welding cable wire ?

I bought anolder Lincoln 400 series welder. It is a big one! It was never used as a welder. It was used as a power source in a lab at the University of Iowa Physics building. I got in a few years ago...sent it to the shop and had it all checked out. Is great! Cable question....the leads were worn, so I was going to scrap them and replace them. The wire was not copper. Was aluminum used for these leads? Find it hard to believe they are silver...but can certainly hope!

Appreciate any info! Thanks

Aluminum work hardens pretty fast so I don't think welding leads are made of that.
You say that your welder was used as a power source though. If it was set in place, wired in, and wasn't intended to be moved around; then aluminum for power transmission is a likely choice.

Go for copper for your new leads; 2 O is the smallest for a welder that size.
Make sure you specify welding lead as the copper strands are much finer and there are more of them than in regular "multi-strand". This gives your leads flexibility and since electricity flows over the surface of the conductor(s), not through it, fine strand will carry more current.

Yes if its the older Vantage series they used Aluminum in their 300 amp series welders. The 500amps where strickly copper leads. I have both of them in my shop and you wont see any voltage irregularities with the aluminum or copper leads.
I have 18 welders total at my shop and 5 certified welders working for me. I just asked one of them to make sure. It was a great alternitive when the copper prices went thru the roof like they are now.

Its probably tinned copper. Thats what I got to replace my welding leads for my K.O.Lee buzz box. Works great! Is the cable really light?

I just went to the shop, looked at my Vantage 400, Its also aluminum wire. So I called Randy my welding supplier who seems to know everything about welders without ever looking up part numbers and he said yes they are aluminum due to the shortage and high prices of copper when they were made. In fact some of the Hobarts, esabs, and other oddball brands last year were made with it too in order to cut costs.

gimpyrobb said:

Its probably tinned copper. Thats what I got to replace my welding leads for my K.O.Lee buzz box. Works great! Is the cable really light?

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It could be. A lot of the finer strand copper wire will be tin coated.

If you're going to use it with no more than about 50 ft leads, and you plan on running up to about 5/32" low hydrogen (7018, etc), you should be able to use # 2 welding cable. I used to run 300 amps with a 50 ft stinger and 50 ft ground with no problem for all my welders. They were all heavy industrial welders with 80 volt open circuit voltage. If you decide to go with heavier cable, try to set up the end of your stinger lead up with at least 10 ft of # 2 cable for flexibility - I have some heavy 3/0 cable I use for long runs that no one in his right mind would ever want to use for a stinger lead - its way too heavy and hard to flex.

I use 4/0 for my ground, and electrode out to the stinger lead. For that I use 25' of 1 gauge. Absolutely get flexoprene or an equivolent. It flexes like its made of string!