Lincoln Tombstone Problems?

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Has anyone ever had failures with these units, you see them everywhere, dented, paint drips and looking bad but still striking an arc?
Reply:I've seen indicator pointers not work, but they don't convey any useful information and so long as the adjustment knob itself works I might not even bother to fix it! (We taped our square Idealarcs over so students would learn to set heat by using a piece of scrap instead of an inaccurate pointer. Works great BTW.)Great machines. I want one for myself. The cover on the round tops is a better design since water won't puddle on it! They were really well thought out.
Reply:I've used one that buzzed like crazy.  I think the laminations in the transformer were coming apart.  Still welded though.  The most common problem is a stuck range switch.  With accompanying broken knob if the owner never fixed the switch and just forced it to the desired setting.Dynasty200DX w/coolmate1MM210MM VintageESAB miniarc161ltsLincoln AC225Victor O/A, Smith AW1ACutmaster 81IR 2475N7.5FPRage3Jancy USA1019" SBAEAD-200LE
Reply:Nope... Mine stopped working once after I had done a lot of sandblasting nearby. It would start and run, but not strike an arc, and so I moved the selector switch from its highest to lowest setting and back a few times, and then it worked like it should. I blew out the back, and its been going ever since.[Account Abandoned 8/8/16 Please Do Not Attempt Contact Or Expect A Reply]. See you on YouTube! -ChuckE2009
Reply:I have a new AC 225 now but over the years have owned a few others for my teams, some bought from other teams who had bought them from other teams and so on. As you say, some looked very rough due to life in a racing shop but they kept on working just fine. Very basic, simple but ultra tough machines.Tom Hintz, publisherwww.newmetalworker.comLincoln Pro Mig 180Lincoln AC 255Determination
Reply:We had one at a place I used to work, it looked like it fell off the back of a truck more than once. It was used almost everday for burning 1/8 jets and would occasionally smoke it was so hot. It was working when I left that place and at the time it was over 20 years old and still had the vice grips on the control knob....Mike
Reply:I have one that was built in 1976.It is so old and dirty it was thought to be from WW2 era.I got it for free because it needs a new rectifier..The only reason the rectifier is shot is because someone was fooling around and switched the polarity while it was welding..
Reply:Not only are they built Tough-as-a-tank....if you take the time to clean them up and straighten out the dings....they look very nice.  A LWS store says they can rebuild the "fixable" problems on a AC225 or Idealarc 250 for less than 300$.  From what I understand....theres just not a lot in them that can go wrong.   If you go to WELDING TIPS AND TRICKS. COM....theres a video on scratch start tig welding.  Joey says that the machine he is using was "UNDER WATER" in a recent flood.  it sure welded fine in the demo-video.  I bet you cant say the same for all these inverters with their PC boards.TESS....is my lil' beauty.  I bought her off CL for 400$.  I DID NOT....do the work to make her so nice....she came like that. Attached Images