OT-older Hobart portable welder

Tom Olson · Feb 8, 2009

I admire the wide scope of experience on this board and hope someone of you might help with this.

I have a good friend who just got this Hobart welder. It sat for a couple of years and the engine was stuck. In a couple of days he got the engine going but the generator (welder) isn't working. I expect it lost any residual magnetism over that long a time. Can one of you explain what to do to get it working? My limited experience with alternators/generators is with newer units with a permanent magnet embedded in the rotor. Here's the link to the manual for the unit.

https://webfiles.uci.edu/cglabe/Photos/HobartG-261.pdf?uniq=bqyttk

Thanks in advance
Tom Olson
'48 Super A

504-2 · Feb 8, 2009

Plug in an electric drill with the gen set running, turn the drill by hand, this should the excite the gen.

unclemerle · Feb 8, 2009

Please keep us informed as what you/he did to get the generator/ welder to work again. I have a Titan 8 putting out about half juice.

Merle

farmall400 · Feb 8, 2009

I had that happen and the brushes were not making contact with the armature. just barely touched some sand paper to it with the engine idling and it welded perfect. Also mine was a lincoln from the 40;s and it had brushes for welding and for generating. Good Luck. farmall400

noncompos · Feb 8, 2009

There's a welder-generator forum on smokstak.com which should be helpful. Good luck.

Paul Janke · Feb 8, 2009

I have been told to use a brown paper sack as the sandpaper to clean up the commutator. It isn't abrasive enough to do damage. As was already said, do this while it is running.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 8, 2009

I've heard to use a pumice stone like you use on your feet. Never use emery cloth though. It will cause unwanted arcing. Hobart made good generators. If you need new brushes, a carbon brush supplier can make some up for you. I had an old Hobart from the 40's and had brushes made locally. Not really expensive at all. They can test the old brushes to see what composition they are by their hardness and colour I think. The place up here specialiized in brushes and knew pretty much what to use for each application. The machine I had had an electric motor on one side and the welding generator on the other end. It also had an extention on the shaft so a gas engine could be hooked up. Who ever had it before me mounted it on a trailer and powered it with a Chrysler IND 251 ind. engine, probably out of a combine. The fine current control came out and you could put an extension cord on it for a remote control. There was a name for these welders but I forget. I saw an old ad for one on the net. Good welder. Dave

Anonymous-0 · Feb 8, 2009

It's a welding generator, not a gen set. Dave

Anonymous-0 · Feb 9, 2009

Idle generators get an oxide film on the commutator.I use a little pressure on the brush holder with a pine stick from the scrap pail.

JOB · Feb 9, 2009

Sounds like an older unit on a frame of some sort. Has the frame been welded on since it was built. These welders were DC and if the frame was welded on with an AC welder the generator could have lost it's polarity. An old friend of mine had a Hobart welder hooked to a jeep engine. It stopped welding after he welded on the machine with an AC buzz box. He had to hook up several car batteries in series and touch the ends to two terminals in the generator. The generator was then Polarized and would weld again. I did not explain that real clear but I would bet that one of the electricians on here could make it more clear. I had a similar problem with a generator on a truck. I did some welding on the truck frame with an AC buzz box, the generator stopped working. I had the generator checked out. Fields were good armature was good, and good brushes. This shop could not fix it. I gave it to a guy that knew generators and told him what I had had done to it. The first thing he did to it was to polarize it then checked it on the bench for output, problem solved.

OT-older Hobart portable welder

Tom Olson

Member

504-2

Member

unclemerle

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farmall400

Member

noncompos

Well-known Member

Paul Janke

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

JOB

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