Lincoln Air Vantage 600 Sd
Karri Weston
The vantage 400 is one of the most compact 400 amp engine driven welders on the market. It is also one of the quietest, with superior arc performance using Lincolns advanced chopper technology and specific pipe welding setting for pipe welding electrodes.
Every so often one steps up to the plate and looks at the latest and greatest. Introduced in the Fall of 2005, the Lincoln Vantage series is one of those products. Over the last couple of years Lincoln Electric has been replacing their Commander series with the Vantage series of welders. They now now Vantage 300, 400 and 500 machines on the market. As is customary in the arc welder business the model number describes the amperage that the welder is capable of on a 100% duty cycle basis. As is common the welders will put out well beyond that number for a limited period of time. In the Case of the Vantage 400, it will put out something over 500 amps before the safety shutdown limits it.
The box you see to the right is the business end of the Vantage 400. It is in a stainless steel case 5 feet long and weighs in around 1250 lbs. At present it has no optional features, but is a brand new product. The row of covers at the bottom of the control panel are rain covers for two sets of breakers (far left and far right). Pair of covers one above the other contain two standard 15 amp 120 volt receptacles and 2 standard 20 amp receptacles. The big one in the center and center right position are the 50 amp 1 phase plug (NEMA 14-50R) and the 50 amp 3 phase plug (NEMA 15-50R). They are so close together that it is difficult to use both with standard Hubbell Plugs at the same time. Standard gauges include a fuel, oil and water.
Amperage is set with a single dial at the top center with a digital readout at the top left. The Weld Mode switch and the ARC force dials and a couple more switches are concealed behind the flip down 'Vantage nameplate'. The 'Arc Force' dial represents Lincoln Electric's implementation of their trade marked "Chopper Technology". The engine control row is just above the gauges and consists of an hour meter, engine shut down, glow plug button, starter button, and engine idle down button. The screw cap covers on the middle right are for various remote controls. The entire dash board is hinged just above the plug in row and is held up by 4 screws. Remove those screws and you have access to wiring harness. The rest of the box is is bolted up tight except for a lockable flip lid over the radiator cap and a lockable sliding door on the right side of the engine through which you can change the engine oil and filters. A fuel filter, priming pump, and fuel shut off are also provided behind the door as well as the dipstick for checking the engine oil level. Priming should not be much of a problem, as the fuel tank is mounted high above the stator and immediatley behind the engine providing gravity fuel to the injector pump. While it is never a good idea to run a Diesel engine out of fuel unless you really want to engage in a rassling match to get it started again, the gravity fuel system makes the job easier.
The Engine drive welder makers that need note in the US are Lincoln and Miller. Both have a long and storied history in the electric welding business. Lincoln has been in business for about 100 years and has a good business providing electrodes as well as selling welders. Miller is more focused on selling welders, and they have consumed the third engine drive manufacturer, Hobart. There are a couple of other manufacturers but their names are not household words.
It is beyond the scope of this note to discuss Mig Welders, Tig welders, or buzz boxes in general. The engine drive stick welder is the traditional product for field repairs of heavy machinery and the interest here.
If you know anything about electric power you have likely heard of AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) power. typical household current in the US is of the AC variety. Electric Arc welding traditionally uses DC power and a lot of it. IN the first half of the 20th century arc welding technology moved forward in the shipyards. Before the advent of electric welding ships had to be riveted together out of many pieces of steel. With the advent of the welder the pieces of steel could be joined as one in a rapid fashion. At least in communities near the seaports electric welding came to the masses as a result of World War II. Many thousands of people were recruited and trained to work in the shipyards, frequently as welders, and after the war the country was flooded with thousands of torpedo welders which put the electric welding within reach of the common man. The torpedo welder (so called because of its shape) was an 3 phase electric motor driven welder coupled to a DC generator. There were around 12 inches in diameter and around 3 feet long, hence the name. Because they assumed the availability of 3 phase high line power they obviously didn't find their way into the woods fixing logging machinery however.
Another spin off of World War II did. Perhaps some of you are old enough to remember the aircraft search lights which used to show up at county fairs as attention getters. Those lights were carbon arc lights, not unlike the carbon arc's used today for gouging with a reflector behind them, and they were of course driven by a large engine powered DC generator. Well it turns out the first welder I ever saw was a military surplus search light generator converted to a welder and a pretty good one at that.
