Anyone know anything about Butter Welders?

[kevin hurford]

I'm still pondering my NBC280H and how to get it working on single phase. It sits in a corner of the workshop, quietly dominating everything, taunting me with its so-far unleashed superior welding potential, damn thing.

I'm still pondering my NBC280H and how to get it working on single phase. It sits in a corner of the workshop, quietly dominating everything, taunting me with its so-far unleashed superior welding potential, damn thing.

hello sir , responding to your questions about the 3phase 280h, its a fab welder. its really same as nbc 400 only in smaller cabinet. as far as 'im aware there,s no
easy way to run on single phase without buying a 3 phase invertor man enought to run it , and they are not cheep

 

[kevin hurford]

Butters are UK, sourced from around the world and made/adapted to their spec. Lots of comments on this site about butters kit, most of it good, ish.

Originally the name belonged to Norman Butters and Co of Coventry who made fantastic welding sets, built to last:- I have an NBC300A mig which must be 30+years old and gives top quality welds. I'd take it to bed with me if Drainetta would let me

The new Butters company acquired the name but are otherwise unrelated.

yes sir, that,s correct . i use to work there and when company finished was run partly by britweld who then made/brought welders and put butters stickers on, the old nbc welders was designed and made by brian keller who was from rowan arc then later on welders made by john austin [we called him mad doc] yes named him before back to the future haha sadly passed away a few years ago now

 

[galooph]

All this talk of Butters reminds me I should try and track down a manual for my AMT-271. Haven't used it for a few years, but it needs to come out of retirement

 

[Farside]

hello sir , responding to your questions about the 3phase 280h, its a fab welder. its really same as nbc 400 only in smaller cabinet. as far as 'im aware there,s no
easy way to run on single phase without buying a 3 phase invertor man enought to run it , and they are not cheep

Yeah; this is my concern. There might just be no way at all. If I start from small beginnings and simply have one coil (paying attention to mains current draw) and had a simple single coil machine to test with, it would be a start. Isolating the other two transformers and just trying it, might yield some interesting results. They might be rubbish, of course, but I'll have satisfied my curiousity. Leaping straight in and converting all three would throw a huge demand on my rural pole supply and I'm not sure if it's up to it. It's now slightly complicated by the Butters and the F-40 WFU being submerged on Monday night. I'll wait until they're all thoroughly dried out before I touch them, and that will be the Spring or Summer anyway. Got too much stuff at my feet of more immediate concern.
What I'd like to get out of it, at the very least, would be a heavy-duty DC power source that can then be very versatile about what's plugged into it. I'd like to be able to just use it for MAG (and it's got to me much better than the crappy buzzbox, even with a single coil in operation), with meters on the front to tell me what's going on. I love meters
If I then get more of it working and see if it works with the WFU, then that would be great, too.

 

[ukracer]

I was looking on E-bay for a big single phase welder and came across a welder by the make of Butter's. Does anyone know anything about them. Are they a good welder or just scrap?

A mate of mine had a butters and reckoned they were one of the brands to have. Not cheap but around 8 years ago he used it to damn good effect.

 

[Tom Orrow L]

The butters UK unit was on a small trading estate where I live until about 2 weeks ago when they disappeared out of nowhere, they've only been there 3-4 months max.
I had a call from a friend who owns a unit a couple down from it letting me know.. Wonder whats happened to them?

 

[Kent]

The old butters are good plants made to last I used one for a couple of years one time over it was then the best mig in the shop but that's over 25 years ago now
At 70 if it works I should just buy the thing

 

[matt1978]

The butters UK unit was on a small trading estate where I live until about 2 weeks ago when they disappeared out of nowhere, they've only been there 3-4 months max.
I had a call from a friend who owns a unit a couple down from it letting me know.. Wonder whats happened to them?

