cleaning up the shop and broke out ole blue

[richard2717]

I have not used this welder in quite a few years. I bought it from one of the 1st companies I worked for out of high school. I learned to aluminum tig weld on it back in the 80's and quite honestly have not used it since the early 90's. So while cleaning up and could get to it I pulled it out, cleaned it up, hooked it up and decided to see if everything still worked. It is a 450 amp AC/DC high freq. with liquid cooled tig attachment. Arc Welder side worked great still right out of the box. I had a couple issues with the tig side with the liquid cooler. It would not come on at 1st. Traced that down to the electric wire for the pump had come unplugged inside the front cover of the main welder. Plugged that back in and it came on fine. Let it run for a little and turned around to see the coolant pouring on the floor. Shut it down and at that point remembered it has an open top return that has a filter screen on it. Screen plugged up from sitting for years. Pulled screen out and cleaned it all up now everything is working as it should. Had a new pack of tungsten but most of the cups are either outright broke or chipped so could not do too much with it but did finally get back in to the swing of it. I had forgotten how much more control you have over tig vs the mig with spool gun. Now i gotta decide if I am gonna keep it or let it go lol. anyone else have one of these monsters?


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[twinturboc10]

I have a 300 amp Miller Dialarc HF that I use often. I believe it was made in 1980. It still works great. Bought it from a Tech school that was installing new units. It’s heavy and takes up a lot of space, but getting anywhere near that amperage with a new unit is awful expensive! It would be nice to have the extra space and a more portable welder, but I don’t know if the new tech actually welds any better.