Lincoln 225 welder

egbinor

Member
I have a Lincoln 225 buzz box that I'm guessing that I bought close to 40 years ago. I don't use it an awfull lot but seem to use it more than my wire feed as a lot of my welding is on old dirty metal. It now all of a sudden won't start. It has power to the lead in. I kind of suspect the switch because it definitely "snaps" when you turn it off but not when you turn it on. It seems like it has always taken a while for the fan to come on but it is completely dead this time. Anyone had this problem, are there fuses internally ?? Thanks in advance for any help. EGBinOR
 
Been into my welder more then once due to small problems. One time the fan had stopped so had to open it up and clean and lube it. Then one time the switch you set the amps with had a problem and I had to repair that. No fuses in side that I found. Should be pretty easy to trouble shoot the switch just by taking the wires off and short them out then turn the breaker on and see if it come up on power. Before you open it up turn off the breakers and also unplug it to be on the safe side. That 220 volts that goes in is more then enough to fry you
 
Their are no Fuses in side. I would Check the switch. People on this Forum would be better help for you some are both here and their.
Ypop
poke here
 
The switch on mine is beginning to act up also. It is a 1977 model and has gone through more rods than I could haul in a semi.
Richard in NW SC
 
EGBinOR,Unplug the machine and test the switch with an OHM meter.No fuses inside that I know of.Be safe!
 
(quoted from post at 13:41:47 02/01/15) Been into my welder more then once due to small problems. One time the fan had stopped so had to open it up and clean and lube it. Then one time the switch you set the amps with had a problem and I had to repair that. No fuses in side that I found. Should be pretty easy to trouble shoot the switch just by taking the wires off and short them out then turn the breaker on and see if it come up on power. Before you open it up turn off the breakers and also unplug it to be on the safe side. That 220 volts that goes in is more then enough to fry you

Old, perhaps you meant to bypass the switch by bypassing the wires around it, as opposed to shorting it out. Short circuiting can be hard on both wiring and breakers.
 
Go on lincolnelectric.com and you may be able to find a manual to download. They are available for most everything Lincoln has made. When I started working there in the 70s they used to turn out about 14,000 225s a month.
 
My fan quit working one day. Still welded but no fan. Took it apart and found that the mud dauber wasps had made a nest keeping it from spinning.

The neighbor has an AC/DC one and the switch on it is finicky. You have to use your foot and make a quick motion of turning it off or it just springs back up.
 
Well ya short if out as in what the switch would do not short to ground. Which is called shorting across the switch
 
Unplug it and open it up. They're very uncomplicated. If you know even a little about the basics of electricity you can figure out how it works just by studying it for a while. A You Tube video about troubleshooting that welder should tell you everything you need to know. There is so little that can go wrong with one of those that there's a good chance the problem will turn out to be something obvious, and probably easy to deal with, too. As a bonus, while you're taking care of the problem you'll get a chance to clean inside the welder and lubricate the moving parts that need it.

Stan
 
my fan does not run on my Lincoln welder ,Uhh oh,,it probably SHOULD ,,..
? what will happen if the fan does not run ???
 
I acquired my FIL's old 225 twelve years ago. The fan never did work but would come on occassionally. Just yesterday I took it apart and oiled up the fan motor. I drilled a hole in the bottom side of the fan motor so the oil would run to the back bushing. I had to work today so I never went out to see how easily it turns now. I am contemplating on putting new leads on it but I'm also looking at a wire feed welder. The wire feed should work fine for what I weld.
 
The Lincoln 180 that my dad bought back in the mid 1960's never had a fan like the Lincoln 225. Still use that welder. I have ran each, the 180 and the 225 and find that they both perform about the same. When I taught high school agriculture I replaced every switch within 3 - 5 years of being new in set of 5 Lincoln 225's. The old set of 225's lasted over 30 years without much repair. Later switches were not as good. Lincoln covered the replacement. Maybe they got a batch of bad switches. Very simple inside. Getting the sheet metal off and on is the hardest part.
 
Thanks guys for all your help and suggestions. Went to a big superbowl party today instead of going out to shop to tear into the thing (should have gone to the shop instead of the superbowl party) wrong team won! I'll let you know what I find out tomorrow. Thanks EGBinOR
 
Chances are nothing bad will happen. Those Lincoln buzz box welders all have a 20% duty cycle at every setting but many people ignore it completely. As Andy r pointed out below, the old version of the Lincoln 225-AC welder was the 180-AC which did not have a fan. That would suggest that you should get the same results without a fan at all settings up to 180 amps---they're essentially the same welder.

Stan
 
The switch in my 180 amp 1968 Lincoln buzz box went kaput one day. I took the switch apart and fixed it. Or something else, anyway it was a very simple fix of the switch.
 
Hi, my fan slowed, then quit a while back.
I unplugged, removed cover, oiled bearings
also tightened wire leads. No sweat. Works
good. Ed will
 
It does sound like your main switch is not right, but get your hands on a multi meter and check to see where you loose voltage. Chances are, it's not getting through the switch. There's not much in that machine. You've got a fan, a power switch, a transformer and a secondary current selector switch. It should be pretty easy to figure out, just keep your hands out of the hot lines when you have power connected.
 
The fan it there to keep the transformer cool so if say your welding on a hot day it might burn out the transformer.
 

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