Derek Chapman of @BUTTERS-UK used to post quite a lot on this forum, not seen him around for a while

 

[gordon stephenson]

There is a guy that specialises in Butters, He used to work for them and then set u on his own,I have dealt with him before and he knows his machines, not just Butters but any makes, Google for Carl Horton, Horton welding supplies, Don't think there is a website but his number will pop up,

 

[Tom Orrow L]

Derek Chapman of @BUTTERS-UK used to post quite a lot on this forum, not seen him around for a while

Shame, I hear they're very good machines

 

[kevin hurford]

Yeah; this is my concern. There might just be no way at all. If I start from small beginnings and simply have one coil (paying attention to mains current draw) and had a simple single coil machine to test with, it would be a start. Isolating the other two transformers and just trying it, might yield some interesting results. They might be rubbish, of course, but I'll have satisfied my curiousity. Leaping straight in and converting all three would throw a huge demand on my rural pole supply and I'm not sure if it's up to it. It's now slightly complicated by the Butters and the F-40 WFU being submerged on Monday night. I'll wait until they're all thoroughly dried out before I touch them, and that will be the Spring or Summer anyway. Got too much stuff at my feet of more immediate concern.
What I'd like to get out of it, at the very least, would be a heavy-duty DC power source that can then be very versatile about what's plugged into it. I'd like to be able to just use it for MAG (and it's got to me much better than the crappy buzzbox, even with a single coil in operation), with meters on the front to tell me what's going on. I love meters
If I then get more of it working and see if it works with the WFU, then that would be great, too.

hi its kevin here
,first of all even if you remove two of the coils so in doing so you will have to put a capacitor or two between main rectifier and choke on the welding earth return line side. other coils will still product output voltage ie supply cables 415 v which can be dangerous to leave floating about, then the aux transformer will need to be changed from 415 to 240 to give 110v and 24v for wire feeder unless feeder has built in transformer as in later models. after all that welder may not weld as good as hoped. why not sell it ie to me and use money for single supply welder ?

 

[kevin hurford]

If you want a smaller cheaper welder at approx 30 - 155 amps or so, go for a Clarke 160 or similar from Machine mart or from Weldequip a bit cheaper. If you want a slightly more powerful one with a better low range that starts at 20 amps which is great for car body work. then go for a Portamig 185 also from Weldequip, which is an order of magnitude better than the already decent Clarke 160 for just three times the price. Dunno anything about butters welders, they are either Chinese or Italian or something ?

NBC stands for norman butters & co was based in coventry {united kingdom} in the 70s owned by norman. m/cs known as buttters

 

[Robert Mullins]

When I was an apprentice boy, 1978/82, the migs we used were all Norman butter(NBC), fabulous bits of kit, I don't recollect one going wrong, EVER!! in those far off days, mig torch cables were nothing remotely similar to what we have today, gas hose, power lead, wire guide/feed all through a super heavy duty sleeve, non of any the separate components flexed , keeping the lead as straight as possible it was hard work!! Then the manager got talked into "trying" some American "tweeco" torches, they were stunning, brilliant, we could bend the lead, tie it in a knot, and it would still feed, smoothly and reliably;
In 1998 the company was shut down, but the NBC mig plants were still there, as good as the day they were installed, as were the tweeco torches, as I said, brilliant, brilliant pieces of equipment, if I had the facility, I'd buy one tomorrow:

 

[a111r]

if it's like this one, and it's working then your onto a bargain

this one is a slightly more modern version

I've just got one of these very old NBC Auto Weld 2 machines.
Converted to Euro torch (good) but ..... it's unlike any MIG inside that I've ever seen!

I'm sure it's well over 100 Kg. Getting it in and out of my MPV was quite an effort, with only 2 persons.

Do you have a manual or circuit diagram, perchance? There's one relay missing, which will be quite important.

 

[a111r]

When I was an apprentice boy, 1978/82, the migs we used were all Norman butter(NBC), fabulous bits of kit, I don't recollect one going wrong, EVER!! in those far off days, mig torch cables were nothing remotely similar to what we have today, gas hose, power lead, wire guide/feed all through a super heavy duty sleeve, non of any the separate components flexed , keeping the lead as straight as possible it was hard work!! Then the manager got talked into "trying" some American "tweeco" torches, they were stunning, brilliant, we could bend the lead, tie it in a knot, and it would still feed, smoothly and reliably;
In 1998 the company was shut down, but the NBC mig plants were still there, as good as the day they were installed, as were the tweeco torches, as I said, brilliant, brilliant pieces of equipment, if I had the facility, I'd buy one tomorrow:

Was it the model above, the 'Auto weld 2', Robert?
This one was last used in 1995, I think.