 are substantial and one is just a different work lead to the ac/dc version.

I have all of them, so here are pics. I suspect that there were very few dual voltage models and that would only be in the ones that didn't use a flat solid ribbon to connect to the switch.








The first two are copper version pre-75. They both have wings, but only one has the h2 and h3 wire leads to the switch. If you want to get really technical, the wings are different. The later copper version has ribbon leads. The 2nd version copper transformer ribbon leads are half the width of the later years aluminum transformer ribbon leads.

Here is the post found for the dual voltage ac225s. Note that the front of the machine does not boast of dual voltage capability. It's not only "apperantly" rare, it's basically a secret inside. Based on advertising and front plate information, it would be accurate to say there were no dual voltage ac225s........ Advertised. At least 1 other person knows they exist.




My 69 idealarc 250 uses the h1, h2, h3 tags, but my 57 idealarc 300 uses the big switchplate and bar bands.



I bought the little buzzbox some stilts today so it wouldn't have to sit so low beside the big 300 lol. I put all my buzzboxes on dollys.

OK, dialing my onboard back to 1960, common references for voltage in the era when most utilities ran 4160 primary voltage, the common term for electric entering the house was 110/220 volts. 30 amps was considered more than necessary for a single family home, and I do recall actually getting hands on with a 1940s electric range that could be connected either 110 or 220.

The 240 volt "standard" didn't come into common conversation until the 70s when Primary was pretty much 7120 volts nationwide.

Given Lincoln's market area, I'd say they well might have built to accommodate whatever voltage was available where the machine was sold, and the dealer set the machine up accordingly. Unfortunately, the 2 men I know who could set that speculation to rest are both dead.

Also, opening those miserable housings up and closing them again was never considered a fun way to spend an hour. As I recall they were generally springy as all hell and a PITA to mate to the front and back covers.

I may risk life and limb forcing past alligators to see if I retained the literature from one I bought new in 63.

I have the one for my 69 idealarc 250 and the h1, h2, h3 sections read exactly like this buzzbox. Very odd that this machine is tapped like it is.
It sounds more like I'm reading the manual for the buzzbox in this particular case. Lol. Thing i find most interesting is that lincoln had to plan this and run the taps building it like this regardless of who set it up. It's in the case backwards so its tapped on the opposite side it normally would be. The big choke usually faces forward and everything is tapped on the right side. This one faces backwards and it's tapped on the right side. Makes me wonder if they stole this dual voltage from the idealarc, but built it into the buzzbox transformer so they had to install the core backwards.

Whole different world back then; Lincoln was a much different company than it became by 1970.

Chances are the machine was designed at the lunch table, sketched out to see if it could overcome a problem a field rep had brought in. What the initial complaint was is lost to history.

Somebody else grabbed a transformer and modified it, and the machine got bolted together to go to the lab where field conditions could be simulated. If it worked limited production could be done and shipped to where the problem existed. Notes and sketches went to Drafting, and eventually wound up in file cabinets.

I've no idea what happened to all those files, the men who answered phones, accessed the files and answered questions from the field have long retired, computers and scanners have supposedly stored what was on the paper,but unless the Model & Code numbers bring something up on screen it doesn't exist in the 2018 land of Lincoln.
Add to that much of the Archived documents don't come up for most reps and it becomes a problem. 2018 management doesn't see sufficient profit to justify keeping 1960 let alone 1940 information available. Sell new machines is the mantra.

I took it apart to finish painting tonight and grabbed a pic of what I'm saying on the transformer. Usually there is one choke on the front facing the faceplate. This has one on front AND back.

Normal most common has nothing in the back and a big fat wide winding in the front:





This dual voltage model has two. One in the front, and one in the back.




Oh and just for kicks this is another way to know the dual voltage transformers. With or without the tags, the connectors are numbered.



The windings on the dual voltage are huge compared to another early copper version.






Anyway it turned out looking great.....