Here at the ranch we started our welding experience with a 2 cylinder Wisconsin engine belt driven to an aircraft generator. the planes ran on 28 volt DC current which was about right for welding, but the controls were sort of an afterthought, and although such a welder welded a lot of things, the crank start (sometimes) and the lack of decent control on the generator made welding a challenge.
Moving forward in time the the classes of welders now on the market, I will first briefly discuss the 'Portables'. Miller has a couple models out and Lincoln has one. 'Portable' I guess is relative. They weigh 300 lbs and often have a roll cage on them like a portable generator so they can be man handled. Typically they cost around $2000 presently and have a 10 horse gas engine. They are usable for light work, but not anyone's dream of a welder. Enough said.
The biggest selling part of the market is what I call the "Bobcat" class welder. Bobcat is actually the trademark of Miller and since Lincoln makes one too maybe I should think of a different name. Anyhow it is the welder that Miller used to nearly drive Lincoln out of the welder business. Twenty five years ago or so Miller came out with a cheap, lightweight powerful welder which became the standard for the contractor market. Weighing in at 500-600 lbs, this welder featured a 2 cylinder Onan air cooled engine with an electric start (a very good engine by the way), and on the electric end was both a 225 amp DC welder AND it produces a robust 8kw of AC power to it could serve as a generator for all sorts of electric appliances on the work site.
Miller flooded the market with these low cost essentially throwaway welders while Lincoln continued to make what they now call the classic DC only welder, which was much larger, heavier, and powered usually by a water cooled gas engine. Few would dispute the fact that the Lincoln was a good welder,but it was heavy, short on AC power, and expensive. The Miller blue box was everywhere. The Lincoln usually needed its own trailer, but the Miller could be handled skid mounted with a convenient crane hook, and was small enough and light enough to haul around. Today you commonly seem them mounted on the top of the tool boxes on service trucks. Ultimately Lincoln did push back and produce the Ranger Series. The horsepower has escalated from 16 HP to around 20 HP now, and many of the configurations have from 9KW to 10KW of AC Power, and will DC amperage ranges up to 300 amps.
The Onan engine has disappeared (in name), and is now produced by Suburu under the Robin name, and a look alike Kohler engine is also available. These units are now priced in the $3000 to $4000 range. The amperage is sufficient for medium welding work and the 9-10KW of AC power with one glaring exception meets most needs. None of this changes the fact that they are basically 'throwaways'. If you are going to make 60 cycle power you have to turn the generator at 3600 RPM (or some lessor speed such as 1800 RPM, 1200 RPM, or 900 RPM). Practically speaking this means that given today's engine technology you are going to find 3600 RPM engines or 1800 RPM engines direct coupled to generators. The trade off is simple. The 3600 RPM units weigh half as much, cost half as much and wear out twice as fast as the 1800 RPM models. The engine drives the cost of the unit, and those light weight air cooled high speed gas engines are both the good and the bad of this class of welder. We have an early Bobcat and while its size and weight make it it a mechanics truck dream---it fits, they are not run for ever welders.
It is common for folks in the construction and kraft industry to much prefer Diesel engines over gas engines. It is a deep bias instilled by a lifetime of balky gas engines that started hard usually after hand cranking and always needed a tune up as compared to diesel engines that seemingly ran for ever and used half the fuel doing it. Consequently both Miller and Lincoln have responded to this demand with Diesel versions of the 3600 RPM welder. The present favorite of both Lincoln and Miller is a Kubota diesel engine. It is a good enough engine, but the penalty is over 100 lbs in weight and about double the cost--up to 7-8K. The Lincoln 305D and the Miller Trailblazer 301D typify this class. Besides being heavier, the inline engine forces the box to be a few inches longer which is a disaster in some installations. The Gas powered units are all comfortable less than 48" long which means that they can be mounted crossways in a service truck which usually has 48" between the tool boxes. in the bed, but alas, the Diesels are longer and are water cooled so they have a radiator that needs clearance to suck (or blow) air on the end of them foreclosing the possibility of crossways mounting. For example one time honored favorite, particularly with an enclosed service truck is to mount the welder crossways in the front of the service body and cut out behind the right front door so you can access the control panel on the welder, but if the welder is too long to fit crossways this option is foreclosed. Likewise the extra 100 lbs isn't welcome if you are planning on mounting the welder on top the tool box as you aggravate a top heavy syndrome for the whole truck particularly if the truck is a light one to start with. My take: while I like diesel engines, their extra weight and size can in the service truck application compromise their usefulness, while their cost is almost as much as a 'real welder', sort of a compromise with the worst of everything.
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