I have a small 110 welder I use for sheet metal and light fab work. I really want something with a liitle more ass to do chassis work. I've done some looking on Craigslist, bargainnews ect. There are alot of the Lincoln "Tombstone" 220v arc welders out there for real good prices. Are these suitable for chassis work? I understand that there will be a learning curve going from mig to arc. I will need to practice on some scrap to get confortable with it. Thanks as always. Todd
nothing wrong with arc welding ,i would look for a ac/dc one , as far as the learning curve practice on scrap ,if you need help pm me ,i weld for a living ,and would be glad to help, i wanna see that chevy rollin!-joe
Arc is all they had in the past and lotta old welds still out there,,I can Arc ( and not badly if I do say so myself ) It's pretty easy and yeah just practice on scrap,,hardest part for me when I was little was getting the rod stuck lol,,but once you get going and a rhythm/flow its easy
Morning Joe, Thanks for the reply. I may take you up on that offer. The old Lincolb Buzz boxes are the ones I keep seeing up for sale. Dom and I missed ya at the open house in Wallingford. Great time, about 200 people. Thanks Todd
Every hotrod chassis I have ever built was built with an old Lincoln 180 Amp A.C. stick welder and 6013 rod. I have NEVER had a weld failure. There is a learning curve, but its an easy learn.---Brian
The only welding I have ever done over the past 50 years is stick welding, to include building by latest car. Oops, sorry, I do do a lot of gas welding using coat hangers too...............
Built my first dirt track car over 40 years ago with a Lincoln Tombstone 225 AC only welder that I bought used. Today I still have that welder and it still works great if you just give the fan motor about 5 minutes head start to get up to speed. One of these days I gotta put a new fan motor in! I have always used Fleetweld 180 rods (AWS 6011) for good penetration, fast freeze in out of position welds, and because they require less amps than the FW 37 AWS 6013 rods, thereby putting less load on the welder duty cycle. I know the 6013 makes a nicer, smoother bead, but for myself I think the advantages I have related for the 6011 outweigh the appearance of the 6013. Dave
I agree with the other Brian. My old Lincoln buzz box gets the nod for chassis work and brackets. My welding ain't pretty sometimes, but it's Hell for stout. Brian
I use 6011 for vertical seams because of the "quick freeze" but its a splattery little bastard. 6013 is a lot cleaner in terms of weld splatter, and 99% of chassis welds can be downhand if you build the chassis "off the body" like I traditionally do.---Brian
todd , like i said look for an ac/dc machine that way you wont be limited to just ac ,dc welds nice ,some rods are dc only , as your skill level gets better you will be able to do more --pm me and i will helpyou out --joe
get the biggest heaviest AC/DC welder you can the bigger ones will have a longer duty cycle and will give a more consistant weld
The only problum with the lincoln buzz box is you can't fine tune the heat. The dile clicks sometimes jumping 20 amps. If you are duing vertical or over head welds thi is a problum. Look for a welder with a rotary dile something you CAN adjust 2 or 3 amps. If i only had one welder it would be a stick. You cant use a mig or tig out doors with the wind blowing it blowes the shilding gas away. I have welded hundreds of snow plows out doors during snowstorms and thay are still plowing 20 years later.the first two numders on the rod is the stranth of the weld. 6011 means 60 thousand pounds per inch of weld. The thurd is the position you can weld 1 is all position. 7024 is 70 thousand pounds the 2 is flat only.
The ones that I keep seeing are the Lincoln 220V A/C machines. Some people call them buzzboxes or tombstones. Todd
I used an old Lincoln AC-225 with 6013 rod to build the chassis for my '34 pickup. 12k miles on some of the roughest roads in the country and no problems yet. I have since graduated to a 220v 175a mig machine (that after only two years, unfortunately, just took a crap yesterday...) but I still use the ol buzzbox if I'm welding thick stuff. Like others have said, an ac/dc machine is more versatile but I wouldn't pass up a AC-225 if the price is right.
Gotta agree here, buy the biggest unit you can, but also be sure it has a variable shunt (or dial or crank or...) so you can fine tune the delivery for whatever rod (type and diameter) you are using on whatever material you have. Read up on the various types of welding rod so you have an idea of what the different uses are, but given the price of rod these days you'll probably be using alot of 6011. If you can buy small quantities of rod then practice with 6013, 7014 and 7024. The 7016 and 7018 are for experienced welders. Enjoy. .
Those old lincoln buzz boxs are hard to beat. You can find them cheap nowadays, well worth the money, they've stuck a lot of metal together.
I built my last rod with an old Lincoln AC buzzbox. Match the correct rod numbers and size with the job at hand. It's slow and hard to make real pretty welds but use the right rods and you'll be fine.
The 225 amp Lincolns are under $300 new! Saw one at Lowes last week. I bought one for $35 a couple years ago at an estate sale. It even had 30ft 2/0 leads. Unfortunatly, my old AC/DC Forney, an early 60s model, was stolen many years ago. It was the best stick welder I ever used. It even sounded like the electrical sound effects in a 50 year old horror movie when melting metal.
90% of all the hotrods built between the "day" and 1990 had their cahssis and bracketry welded up by a good old Lincoln 225 AC machine. All the new tech makes things prettier and easier but the halls of history will have a golden pillar atop which will be a Lincoln 225 the lo-buck welder that did the job for decade after decade without complaint.
I have a Wilson, a K. O. Lee, a Sears Simpson, a Marquette, and 2 Miller buzz boxes. $35 is the most I have ever paid, But I buy any that are that cheap. I put them where ever I might think I need them and leave them till they quit or get stolen. I have a long extension cord and a fine set of leads and a stinger that I pack around. This is a lot easier for me to transport than moving a welder closer or moving things out of the way so that I can get close to my welder. I might use a welder a dozen times a year to make something or repair something, but for what I have invested it is well worth the effort and I hope to never be without one again.
Sorry for a side topic remark here. I was just laughing at myself because I fully expected this question to start another debate. (just got burned in my own thread) My compliments to everyone for keeping it constructive. This is what the HAMB is all about. That said, yep, My first chassis was done with a little SEARS 110v stick box using some GP rods. I know it wasn't pretty, but when last seen, it was being crushed as scrap and none of the joints failed. (that's destructive testing for ya) Ha, it was an old V8 sand rail. Ah, memories...
I have my AC/DC Lincoln set up for scratch start TIG, with a water cooler. My current project chassis is being built with it. Works fine. Craig
A little O/T...hope I can use this thread for a question since its about chassis welding. I plan on buying a new MIG/MAG welder...since I am not in USA we have a different current then You do. This machine can work on 1 phase 230V current and on 3 phase 400V current. I have first one in my garage but I plan to upgrade on 3 phase 400V. Amp range on 1 phase is 25-150A with 6 power settings and can manage 0,6 and 0,8 mm wire. My question is: Is that welder strong enough to weld chassis? Thank You!
I agree to all thats ben said above. Im also a 6011 fan. Aint nothing You cant weld with it in any position. With practice it can look nice too. Clean up the splatter afterwards. Ive welded lots of exhaust with 3/32 6011 before I got a 110 Mig. You can build a stronger chassis with a buzz box than a 110 Mig. FEDER
The 60xx or 70xx is tensile strength of the filler metal in thousands of lbs per square inch, not per inch of weld. Just so no one thinks an inch long fillet weld will hold 60,000 lbs! The big advantage of a DC machine IMO is that the rod burns consistently from new down to the end, while AC varies, particularly with smaller rods.
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