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New Tig Day - Everlast Powertig 255 Ext (18 Pics)
- Thread starter coolidge
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Check the amp draw the HTP its an amp hog. My 255ext seems quite happy on a 30 amp 220vac outlet. I chopped the stupid drier plug off my 255ext and installed a 30 am 240vac twist lock plug, and use my existing extension cord and outlet. I have had the 255ext cranked up pretty high welding 3/8 inch steel but not to the max, still no issues with the 30 amp circuit and a 25 foot extension cord. I'm not sure I could own the HTP, it really is that ugly. lol
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I have had several in depth discussions with forum members via PM on the 255ext over the past few months with people who were considering buying the Everlast. There are pro's and con's, here are some of my posts in no particular order...
*** I'm just about to leave the house but here's something quick to consider. If you call Miller as I did and question them you will discover just how much of that $7,000 Dynasty 280 is now made in Asia same as the Everlast. That let all the air out of my balloon in terms of buying the Miller. There are pro's and con's to both we should discuss. Here's a sample...the Everlast has some features the Dynasty doesn't. The Dynasty has a billion local service centers where Everlast service sucks pretty much, there's only 1 repair center in Idaho and you have to ship the machine on your dime. But you can purchase 2.5 Everlast machines for the cost of a single Dynasty. The lower cost Dynasty Miller torch cooler has many report problems vs the Everlast torch cooler is bad ass. More later this evening, in the mean time go find the 255ext post on a welding forum where the guy is melting holes in like 3/4 inch aluminum plate with the Everlast hybrid aluminum TIG feature wow!
*** Okay I have had several people ask me about the Everlast welder so I have several responses which I can copy and paste over for you, see below but first lets have a look at some stainless tacks and beads. In contrast this was my MIG experience. I purchased a Lincoln MIG/stick/TIG multi process machine. The new 210MP on sale for about $1,000. I practiced welding with that thing for weeks and never really got decent results. It was loud, difficult to control basically grip and rip it and hope you get a decent bead. Lots of fumes lots of sparks and spatter. I found out the TIG feature of this machine was a joke and would have required me to purchase another $600 TIG kit. As I already didn't like the machine I decided to purchase a proper TIG machine that had all the features.
See these tacks and welds, that's after only 30 minutes of practice and never having TIG welded in my life. The higher end TIG machine makes it easy for even a beginner to do decent work.
*** I'm just about to leave the house but here's something quick to consider. If you call Miller as I did and question them you will discover just how much of that $7,000 Dynasty 280 is now made in Asia same as the Everlast. That let all the air out of my balloon in terms of buying the Miller. There are pro's and con's to both we should discuss. Here's a sample...the Everlast has some features the Dynasty doesn't. The Dynasty has a billion local service centers where Everlast service sucks pretty much, there's only 1 repair center in Idaho and you have to ship the machine on your dime. But you can purchase 2.5 Everlast machines for the cost of a single Dynasty. The lower cost Dynasty Miller torch cooler has many report problems vs the Everlast torch cooler is bad ass. More later this evening, in the mean time go find the 255ext post on a welding forum where the guy is melting holes in like 3/4 inch aluminum plate with the Everlast hybrid aluminum TIG feature wow!
*** Okay I have had several people ask me about the Everlast welder so I have several responses which I can copy and paste over for you, see below but first lets have a look at some stainless tacks and beads. In contrast this was my MIG experience. I purchased a Lincoln MIG/stick/TIG multi process machine. The new 210MP on sale for about $1,000. I practiced welding with that thing for weeks and never really got decent results. It was loud, difficult to control basically grip and rip it and hope you get a decent bead. Lots of fumes lots of sparks and spatter. I found out the TIG feature of this machine was a joke and would have required me to purchase another $600 TIG kit. As I already didn't like the machine I decided to purchase a proper TIG machine that had all the features.
See these tacks and welds, that's after only 30 minutes of practice and never having TIG welded in my life. The higher end TIG machine makes it easy for even a beginner to do decent work.
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*** This was in response to a question where someone said, "I have never welded in my life but I have soldered"...
So you are similar to me, I have lots of soldering experience from building tube guitar amplifiers, I'm a surgeon with a soldering iron, I had done some brazing but no welding. TIG welding is very much like soldering which is why I like it so much. TIG is much slower than MIG, you strike an ARC and you get (what looks like in your helmet) a small little arc about the size of a sharpened pencil, even smaller at lower amperages, you apply some heat and a small puddle forms within about 2 seconds then you dip the welding rod in the puddle much like you would dip solder in, you move the torch forward a bit, the puddle follows, you dip the rod, and this repeats. I was getting pretty nice TIG welds after only about 30 minutes of practice that's because its so much like soldering.
