Idealarc Sp 200 Lincoln Welder Manual

›I recently picked up this older lincoln welder. It does work but needs some TLC.

I was told by previous owner of 15years that he never put a liner in it.He said occasionally the wire would stop, which after a few test welds I tried it did. So today I pulled the welder cable off. (don't even ask about the trigger switch connector on the machine, lets just say I twisted the wrong coupler) I printed some old instructions on-line which said to use a screwdriver to twist the liner out. I did this but I only ended up with about 6inch piece.

Lincoln Idealarc SP200 wire welder for sale in Iowa. Purple Wave is selling a used Welder (Manual) in Iowa. This item is a Lincoln Idealarc SP200 wire welder with the following: Cart. This Lincoln Idealarc SP200 wire welder will sell to the highest bidder regardless of price.

I think its one continuous liner correct?Power tool manuals and free pdf instructions. Find the user manual you need for your tools and more at ManualsOnline. Find best value and selection for your LINCOLN IDEALARC SP 200 MIG WELDER search on eBay. World's leading marketplace. Find great deals for Lincoln Idealarc Sp-200 MIG Welder. Shop with confidence on eBay!If so any ideas on how to remove the rest of it. I did pull off the gas nozzle and there is some liner sticking out.

But it did not seam to budge. I think with some patience and finesse I will be able to get it.

So little background history.I have taken a brief welding course in high school, and another in college. I have some seat time behind a few new smaller 110v mig welders. I am definatily not saying I am great, but I can at least throw a bead down. First liner and wire size? I am thinking an 0.030 mig wire will be a good well rounded wire for general small welding. I would also like to run a flux core (inner shield?) wire for some bigger stuff. Will this require two liners?What size wire would be required to weld something like 0.150 mild steel?

Another Question is the Volt gage, I mean I think I understand it but how do you utilize it? Do you strike an arc and try to dial in the voltage to what is specified on the table.My last question is in regards to the table on the door. I feel like the new smaller machines I have used had a larger table covering more material sizes and wire sizes. I think I just need a lot more seat time with it.

Punkid, I do not believe you have a great deal of choice in the liner, but you will need to check your drive rollers. Myself I have an older Hobart mig and am unable to find drive rollers so I use the 0.035 roller for both.030 and.035 wire as well as my dual shield flux wire. Seems to work ok. Dial in the voltage prior to stricking an ark and dial in the amps(wire speed) rather high, while you are welding adjust the amps by reducing the speed till you have a steady beacon hiss and little splatter and you will be in the zone, adjust your fine voltage and wire speed till you are satisfied with your beads.It may help to have a helper adjust the wire speed for you while you are running a bead. Thats how I was able to tweek my welder. I'm no pro so thats how I did it.I could be wrong but what I read if you dial your welder's voltage while welding you risk hurting the welder.

For the size of 1/8' and even 3/16' mild steel.035 wire should be fine. As far as the table on the welder it should give you a pretty good starting point for your settings.

Hope this helps. I've welded 1/8' easily using 0.030' wire in a MIG.I also occasionally weld up to 1/4' with it providing the length of the weld isn't very long.

I find that I need to make about 3 passes for the thicker material. I did hear somewhere around here that you can 'cheat' it by preheating your parts with a oxy-acetylene torch prior to welding for better penetration. Might have the opportunity to try that out tonight, as I'm going to be fabricating a receiver mount for my 3000# winch (for use on my tractor & truck). You actually have that backwards.

The wire speed is actually amperage and amperage is where you get your heat from.The voltage controls the arc which means it controls whether you use gobular transfer or spray transfer. For hard wire (not flux core) you will probably like spray transfer better.it lays down a nice bead.I like to check the color of my welds too.if they look a little too grayish, I up the voltage by a tenth of a volt or so. That gray look is from too much magnesium and copper in the weld. It stops it from flowing, but I admit I am very anal on my welds and how they look. I do not weld much with.035 wire, but for.045 wire I run my welders at 28.5 volts and 465 inches per minute for wire speed and fine tune from there.This is for thing guage metal though.

If I am welding thicker stuff I run 29.5 volts and 525 inches per minute. One reason I run so low on the voltage is, with hardwire, I flick my wrist a bit and come back into the puddle a bit.That quick little whip gives the welds a very pleasing ripple to them.I like that and so does the QC guy.

This whip action does add more wire to the weld so if my wire speed was higher, it would splash and cause a lot of splatter.again something I try to avoid.You know the voltage and wire speed are right when you take the gun and run a nice fillet pass. The voltage should be just enough to create a small, keyhole shaped crater that is filled in almost immediately.This should not be undercut at all. If it is, add a touch more wire speed.Add too much though and you get excess spatter. You also get a violent looking weld, one that makes it hard to see the silicone in the wire puddle on top of the molten metal.

