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Hi, Paul I don't know whether you'll see this so long after your original post, or if it will be of any use to you, but here goes: A young guy I know recently got his retired grandfather's old welder. It is a 285 amp AC Montgomery Ward. Somebody had to build it for M/W and it might have been A.O. Smith because it sounds like what you describe. On this one, the crank handle does not regulate the current, it clamps down on the shunt to keep amperage from changing during use. You loosen the crank handle, then set the amperage by moving the handle in the long slot, then tighten down the crank again. This machine also has three holes for the cables. The electrode holder cable always goes in the same hole, but the ground clamp cable can go in either of the other two. One ground hole is for low range, the other is not only for high range but also says "6013 electrode only" beside it. The amperage range is printed along the slot with the amperage control lever, as is the corresponding duty cycle. Pretty slick, IMHO. The other feature that might help identify whether these machines are by the same manufacturer is the shape of the plugs that go into the holes. They are blunt, solid brass cylinders about 1.5" long and about the diameter of a piece of blackboard chalk. If you respond to this and it sounds like the same setup to you, I'll look at the machine and get more specific information for you. There is a post in the archives of this forum saying that there were a lot of 180 amp AC welders produced around the middle of the last century for sale to rural areas. 180A was about as much as you could squeeze out of a 110V supply line, and a lot of rural areas didn't have 220V. I'd offer to buy this welder except that I know it has sentimental value to the owner (and I already have a couple of stick welders.) It came with what appears to be a beautifully made homemade rectifier so that it will put out DC current. Works fine except that you have to guess at the amperage. All the best, Stan
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