Antique Hobart welding machine beginner’s guide (feat. Weldy the Welder)

This video is intended to help those of you who bought an antique Hobart welder and don’t know where to begin getting it up & running. I explain some of the basic Hobart-specific systems and some maintenance 101 that will be entirely different than information available for the Lincoln style of welders. I’m not the font of welder expertise, I’m just trying to give some free help & support. Because of the lack of Hobart-specific information, much of the system design I had to learn myself. The manuals are informative but vague. Editor’s note: You may notice I described checking the OCV with the fine current adjustment set at 100% - this location on the dial basically bypasses the rheostat and gives you full amperage at whatever range you have selected. Technically, you should ideally have around 80V across the welding terminals wherever the rheostat is set. If you have OCV at 100% but nowhere else on the dial, you have a rheostat problem. The hobart belt driven governor is not explained in my machines’ manual besides a part #. It has three 1/8” NPT brass plugs with a faint stamped identification in them (if they’re original plugs, they say like fill, level, etc). You’ll have (1) A drain plug on the bottom, (2) a oil level plug on the rear, and (3) a fill plug up top. You do NOT fill it all the way to the top! You remove the plug on the side and fill from the top until oil begins to come out the side plug. This isn’t mentioned in the manual but is the same theory as a typical 4x4 transfer case. The governor takes a straight 30W like the L134 calls for. At the beginning of the season, I recommend you also put a couple drops of 30W in the distributor oiler (it has a flip top oiler), a couple drops in the engine generator, and iirc the back of the starter motor has a little spring steel piece you rotate open and squirt a couple of drops in there too. Also I recommend you pull that main brush cover, take the end bearing cover off, clean that out and repack it with grease. You might enjoy this video too: Antique Hobart welding machine Cold Start (feat. Weldy the Welder)    • Antique Hobart welding machine Cold Start ...   Thanks for watching, thanks for your time & we'll see you out there