As always, this takes a million words to describe, but if I was there in person, you would see what I mean in 10 seconds and have better looking welds pretty quickly. You actually have that backwards.The wire speed is actually amperage and amperage is where you get your heat from. The voltage controls the arc which means it controls whether you use gobular transfer or spray transfer.

For hard wire (not flux core) you will probably like spray transfer better.it lays down a nice bead. I like to check the color of my welds too.if they look a little too grayish, I up the voltage by a tenth of a volt or so.

That gray look is from too much magnesium and copper in the weld. It stops it from flowing, but I admit I am very anal on my welds and how they look.I do not weld much with.035 wire, but for.045 wire I run my welders at 28.5 volts and 465 inches per minute for wire speed and fine tune from there. This is for thing guage metal though. If I am welding thicker stuff I run 29.5 volts and 525 inches per minute.

One reason I run so low on the voltage is, with hardwire, I flick my wrist a bit and come back into the puddle a bit.That quick little whip gives the welds a very pleasing ripple to them.I like that and so does the QC guy. This whip action does add more wire to the weld so if my wire speed was higher, it would splash and cause a lot of splatter.again something I try to avoid.

You know the voltage and wire speed are right when you take the gun and run a nice fillet pass.The voltage should be just enough to create a small, keyhole shaped crater that is filled in almost immediately. This should not be undercut at all. If it is, add a touch more wire speed. Add too much though and you get excess spatter.You also get a violent looking weld, one that makes it hard to see the silicone in the wire puddle on top of the molten metal. As always, this takes a million words to describe, but if I was there in person, you would see what I mean in 10 seconds and have better looking welds pretty quickly.

Wire speed is wire speed not amperage.Electric is like water. Volts is the water pressure and amps is the pipe size.On the welder the speed of the wire changes how fast it comes out.

To fast and the welder cant keep up.To slow and the wire melts before it even touches the metal. If you lower your volts you can lower your wire speed.More volts faster wire speed is needed. The better welder you are the faster you can run your wire. Alright, I got a new liner, a fresh bottle of CO2, and a Brand new spool of 0.035 Now I need some help dialing in the voltage and wirespeed. The Mig table on the door Reads the following (0.035) 22g min-16v, 7 fine voltage, 100 wire speed.20g 14-19v, 1.5 fine voltage, 110 wire speed. 18g 14-19v, 2.5 fine voltage, 125 wire speed.

Thats all they list for material sizes. So I started welding up various thickness while adjusting, trying to make my own table. Here is what I got so far. Using 0.035 wire, C02 18 CFH 0.0875, 14-19v, 3.5 fine, 175 wire speed. 0.100, 14-19v, 4 fine, 200 wire speed.0.125, 14-19, 5 fine, 225 wire speed. 0.150, 14-19v, 7 fine, 300 wire speed.

I know its kinda a stupid questions, but do these numbers at least seam to make sense? I will try to take some pictures of the welds at these thicknesses at some point so you guys can give me a hint to fine tune them. At least right now they are ok Welds, not perfect, but for sticking metal together it works.

Last question is what do you think the limit is for MIG with this machine.It seams like I still have a good more voltage left, but maybe not so much wire speed. I still owe you guys some photos, but I made a change today with great results I felt like thicker materials really made the welder struggle.

I could not get a good hot weld, and more wire speed and voltage resulted in a not good sounding, or looking weld. I knew about stick out, and I thought I was pretty close but my tip/nozzle combo resulted in a tip about 1/4 inch in the hole. I trimmed a little off the nozzle so that tip now protrudes ever so slightly.WOW, I could instantly tell by the sound of Zzzzzzzz I was on the right track. I also needed to turn down the voltage and wire speed a ton. Before it was more like Zzz.zzz.Z.zz.Z.zzz not really consistent and I thought it was just bad settings.

So now all my numbers on my home made table need to be changed. To give you an idea now 0.150 14-19v, 5.5 fine, 225 wire speed I will post some pics soon I Swear.Here is the weight bracket I am making. It will hold a milk crate perfectly, which I then can load up with anything. Base is mocked up.

I used an old snapper rider as a material donor Extra supports going to the frame, no new holes drilled. Even with everything just tacked I could stand on it no problem.

