Hey everyone! Last summer I snatched a Caterpillar engine driven welder from the jaws of the scrapyard. Condition: unknown. Last ran: unknown. Output: unknown. Price: a screaming deal if it worked, a big risk if not. I decided to take the risk. 

It was a saga getting it home and then a 4 month saga making it run but, as of yesterday it is officially fully functional!  Many, many thanks to ag-mike who held my hand through learning old CAT diesel repair and troubleshooting. It has a Lincoln SAE-600 generator unit with a control box that goes to 800 amps on the dial and a pointer that says SAE-400. The engine is a D315, early 1950s vintage. The generator itself dates to 1959 which I find confusing... Did Lincoln Electric buy a Cat power unit and let it sit around for  years before building a welder with it?

344 original hours on the clock, runs 1/8 6010 like a dream

Hi, Iron Beaver.
Good catch. Happy welding.

Just my 0.02.

Thanks!

those lincolns are good welders dc output usually so very good welding power. should run 1/4 low hydrogen or stainless rods like butter. and easily weld inch plate. it would probably do arc gouging too.

Super jealous, would love to get my hands on one.

i second that. i would settle for a lincoln tractapak though virtually the same unit just setup to be pto driven.

"tractapak" ?
Are these used on what are called "tac rigs"? Sometimes 4 on 1 crawler?

A lil off topic:
In 1979, I worked for Zia Manufacturing in Anchorage, a welding outfit that made stuff for the North Slop .... I was just the expediter but I got to see a lot of thing happen. Anyway; they had me go get a used 600Amp Miller 8pack welding platform that looked like this. After they set it up I got to play ... I remember burning on some 1" iron with what they called 1/4" Jet rod (?) 
Shoot anybody could weld with that stuff.

 

Mike, that's what they are called. made in australia by lincoln electric co (aust) they were mounted on a pair of car wheels and made to be towed behind any farm tractor and driven by the standard 1 3/8 6 spline pto output of the tractor.
virtually identical to that d315 powered twin arc but a single unit instead of a double and driven via v belt pulleys and a power take off. they'll do 180 amps or more the biggest unit being about 230 amp. some models even had 230v mains output to run hand tools like grinders etc. best bit the welding output of them is dc so very smooth welding

designed in the 50s/60s for portable use on farms as many didnt have proper mains power at the shed to be able to run welders let alone at the back fence. a lot of remote areas still don't. the idea was it's easily moved and driven by something you already had, nearly all farms had a tractor or a land-rover with a pto (the early nissan and toyota 4wds could be ordered with a pto too. well the japs did copy the british idea)

This is what i was wondering about. It's 4 pto driven 300's.