OT- Miller welder-generator

I bought a Miller welder-generator at auction. I had checked the oil on the engine- it looked fine. It was battery start, with no pull start, so could not assess compression.

Got it home, put a battery on it, and it spun but did not appear to have compression. Took the head off, and found that I had been snookered. Piston and rod were missing. Many gouges on the head indicates that it had thrown the rod. Seller had gone to the trouble of taking the rod and piston out, putting engine back together, and putting enough used oil into it so it would show up OK on the dipstick. Prince of a fellow.

So, good news, bad news: Engine grenaded, but welder/generator must still be OK, or engine wouldn't have been running.

It occurs to me that I will always have a bunch of tractors around here, and all of them have PTO's. So instead of fixing/replacing engine, how about just adapting it to PTO operation? I can make a 3 point hookup, but need to convert the RPM's. My question is- where can I find a box to gear up the speed from tractor PTO to speed it needs? Can't really use a chain and sprockets, due to difficulty in oiling the chain. Any suggestions?

why wouldn t you go to smallengineswarehouse.com and just get a new motor for it, much easier

I would second the opinion below of a new engine or rebuilding what you have.

If it is a generator/welder, depending on model, it may make 120v at 1800 rpm and weld at 3600 rpm. Look at info on the housing of the welder. May be near the plugins for the welding cables.

we did tthe same thing on alarger unit with abad engine using the drive off a salvaged hammermill used the pto shaft and belt and pulley set we had to also reverse the rotation put the input of the gen facing away from tractor this is how the mill drove anyway we ended up with it on ajd 4020 at 1300-1400 engine rpms down side is that usally the engine on the gen supports 1 end of arm. have to come up with abearing and support on input end of gen.

Look at the way the generator is attached to the engine. Many of those smaller 1 and 2 cylinder machines do not have a bearing on the engine end of the generator. The engine carries the generator shaft. So you will likely have to fab up some kind of a carrier bearing.
But that's actually the least of your worries.
Most of those smaller gensets need to have the engine spun up to at least 3000 rpms to make them work. Getting 3000 rpm out of a 540 pto is going to be a bit of an engineering problem.
One more thing to consider. If you buy another engine make sure it will couple to the generator.
I've had a 200 amp Miller for 30 years now - powered by a CCKA two cyl Onan.(very common engine)
When the engine was tired in it some years ago I found a new short block to put in it at a reasonable price. Alas, Onan built that engine special for Miller and the new crank would not couple to the generator. I had to use the old crank - which was still servicable - in the new short block.
I've cooked many hundreds of lbs of 7018 with my old Miller.

Sometimes we just have to cut our losses. I have a Auger Wagon like that, yes I got it at a sale also. I have spent about as much as I gave for it. And it needs more. It makes a good yard ornament. Life is a beach and then you die. Vic

I bought a Lincweld 225 portable welder in about the same condition a few years ago. Found out the new Onan CCK short block would cost $2,200 yeah right I'm going to pay than much when I could add another grand and buy a new Miller 250.
I parted out the Lincweld on Fleabay and made 2X my money back (then bought a big old Hobart with a Chrysler 225 six that runs perfect for a grand. A PTO conversion though doable will be quite a job.

I would be finding that Auctioneer. Had a tractor at a large auction here that someone did the same trick took it back and the Auction refunded his money and the consignor had to pick it up and was told never bring anything here again it sure would be worth a try.

HUB City, is the farmers friend, go to
www.hubcityinc.com They've got lots of MADE IN
USA gearbox's for just what you want to do.
quality is exceptional, however, today, high
quality USA products don't come cheap.
I used to moonlight for a bearing company that
sold Hub City. I don't know if you can buy
direct, through the web site, or if they'll
reference you to a distributor.