SA 200 Red face...

I called about the SA 200 I dropped off. I told them to call me if it was going to be much over $500. They said $796. Should I be a little upset?
It needed a new carb, spark plugs and magneto parts because the mag seal was leaking and not the front engine seal.
The good news is that the generator was load tested and put out 310 amps at 23? volts which is within specs. So the bottom line is I get an early 60's red face in good running condition for $1400. Should I not worry that they didn't call me or did I get a pretty good deal over all? All I need now is a battery and cables along with welding cables. Should I tell the guy I gave the $600 deposit to that it needed more work than he thought? I kind of think that it would have sold for what I have in it if it had been running? Dave

Dave even in US dollars that is not bad at all! Through out the mid west these old girls sell high. About two to 3-years ago even higher than now. Throw a quick paint job on it, list it on ebay and double your money. :wink:

I would tell them next time CALL, or no pay over 500.oo! money wise I think your still ok.

I had to go check it out. I know the purists won't like that it has a muffler, under hood yet, but the battery might be OK. It started up right away and at first I thought it was too quiet until I rememembered the muffler. It also has a 90 on the muffler so you don't hear a rain cap flapping at idle. The mag was full of oil and needed a new coil and some other parts. They had a good used coil they put in it to save me a little money. Apparently the engines all smoke a little if they haven't been worked hard but burning a few 1/4" rods will fix that.:wink: It has 40 psi oil pressure which they said is about all they ever had and only need 7 psi to run properly. They cleaned it all up and it looks fairly good but has had a few different colour paint jobs over the years. Dave

I thought about that but with my luck I'd end up with something else that needed even more work. LoL Having a big power plant/welder would be really nice but mostly I needed something to weld with and an SA 200 does that very well. It has no circuit boards either which can be real pricey to replace if they fail. I guess I'll have to burn a few rods with it and see how much I like it. It basically has a complete major tune up and should be good for a long time before it needs anything else. The shop even said that you can get engine parts for it anywhere. Dave

I have a 74' Hobart G-3010 welder/generator that is comparable to your SA 200 at 300 amps AC/DC weld output with a separate 10K onboard generator.
I restored this a couple years ago and it is quite a machine. Duty cycles were not even thought of back then. As long as you shove the rods and gasoline at this, you are welding. I have about 2,000 invested. I've rented this out on a couple occasions at a day rate to guys with the new Miller BCs and Lincoln Rangers that had a perticular job the required a machine with more a$$. The rest of the time it mostly sits here as emergency power standby.
Your OK investment wise.

Hobart made excellent engine drives. The Alaska pipeline was mostly welded with Hobart machines using automatic MIG equipment. Years ago I had an old, old 1940's Hobart with the welding generator on one end and an electric motor on the other end. It also had the shaft coming out on the motor side so an engine could be hooked up. Mine had a Chrysler 251 industrial on it. It had the steering wheel amps adjustment with the removable inner fine tuning control that could be plugged into an extension cord. It was kind of big and ugly with an axle under it but it welded as good as anything I've ever used. Dave

(quoted from post at 22:25:45 04/22/10)The shop even said that you can get engine parts for it anywhere.

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Dave you shouldn't have any problems locating parts for your machine. So far my local Napa store hasn't let me down. Remember these engines were used in a magnitude of forklifts.

Now you need to keep an eye out for an LN-25, and you'll be set! Don't know if I'd give that old girl a steady diet of 5/64th inch wire but it's amazing what you can do with some .045 NR-212 or even 1/16th inch 21-B. Both wires are great for general fab work. I've taken dozens of 1-inch structural bend tests with Hobart's 21-B, and never failed one.

If you find a good deal on an LN-25 make sure it has an Innershield gun on it! I like the Lincoln K-126 gun, but was recently told by my local welding supply that Miller's Ironmate FC-1260 is cheaper.

Here is some 21-B ran with a SA-200



and some Lincoln NR-212

I actually know where there is an LN 25 that never gets used but I won't be doing any real big welding jobs. I've used .068 NR 211 with the Trailblazer 55 I used to have. It ran really nice but lots of smoke. The Lincoln rep said the white parts that floated in the air were like milk and harmless. Ya, right! I also used some 3/32 NS3M and could go through a 50 lb. spool in about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. It ran around 400 amps and could weld almost as fast as you could move your hand. Had to have a really good ground to prevent arc blow though. Dave

Use to own a 55 did you? I bought this 55-D in 1982, and sold it in 1995.
We use to run a lot of NR-211, but switched to 21-B because it had better ductility.
Yes that NS3M is extremely fast! I never ran a whole lot of it. Ironworkers run a lot of it welding rebar.
I've run 5/64th inch 21-B at 575-amps with that 55-D welding precast concrete deck panels. I'm sure Hobart would not recommend it! :lol:

I had a 1975 that used to belong to Henuset pipelines. I bought one of 7 at Ritchie bros. for $2750 in 1985. One of the guys that bought one had no idea it was any different than say a Big 40. LoL I traded it with an S-54 deluxe wire feeder for my bobcat trailer and $2000 cash in 1994. Sadly the welder was neglected and abused but the wire feeder still works like new. I'm always amazed how people treat expensive machines. In 1985 the set up I traded had a bout an $18,000 replacement value!
NR 211 needs about 23 passes to meet requirements on 3/4" plate! I thought a 55 only went to 450 amps but I guess being CV it can go higher. I cranked my 55 all the way up on stick to see what it would do. I don't think it had been cranked up before because it had a bunch of black smoke and seemed to struggle a bit. LoL good welder though. Dave

If I remember correctly the 55-D's were rated at 450-amps at 100% duty cycle.
I've read where people have reported having 55-D's load banked pushing 700-amps.
I ran mine 6-days a week 10-hours a day for over 3-months at 575-amps, not so much as a groan out of her! Nice machine but I liked the SAM-400s better.
I paid $9,378.00 for the 55-D, and a S-32-S wire feeder, w/ 150-feet of lead. A SAM-400 was going for over $13,000.00 just for the welder at the time! :shock:

I think 55's were rated 400 amps at 100% duty cycle. When I bought mine a new machine alone was $18,000 Canadian. When I traded it they had come down to about $14,000. I have heard the Sams are a real nice machine but some places bought the Millers because Lincoln could never give a fixed price or delivery date. I think they were about $3000 more than the 55D. The Hobart's used on the Alaska pipeline were quite popular and users really liked them. I forget what they were called though. I think the Hobarts hooked up to CRC automatic equipment easier than the Millers. I used to have an article on the auto MIG units. There were, I think, 6 mini MIG units on a track that went around the pipe. I don't know if all auto pipeline work uses that many heads but my old neighbor worked on the Alliance pipeline doing the hot pass with auto equipment. Each operator was qualified for different passes. My neighbor was only qualified for the hot pass after the internal root pass. He did have to pass a stick pipe test though to be able to test for the auto equipment. He made a ton of money in the 3 months he worked on it and was amazed that they would carry 40ft. long sections of 42" pipe with only the internal root pass done. Dave