Serious deterioration of bottom of oil cooled max arc

[ElderWelder]

I have a very old (50 years ?) max arc single phase which I have used for heavy welding on domestic mains. I noticed a slight damp patch on the garage floor on rolling the welder out. Suspecting a leak I carefully wiped the bottom of the tank but only found an area that was a bit rough. Further investigation with it up on bricks indicated erosion (internal). To cut a long story short the tank had 10mm of metal "concrete" in the bottom and this was bridging three holes in the tank the biggest being about 12mm dia.

This welder holds about seven or eight gallons of oil, I had a real fun time draining it through the largest hole into containers and into two five gallon drums and cleaning up, I lost about two pints, what a mess.

There is no drain hole but what I should have done was jacked a sealing pad up under the suspect area, DON'T DISTURB THE "CONCRETE" INSIDE , and then removed the top complete with internals and then got help to tip the oil into containers. The top (more than one person should lift !) with internals should not be put down but can hang from supports under the top cover. By luck had a steel frame handy. You won't know if you have this problem without opening and removing oil.

I am currently preparing for a new bottom (excellent machine) to be welded on taking away 10mm of the side, large areas of the bottom are down to one mm and less. Photos and solution later if of interest. Note this oil may come with a health warning.

 

[the snooper]

I have a very old (50 years ?) max arc single phase which I have used for heavy welding on domestic mains. I noticed a slight damp patch on the garage floor on rolling the welder out. Suspecting a leak I carefully wiped the bottom of the tank but only found an area that was a bit rough. Further investigation with it up on bricks indicated erosion (internal). To cut a long story short the tank had 10mm of metal "concrete" in the bottom and this was bridging three holes in the tank the biggest being about 12mm dia.

This welder holds about seven or eight gallons of oil, I had a real fun time draining it through the largest hole into containers and into two five gallon drums and cleaning up, I lost about two pints, what a mess.

There is no drain hole but what I should have done was jacked a sealing pad up under the suspect area, DON'T DISTURB THE "CONCRETE" INSIDE , and then removed the top complete with internals and then got help to tip the oil into containers. The top (more than one person should lift !) with internals should not be put down but can hang from supports under the top cover. By luck had a steel frame handy. You won't know if you have this problem without opening and removing oil.

I am currently preparing for a new bottom (excellent machine) to be welded on taking away 10mm of the side, large areas of the bottom are down to one mm and less. Photos and solution later if of interest. Note this oil may come with a health warning.

could the oil have had its day and be holding moisture ?

 

[brightspark]

if there was water in the welder it -would steele on the bottom and corode the base. the -oil would float on top if the oil looks clean and not contaminated re use it and top it up

 

[gordon stephenson]

BE careful. I think the oil may be very hazardous to health, check before handling it.

 

[super noob]

Shell Dialla B usually......so yeah....it'll **Language** you up

 

[brightspark]

BE careful. I think the oil may be very hazardous to health, check before handling it.

-pcb in it maybee -just keep it off your hands its not good but is safe enough as long as its sealed in and not leaking

 

[penfold]

Yes, no bathing in it and no rubbing it behind your ears before a night out.

 

[zzr1200]

Just handle with rubber gloves, so to speak.

Plus make sure the new welded joint is totally oil tight before re-using the old oil..

 

[AdrianH]

Think I have 5 litres of the oil in the garage, left over from an old welder I used to have, only issue would be getting it to you as it is just in a plastic container. Came from an small Oxford 70.

I was going to put in a oil tank in a recycling yard, but never got around to it.

Let me know if of use and we can see what we can figure out.

Adrian

 

[normspanners]

Be VERY wary of PCB's even small amounts, I used to deal with thousands of galleons of transformer oil that had the stuff in. PS it can pass through some types of rubber gloves, that is one of the pollutants that is affecting the fish then ultimately polarbears, and MANY other animals. It travels through the food chain, and EVERY one has some amount in them from fish and milk etc. Also you cant distroy it by burning the stuff unless you burn it at 2000deg for 2 seconds. ish coz it changes to even worse dioxins.
We didnt properly Know the dangers of it then, we even used to heat the work shop with transformer oil.
It is heavier than water and used to block the massive stainless underground water/ oil seperator I made many years ago and that I used to clean out with buckets and bare hands.
it will be in the sludge in the bottom of transformers etc so I probably used to get a good dose of the stuff, it affects the heart liver joints muscles etc etc
But my heart attack, liver failure and joint pain etc is probably just coincidence.
They wont test for it.

All PCBs are man-made and have a similar basic structure. They are made of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms. Because these atoms can be combined in many different ways, a total of 209 different PCB molecules can be formed. Some PCBs are more harmful than others.

Generally, PCBs are very stable which explains their persistence in the environment. At high temperatures, PCBs can burn and generate dangerous by-products such as dioxins. PCBs tend not to evaporate or to dissolve easily in water. However, they are very soluble in fat and similar substances, which explains why PCBs can build up in animal fat and along the food

http://www.ncpcbarchives.com/?page_id=144

 

[rusty weld]

I wanted to change the oil in my picarc bantam 180, figured after 40 odd years it was due some tlc.
I was concerned about the hazards of transformer oil but was reliably informed that oils containing pcb's were never used by pickhill so the oxford oil should be ok in that respect?