I also will still be able to tow a trailer.I took a pic of some of the better welds This material is 0.25' and 0.25' steel. Don't worry about that bump at the upper left, that was a tack that I had to stop. Overall I like this weld, although I wish it was a little wider. Settings were, 18-23v, 3fine, 300 wirespeed. I also like this weld, 0.25' to 0.150 material.Again the tack weld is to the upper right. Settings were 14-19v, 5.5 fine, 200 wire speed This weld is sketchy, it does not look bad but its wayyy to hot for that square tube, 0.075 to 0.25' I thought it was the same as all the other 0.150, but I soon realized it when I got to the end, it burned through, all the way to the right. Settings same as above This final one is a corner bead(bad pic), 0.150 to 0.150.

Its got a big hump to it, but that because I should have back cut the material slightly to give some room for the weld. I will remember this for the next time.Settings same.Hmm im thinking im thinking.well you need to test out that sp 200 if you ask me. The 175 might get you by, but Id talk to Sandy if sandy doesnt respond on his own free inititive you should PM him about the 175 because hes got I think a miller and they will run roughly the same, he can tell you whether for the application youre wanting if it will suffice. But maybe sandy will have a better theory on this. Again, the sp200 aint new. So you need to be careful.Test it out and find out what is working with it.

ITs gona be tough though witout the liner. So go get a liner, get the guy to give you all the details. For 20 bucks it seems good sense to me. You get the liner he says you need, have him show you how to install it.and tell him you need to try the machine out and see how it welds.

Never buy a machine if you cant make sure it runs.Only time you would do this.if youre buying a machine you know doesnt run and paying according to that. The ole sayin, dont look at a gift horse in the mouth.well if youre payin for that horse it aint no gift!

Anyway, again I think the 200 is the way to go. But Maybe sandy has a differnt perspective. Sp-200 Lincoln Welder PartsGood luck CHRIS. Yeah the age on sp 200 sounds right.I mean dont get me wrong I love older machines.

But wire is a pain. Its not like my trusty ole stick machine. Stick thre aint much to go wrong except the engine.On the generators they had commuters and brushes but on an old rectified transformer not much to fuss over. Mig/wirefeed on the ther hand.thheres a lot that can go wrong. Only thing I worry about with 175 is power needs.That is finding out you should have paid the extra money i think around 1500 for a 215 or whatever it is.

I think licoln makes a 215, miller has a great lil 210. I dont know anyone specifically who has the sp 200, hopefully youll get a post in the coming day or two.

Wish I could help you more but Im now kinda stuck to give more advice.Good luck though. All three of my current machines were bought used. I agree with TxRedneck. Tell the guy you'll buy the liner if he'll help you replace it and then try the machine out. If he balks at all, walk away.Probably means that he knows there are some other issues as well. Buying used is as much about reading the person selling the item as knowing the machine he's selling.

For me, the advantage with used was that I was able to get much more machine than if I had bought new. I'll probably never use the full capabilities of the TIG or plasma, but what it does mean for me is that at the settings I am using I have near 100% duty cycle. Start by going to the Lincoln website and downloading the pdf manual for the SP200 and read through it. It will give you enough to go over the machine and know something about it.That should tell the seller that you have some sense of what you are doing and that he can't pull the wool over your eyes.

If your gut instinct is to walk away from it, that is probably the right decision.As I said, buying used equipment is about as much about feeling good about the person selling it as the equipment that you are looking. So how did you like the experience out at the welding school? I checked things out online after the other post about the classes.

Looks like you could really stand to learn a lot in a short time there. Well now the guy just contacted me about this welder.(Didn't see it yet) but did a search and found one other pic of it with the functions.Would like to find out how much this was new as well.I gotta ask again because I keep flippin.is this worth say $350.00-$400.00 if it works and is in good condition? Like I said It's my first and coin is low at this time. The school was great!

Got alot out of it.Will be going back for tig this time,not expensive and very informative with 80% hands on weding! Would recommend highly!! Someone selling one for $500 here: Here is one of the manuals (you'd need a serial number to narrow it down to the exact one: One currently selling on eBay: eNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Another post about one at about $500: selling one for $500 here: Here is one of the manuals (you'd need a serial number to narrow it down to the exact one: One currently selling on eBay: eNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Another post about one at about $500: Well now at least I can see what it looks like.WOW.that is big! The seller tells me he needs a liner because when he welds in tight spaces the feeder slows down.Does this sound right?? Haven't asked him about me getting a liner yet. Thought I would ask him to get it,when I see the machine,pay him for the liner and ask him to show me how to install it.

THEN.show me that it was really the liner.weld something!! Those links tell me it's a good machine,just big!And probably worth around $500.00 so maybe (if it works & in good shape) it will be worth $350.00. What do you think?? Yeah if its working id take it for the 350.I like your idea on the liner.

