Skip rescue!

[bloobloo]

Today there was a knock on my door, two of the lads who i knock around with brought me a prezzie they said and promptly handed me a welder!
Whilst driving to another job they came accross a skip outside of a house being renovated, after knocking on the door of the house and speaking to the owner about the said skip and contents she kindly said yes boys take what you like etc etc
What are peoples thoughts regarding the welder and is it worth "doing up"
Acording to the lady, it was her late husbands and has been lying around in the garage since he died.

Anyway, some pics.

 

[Wozzaaah]

It's a few years old and a bit battered about but if it powers up and the wire feed rollers turn then you stand a good chance that it's a runner.
If you have no wire you can still test it will strike an arc by pressing the trigger and striking the contact tip against a pice of steel (don't forget to put the earth clamp on too).
Regarding 'doing it up' if it's a runner, treat it to a new liner, tip and shroud and that's pretty much it.

 

[bloobloo]

I have got wire Woz, was gonna go in the garage later on and start work on it. Lurking in the garage somewhere is my old cosmo 130 (now used as a shelf for something equally useless) What i would like to know, IF the sealey one turns out to be a runner, would it be any better than the cosmo thing? If so, I have spare tips, shrouds, liners etc for the cosmo and wondered whether they would suffice?
I dont use the cosmo at all now due to me having a large ingersoll rand 250, but sometimes i miss the portable side of things, if i need to go and do a quick job somewhere the cosmo was ideal to shove in the car and go (even though the weld was a bit kakky)

 

[oz.]

If it wasn't thrown in the skip then it should be ok. As mentioned - give it a good service

 

[Wozzaaah]

I'd imagine the sealey is better built than the Cosmo, that one looks like it has a pretty sturdy wirefeed mechanism too. Fire it up and see what happens!

 

[Robotstar5]

If it's been outside make sure it's dry inside before applying power. If you have a meter, check resistance between live and earth (should be infinity), then check for continuity between earth (in plug) wire and case. Finally power it up protected by an RCD.

 

[penfold]

Superb! I love skip diving; my last find was 100kg of assorted lead piping and a remote control fire engine(random!). Hope it works alright; as said above, make sure the insides are dry, especially the transformer windings. If you power it up with damp windings, it will likely short out and destroy itself. The rust suggests it may have been rained on, so open up the casing and sit it in the airing cupboard/somewhere warm and dry for a couple of days before experimenting.

 

[steve202]

Looks very similar to a unit i had about 1992ish, it wasnt a Sealey though, it was French i seem to remember, and it had a plastic cover over the wire and feed. but the rest is almost exactly the same including the handle shape.