Old Lincwelder 180 - power cord replacement

[sledzeppelin]

I got an old Lincwelder 180 from an auction. The plug was ripped off and the cord damaged, so I got a new one. However, I didn't note where the black and white wires were connected when I took the old one off. Does it matter which way I put them?

Thanks,
Ryan

[JimDon]

Hi, and welcome to the forum,
If you go to the LIncoln website, you can locate all the owner's manuals (for the old and obsolete machines) there in a PDF format which you can then print out. I tried to do a cut and paste to put here, but it wouldn't work.
Instructions said a 10-gauge cord. Go to Home Depot or Menard's or whomever and get some 10-gauge SJ. Two hots and a ground. The green is ALWAYS the ground, goes to the bottom connector on the plug. Two other wires, the black and the white (you can use a permanent marker to color the white black or red at both ends, but anybody working with a 240 volt cord knows that its two hots and a ground, and it isn't inside a J-box, so, why bother,) go to the other two (top connectors) on your new plug. On the other side the two hots go to the two sides of the dbl pole switch inside the case. Connect the ground inside where the original one was located. You should be fine. Lots of posts here on making up a cord too, lot of people like to buy a generator cord from Wally World and cut off the ends and re-attach with the new. That works too and I guess is usually cheaper than buying the cord from Home Despot. I'd make my cord a little longer than you think you need, that way you can get outside your garage to reduce the chances of starting a fire due to welding inside the building. Plug in the machine, roll it to the front of the garage, etc, you don't have to worry about Ext. cords. Good luck. Let us know what you decide.
Jim Don

[sledzeppelin]

Thanks for the info! I'll give it a shot. I ordered some cord a while back and got a plug for it from a local hardware store. I'll go out and put everything together and post with my results. I have a metal pole barn outside and the previous owner had a welding area set up in there, so it should be pretty safe. I've never welded before so I've been studying and also accumulating various bits of equipment from garage sales and auctions and stuff (helmet, chipper, clamps, scrap to practice on, etc.).

Thanks again.