78 buzz box

[eil]

Bought on the never never from the catalouge in 1978, with all the hot threads going on pulled it out of the cubard under the stairs to see if it can still cut the mustard, price back then £64.00.

 

[Woody.v8]

Amazing As they say its not all about the looks

 

[Paul.]

Ive got one of those bought around the same time, mid to late 70s, it still gets used occasionally when we run out of welding sets, and works well, very smooth arc, and no forced cooling either, its never overheated and its made hundreds of gates and railings etc, CEA made some good welders in those days, (probably still do), I had to replace the 13 amp fuse with a 15 amp to run 3.2s, but don't tell anyone
I bet yours works just the same, now as it ever did, there's nothing much to go wrong inside it, just weighs about 5 times as much as my essetti pick 140 inverter.

 

[eil]

Where were they made Paul?. I thought id post it just to see if it would lighten the mood on the forum

 

[scarecrow]

Looks good as new

 

[Paul.]

They're Italian, mine came from Sureweld, in Rushden, I think it was about £60, A lot of money in those days, I remember my old Dad telling i must be mad spending that sort of money, it wasn't a bad investment though was it
Link to CEA welders

 

[eil]

It was my dad who bought it to make a trailer, he said it was £64 or £68 but with the hp.

 

[Drains]

Nice one eil. You can see the quality through the rust...

Unbelievable how much things cost in those days - you could get a comparable set for the same price now, 30 years later.

The good welding is obviously down to the skill of the operator btw...

 

[eil]

RUST! thats not rust its called patina.

 

[bawjaws]

aye its got character, how the hell did you get a peeler with that, you must be a good welder

 

[madkayaker]

quality machine. Old arcs work.
Ive got an arc in the garage ready to fire up and try when i get 5 don't know how old it is but its been sat on a farm for 20 years that i can prove! F

 

[Muggins the Mug]

I was just going to say that the guts of this old welder look a tad similar to simon718's Powercraft.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=8046&highlight=inside+powercraft

Do you think this old welder's innards have been copied and recopied by other manufacturers over the years, or is it just that it's a simply but effect design that everyone has utilised?

 

[simon718]

if you look closely at my pics muggins, you'll notice that one side of the transformer is aluminium-wound. They are very similar setups, except eil's is about 100x times the quality

 

[eil]

Actually both sides are aluminium wound

 

[shenion]

Aluminum is fine. The issue is it has more resistance than an equivalent thickness of copper. Issue is cheap welders just swap aluminum wire for copper to save cost but don't increase the wire diameter (needs to be aout 1.5x in cross section for same duty cycle.)

That has sheet aluminum, made similar to how mains power transformers are made.

The transformer that feeds my house us probably 400A (drives 3 houses). It has aluminum windings, runs 24/7 and is about 30 years old.

It all comes down to design.

 

[eil]

There is quite a difference between my old one and simon718`s new one when you compare them like this, im shure theres quite a length of aluminium in both windings on the old one as you say shenion, I only put this up so members could poke fun at it, I feel quite bad now

 

[Paul.]

Ill have to have the cover off mine, as far as I can remember its never been off so no telling whats living in there, it still works a treat though, mine is slightly different it has stud terminals for the cables rather than hard wired like yours.

 

[eil]

Funnily enough the top rusted off in no time at all bout ten yrs after we got it so dident have to bother to unscrew it. might give it a treat now though and paint it!

 

[Muggins the Mug]

if you look closely at my pics muggins, you'll notice that one side of the transformer is aluminium-wound. They are very similar setups, except eil's is about 100x times the quality

I was trying to be nice by not saying the Powercraft was a "rip-off". I should have been more clear and said were the designs similar but the components much cheaper, that would have been more accurate I guess.