Question for someone with knowledge on old welders, I should say..... A buddy told me about a welder that I might be able to acquire. I asked him what it was and he said he didn't know, but it had a some sort of tank on the bottom of it....and it was big. So I'm a thinkin, hey maybe it's an older water cooled tig.....JACKPOT!! He had it at his work, so I went up there with him. Turns out, it's not a tig, but an old stick welder. Never seen anything like it. Basically, it looks like a big hog. Or more like a 30 gallon barrel on its side. It's made by WILSON. 220V. Big (approx)10 inch wheel on the top of it for fine voltage(I'm ***uming)adjustment, with a low-high range switch towards the front. I've never heard of WILSON welders. Tried to research it and came up with nothing. Looks to be of something from the '50s or '60s, maybe even earlier. Anyone have any facts about the WILSON stick welder? Thanks in advance.
Sounds like the one we had at my old shop from a ship yard for welding hulls togther when you turn it on. a motor / generator spins sorry no other info but that would weld anything Paul Jug
We have one where I work, I think ours is a Lincon though. Sounds like the same style though. I have a book on it in my tool box, but I am laid off the rest of the week. If you have some time I will try and get in there sometime and get a copy for Ya.
I knew I should've snapped some photos of it. Paul, he did say that when it's turned on it made a (I quote)"whirring noise" that sounded like it was gonna take off for flight.
Sounds like an old DC machine. Probably a beast with a 100% duty cycle. Those old motor driven machines are the berries. Very smooth running, giant windings, solid copper. Buy it.
If it's an old motor drive welder they are great to convert to tig. Infinately controlable and powerfull! Bill.
These old motor driven generators are powerful, but it's limited in usefullness as a tig. If you only want to do steel, it's be OK, but being DC only you can't weld aluminum with it. Remember what this was designed for heavy-duty welding of thick plate. Sure it's a neat machine but useful for automotive? I think you'd be money ahead buying a new lincoln. Especially if automotive is the only use you have for this machine. Dan Stevens dba, Steelsmith
Thanks for your input guys. The operative word here is "acquire" (meaning little or nothing invested), so, take that into consideration. I really have no use for it in my garage; already have a decent sized mig and I plan on purchasing a tig welder in the near future. It'll probably end up at my folks' lakehouse out in the boonies-where '**** happens' and stuff breaks and I won't have to lug my mig down there anymore. Maybe make that add-on to the steel span garage........
OK I'm not a pro weldor but I stopped and checked with my old buddys son and he confirmed what I rememberd. Was an old vertical motor generater that he added tig to. Was the smoothest running set up I ever saw. He could and did weld thin sheet metal up to real heavy stuff. DC only so it would weld copper, br***, stainless and any type of steel but NOT aluminum. And thats all I know bout that, Bill.
We had a couple of these motor driven welders where I worked. Wonderfull welders but usually 440V or 575V three phase. Hard to run at home.
Like Bearing Burner says "usually 440 three phase" tuff to run at home. These things are old school, one of the smoothest running stick machines you will ever strike an arc with! Should run DC TIG, could even go low buck and get yourself a scratch start TIG torch for it. Good luck John
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