Welding Tips and Tricks

I recently purchased and restored this P&H AC shop welder. It is extremely well built and heavy duty. There is not much information available on these machines and I'm hoping someone here can point me to a source. I would like to know its approximate age , I'm guessing late 50's or early 60's but I don't really know for sure. Thanks in advance for any help. Here it is:



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I found one just like that welded into the structure inside a boiler house that was built from 1954-1957.

Thanks, it very well could be that old, I have no clue. It's a very well built heavy duty machine. I bought it way cheaper with good leads than a new AC 225 buzzer. No comparison in the machines, this is way better


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1st generation of that series of P&H machines, 1962 at the newest. Tips over and lands hard real easy.
It's supposed to be butugly green!
P&H redesigned the housing, moved the fan to the back & gave it a big square tin box.
Also reoriented the transformer & reactor to reduce stress on the taps due to failures.
The tricycle wheel kit was no longer on Gen 2 because P&H got tired of getting calls about machines that tipped asking for free repairs. Cooling on Gen 1 sucked running long term because the top doesn't have sufficient discharge area for the hot air.

Electrically 1st and second generation were little different. Problem is P&H built every machine to order, and many are AC only. Military bought thousands of Gen 2 machines, and there is a fairly complete manual on line if the military database is functioning.

IF that machine drops hard on a concrete floor there is a good chance a tap will come loose and only minimal chance of repairing it. Mine bit the dust from the jolt going over a threshhold plate. I still have 2 gen 2 machines.

They do NOT like long TIG cables, 20 feet maximum. Polish the spark gap every 9 years. Oil the fan motor yearly.
Foot pedals have a value similar to silver of the same weight. There are no new foot pedal resistors left. If the Selenium rectifier craps out, replace it with diodes & a BIG heat sink.

Every one of them has a personality, and some will TIG like Kentucky bourbon & drive you nuts trying to stick weld with the machine.

Keep the TIG cable off the concrete floor!!!

I've only been welding with mine since 1978.