I would depending on the guy tell him to get the liner, depending on the guy id get my own. Its just personal though. Basically I think if I dont know him im more apt to say, you get a liner and ill pay the cost of it type of deal.Course then again I kinda like to know what im getting and all that too.Deal with the liner.

The liner is a tube or conduit that the wire runs trhough in the whip, or cable/ lead to the gun. Advantages of rs232 serial communication. Couple things happen here.

One is the liner gets dirty. Another, the liner gets worn from the wire being squashed and such.

Anohter thing, you drop something on the whip, yoiu will bend and distort the liner.This is trouble. You could roll over the whip witha wheel on say a welding machine. Or a forktruck.:nono.

Or drop steel on it too these all are frustrations i live with:realmad: When you replace the liner, you will adjust the wire tensioner. Dont crank the danged thing all the way down. Just tight enough so it feeds the wire.More will crush and deform the wire.therefore wearing hard on your liner.

Ok, now, another thing is if the liner is worn, or has one of these problems yes by kinking the whip it wont feed properly. Us who do this for a living with wire, me only in shops, we always try to keep our whip as straight as possible. All the time. If not, even a good whip can bind, but its kinda rare.

Usually a brand new one works real good. Hope this helps.And again I think its a good price. And I dont think there will be a problem, just want to verify before you pay the man his money. Worn rollers? Well worst case is you need a new whip. And maybe a set of rollers. Id think if you bought them both.and wont be both one or the other for a brand new whip set I think you could get one for what 50-60 bucks guys?

Not really sure. Lincoln Idealarc Sp-200 Mig Welder ManualRollers I dont know but doubt theyd be too expensive. Call your welding dist though before you go to see the machine for a price quote if your worried though. They will quote you ona new whip too if your worried. Sp 200 Lincoln WelderThats worse case that its not in the welder part which then is totally differnt ball of wax. Worn rollers?Well worst case is you need a new whip.

And maybe a set of rollers. Id think if you bought them both.and wont be both one or the other for a brand new whip set I think you could get one for what 50-60 bucks guys?

Not really sure. Rollers I dont know but doubt theyd be too expensive.

Call your welding dist though before you go to see the machine for a price quote if your worried though.They will quote you ona new whip too if your worried. Thats worse case that its not in the welder part which then is totally differnt ball of wax.Great.you gave me alot of useful info.and put my mind to rest.will have to take a ride and see it.that is if the pics do it justice,maybe I can get it for less.who know's I'll have to travel around 2 hrs to see it,so I'll cry to the guy about the tolls & gas,then show him $300.00 cash!!!!!!

Thanks again Chris!! BTW.Happy Birthday!!!!!!! Hey guys, Sorry but been busy poking into other things lately.The major brand 175 class machines all seem to get good reviews. As far as chasis work goes it would work fine seeing as how most auto/pick-up chasis' run less than 3/16ths or close to.Mine provides good results clear up to 1/4 without a lot of after worry for me. I will say I always put a lot of thought and prep into joint design tho.A 175 can do a lot with special considerations, altho I don't like to make broad statements as to capacity.

Never know who's going to grab 4 or 5 words out of the whole context and run with it as a blanket statement. When folks start talking about 'trailers' I start to get real conservative with advise.:) Lock down seems like he's got things in perspective tho. So if the 200 doesn't work out, a 175 will fill a sweet spot. As always, bigger is usually better, untill you guys throw in that part about 'and auto body'.:laugh: If you find yourself needing more food for thought, holler and we can blather on some more here.And its Sandy to the rescue once again.

Tellya lock, this guy sure knows his stuff. Hes very humble and will say no. He may not weld for a living.Dont actually know what he does.so heck he could be a weldng engineer for all we know or CWI I dont know.

But he does weld, and hes sure has a lot of years experience working in the craft. Sandy will lay it down and shoot it straight.

I agree with what he says about being careful how we word things.but again, I agree that you do seem to know your stuff. And as he said, bigger is usually better until you start with autobody.no need getting an SA 200 to weld a door panel:D Oh, and for the record, yeah I confused the heck outta a guy recently.I wrote about pushing a rod into the puddle. Well I wasnt giving anyone pointers.just making comment about how you can get better penetration with stick.you dont push stick rods you pull them.but in a particular instance you do push it back into the puddle.its very unique to frost/root pass welding on multipass with an open root. Mostly in pipe welding we do this. Well, I totally threw him off.

Completely innocent on both parts. So he pushed his rods, like you do with solid wire. Well it was my fault as I should have explained myself and I dint.I forget to do that sometimes as Ive done this for so long known and burned so many rods I dont much think of what im doing.just do it. Anyway, good luck and glad sandy jumped in to give you his input before you left for out there so you can sit on this yet atleast another day of contemplation. Post navigation.