SA 800.... that is one BIG welder. 800 amps would be consistent with Lincoln's designation/rating system. 800 amps was the kind of welding power supply used for heavy submerged arc welding operations. Some of those 800 amp units were used to provide power for submerged-arc ("sub arc") welding on jobs like cement kiln sections.
800 amps is none too practical a welding generator for manual (stick) welding, though it might also be used to supply multiple weldors (Lincoln's term for a person doing the welding was "weldor", while "welder" was their term for the actual welding machine or welding power supply).
We kept a couple of the old Lincoln bullets, 300 amp capacity, at the powerplant for many years after inverter welding power supplies took over. We used them for carbon arc gouging on repairs to the hydro turbine runners ("wheels") and other surfaces that got cavitation damage. Once heavy plasma cutters came on the scene and proved out, we got rid of the last of the Lincoln bullets. We called them "bombs" or "torpedoes". I was sorry to see them go.
When I first got out of engineering school in 1972, motor generator welding power supplies were in widespread use. On the powerplant jobsites, we used the Lincoln 300 amp M-G units, and we had a few Hobarts mixed in. We were running underground piping for fuel oil and fire protection over about a mile and a half as well as plenty of above-ground pipe and some structural work. To avoid keeping an operating engineer or oiler on the job to look after engine driven welders, we went with the M-G units and ran a temporary 480 volt feeder. Where we could not use the M-G sets, such as out on an oil barge unloading dock, we used the Lincoln SA 200 units (Continental Red Seal Engines).
I had never taken formal training in welding, and picked it up on those powerplant jobs. The pipeftitters, boilermakers, and ironworkers taught me the practical side of welding in odd moments. As a young engineer starting his career, I had lots to learn. Engineering school was only a ticket to the game, got me in the gate, but the actual practical side of engineering is another matter. I was a green kid, but respectful and curious. The result was the various crafts taught me some of their work. I learned basic welding skills with oxyacetylene as a boy in a local garage. Bulding off that, the crafts told me to grab a shield and look over their shoulders. Soon enough, I was fixed up with a place to try welding on scrap steel. The general consensus was that I had to master vertical uphill with E 7018, and I did. I learned to "keyhole" root passes using E 6010- which the old timers called "bacon grease" due to the nice sizzle of a proper arc. All of it was learned using the Lincoln M-G welders. Those M-G welders could spoil a weldor as they were about as forgiving and simple a unit as there was. My introduction to TIG (GTAW) was with those M-G welders using "scratch start" TIG. A lug for the TIG torch was simply clipped in the electrode holder, and insulated with a cut-off plastic bottle as a sleeve over the exposed bare bronze lug, or anything else which was handy.
I saw the crafts do some very fine and consistent welding with those old M-G sets, and it is what I learned on as well. I have seen the evolutions in welding equipment, and marvel at the inverter power supplies you can carry with one hand and get 220 amps out of. On the other hand, as a Certified Welding Inspector, I often would be testing weldors to qualify them under various procedures. Some were old hands or naturals at it, and breezed through. Others were real prima donnas. They'd be fiddling with the controls on the inverter power supply, digital display, claiming they needed to go up or down an amp or two or three. I'd get a little testy after awhile and tell them that hundreds of thousands of miles of weld was put in using the old M-G units, often without "remote" control boxes, so the weldor had to change travel speed or angle a bit to compensate for lack of localized fine adjustment. If a person taking a test was still carrying on about needing fine adjustment, or blaming their shield (gotta have a new auto-darkening shield with wild graphics on it to weld properly- yeah, right ?!), I'd grab my own shield and gloves and proceed to run some weld to show them otherwise. I'd explain how it was when I started out, if you were some distance from the welder, you either stopped what you were doing and climbed down (or out of a trench) back to the machine to tweak adjustments... or, you had tried it first on scrap, and if things were not quite right, you never let it get too far. You subconsciously adjusted travel speed, electrode angles, or changed your technique slightly to maintain the weld size and get proper tie in and penetration without undercut or blowing thru. I remember the sound of those old M-G sets. The Lincoln upright machines- which we called either "coffee grinders" or "Vacuum cleaners" (after the upright vacuums of the 30's - 50's) positively howled. No other way to put it. The horizontal units were a bit quieter, but still had their own sound.
While I own a couple of inverter welding power supplies (Thermal Dynamics 130 amp, and Miller Multimatic 220), and have welded with Miller Dynasty inverter units on jobs, I still find myself marvelling and questioning the inverter units. Seems improbable that a little inverter unit could equal an M-G set. For stick welding, the lighter inverter units, despite the amperage they can produce, are not able to run as nice a weld as the old M-G's. The Miller Dynasty units are up to the job, but some of the inverters cannot run the E 6010 at all. For field welding and for piping and pressure vessel/boiler repair work, we still use mainly stick welding. If I do stick welding in my own shop, or in the field, I use one of my Lincoln engine driven welders. There is no substitute for the heavy copper windings in an old M-G or engine driven welder when it comes to running stick welding. I've been on jobs where the welding was 100% radiographed ("X-rayed"), all stick welding, some of it all run with the old red-flux E 6010 (Aka: Fleetweld 5 P). It was an extremely rare occurance that the radiography ever showed any "indication" (possible defect), let alone one that had to be repaired. Good weldors, basic equipment, shields without auto-darkening filters (and no wild graphics on them), and they built a lot of our country and helped defend it with their work. Gotta love those old Lincoln M-G welders and the old Lincoln SA 200's. For old times sake, I showed my wife a Lincoln SA 200 at the local welding supply. It was an old machine with magneto ignition and had the crank to start it. I told my wife that as rusted and weathered as that old SA 200 was, I'd bet that it could do a good day's work and lay down plenty of sound weld. I told my wife how I used to crank start the SA 200's overseas, and kidded that I was going to ask the folks in the welding supply if I could crank that one for old time's sake. Wife said she believed me on all counts. Wife has been around me for over 38 years, so she tends to look at welds on things like handrails or structural work in airline terminals and will kid me about it. Every so often, she will remark" "That's a bird shit weld... who let that welder get away with that...?" Gotta love her !