Old Hobart stick welder

[Harry D'Arcy]

Looking at buying an old Hobart, model 50-2800E, powered by a Ford 200G 6cyl
gas, 30-355 amp. I have been looking for some time now and the cost of new
is just out of the reach of a father of 5. Do any of the old school welders
have an opnion on Hobart. I am a novice and have been directed by others to
shop for either Miller or Lincoln. No one that I know has any experience
with Hobart. The price is good based on my limited knowledge. Its not a
pretty machine but I really dont care what it looks like, I see that as a
project in itself, restoration. Any input would be helpfull.
Thank you.

[Clandestine]

While I am young, I grew up in a welding family. There was a saying:
"Drive a Cadillac, drink Michelob and weld with a Hobart."

Hobart was one of the superior welder manufactures; they focused on
industrial, professional equipment. They kind of lost a step when they
didn't have a synergic pulse MIG welder. Eventually Miller bought
the name. The old Hobart product line is sold as Thermal Arc.

I would think this is a very good opportunity. I have a very good
supplier of Hobart parts. If you do buy it and need parts, please
email me.

[Harry D'Arcy]

Thank you for the response, I was begining to think that my post was going
to be viewed as unworthy of consideration. The seller has two of them, one
operational, and one that needs brushes. For what I belive to be a very
reasonable price he will sell both. They are on seperate trailers. What is
involved with replacing the "brushes", is this a high dollar repair? I
stated that I am a novice, I have been a heavy equipment operator and owner
of my own grading and excavating company for the past 15 years. I am now in
the process of changing careers, and in so doing I am trying to gain
additional skill sets that will assist in my transition into a union
millwright apprenticeship program. This will result in an extreame cut in
pay and benefits for the first four years of the program, however, my focus
is on the long term stability and security of attaining "journyman" status
in a skilled trade. I have been taking welding courses through my local
welding supply store and will be enrolling in a welding tech. course in the
spring at the local community college. My hope is to become more proficiant
through practice at home with my own machine. I am also hoping to make up
some of the lost income through side jobs with the portable welder. I have
many contacts in the earthwork community and know that once proficiant I
could make simple field repairs and hard facing on equipment for many of the
folks I've developed good relationships with. For those who may read this
and think that I will be driving down the rates for other professional
welders, understand that I am aware of how our complex economy works and
would never think of undercutting rates in an industry which I will be
relying on for my family's survival.

Back to the machines. As stated in my original post Lincoln and Miller were
the focus of my searching untill I came across these machines. Would this
unit be considered an equal to Lincolns Pipeliner SA200 series of machines?
Thank you.
"Clandestine" <douglas...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1108992528.2...@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

[JohnM]

Replacing brushes in a DC machine isn't any sort of big deal, and
brush/commutator maintainance is a really good thing to learn. Pick up
an old Audels book on electric motors, there will be much good info there.

The second machine is worth having for parts, but.. you could probably
work that machine for a lot of years and not need parts. I'll second
Clandestine's opinion of Hobart, top quality stuff.