Now in reality that TIG arc while it looks small and comfy in your helmet is actually hotter than hell man you can turn thick steel red in no time flat with a TIG torch they are hot hence the use of water cooled torches. They don't actually use water they use a special type of anti-freeze made for TIG welding, you cannot use automotive antifreeze. It wasn't that expensive, I think I bought 2 gallons. Without a water cooled torch your torch can get hot in your hand to the point that you have to stop welding and let things cool off.
Here's how its NOT like soldering and the things you will initially struggle with most likely. Unlike soldering you can't put the TIG tungsten tip into the puddle, that's called dipping your tungsten into the puddle when you do that welding stops and you have to put a new tungsten tip on or go re-grind the tip you just ruined by dipping it into the puddle. In soldering you put your tip right into the puddle and your soldering iron on the component so you have to break that habit, trust me you will soon tire of having to grind tungsten tips and learn to keep your tip out of the puddle lol.
Keeping your tungsten tip out of the puddle, but also keeping it close to the puddle, not too close not too far away, while moving along welding a bead, with only one hand on the torch, while feeding welding rod in with your other hand this brings us to positioning. TIG welders frequently perform dry runs the length of the bead they are about to weld, they frequently rest/slide their hand/finger on the part or rig something up to guide their hand to help them control the torch one handed. What you are welding can put you into awkward positions and force you 'out of position' as they say in TIG welding. The welding itself is fairly easy, its the positioning, moving, playing a game of Twister with what you are welding that warrants some dry runs and creativity. Add the TIG foot pedal. The foot pedal is basically a variable torch temp control. You step on the foot pedal full blast to strike an arc and generally keep it to the floor, but if you sense the part/puddle is getting too hot you can back off the pedal a bit to reduce amperage, get things under control, then go full bore again. Guys who are good with a foot pedal can do all sorts of things with them. But its one more thing you have to coordinate. They do make TIG torches with on/off switches right on the torch, that requires a bit of coordination, its easier to control the torch without also having to work the switch with the same hand, but it does eliminate the foot pedal. They make some torches with sliding switches allowing you to control the amperage like the foot pedal but that requires even more coordination. So far I prefer the torch with the on/off switch on the torch maybe 70/30 over the foot pedal. Sometimes I'm out of position and I just can't get situated to use the foot pedal but both have their uses and with more practice I may prefer the foot pedal as most TIG welders do.
TIG welder features...so the machine I purchased has pretty much every features available on a TIG welder. Less expensive TIG welders have less features, the fewer features the more difficult TIG welding is imo so TIG is easier with a more advanced machine. Mine has HF (hi frequency) start, you put the tungsten tip close to but not touching the part and a HF arc reaches out an initiates the arc. Less expensive machines have scratch start or lift start which takes more practice, HF is simply easier. I can setup basically everything, starting amps, ramp up amps, welding amps, ramp down amps, end amps. Most of it is preprogrammed and there is an easy to understand display. Similarly for the gas mine has preflow and post flow. In TIG your tungsten tip and weld need to be shielded in gas otherwise they get contaminated. A few seconds of preflow to get coverage before you strike an arc and several seconds of post flow to keep the weld and tungsten shielded until they stop glowing red. This was another thing I had to unlearn vs soldering, I was used to pulling my iron out right away when soldering, in TIG you have to keep still and allow the post flow gas to do its job. Its pretty easy on mine to select the right amperage and settings for a given material, steel, stainless, aluminum. There are a bunch of features specific to making aluminum TIG easier because its the more difficult.
So in summary I think its definitely worth buying a more advanced TIG welder vs a less expensive machine where its all on you and your skill.
His response to my post was, "Your description of how TIG compares to soldering is absolutely invaluable to me, so thanks so much for taking the time. At this point I must have watched 40 hours of videos on YouTube about TIG welding, and thus have heard "scratch start", "preflow", "postflow" and gotten a vague sense of it, but in those 40 hours NO ONE has described it as simply as you just did. So much for Mr. Tig and WeldingTips.com !!"
So you are similar to me, I have lots of soldering experience from building tube guitar amplifiers, I'm a surgeon with a soldering iron, I had done some brazing but no welding. TIG welding is very much like soldering which is why I like it so much. TIG is much slower than MIG, you strike an ARC and you get (what looks like in your helmet) a small little arc about the size of a sharpened pencil, even smaller at lower amperages, you apply some heat and a small puddle forms within about 2 seconds then you dip the welding rod in the puddle much like you would dip solder in, you move the torch forward a bit, the puddle follows, you dip the rod, and this repeats. I was getting pretty nice TIG welds after only about 30 minutes of practice that's because its so much like soldering.
Now in reality that TIG arc while it looks small and comfy in your helmet is actually hotter than hell man you can turn thick steel red in no time flat with a TIG torch they are hot hence the use of water cooled torches. They don't actually use water they use a special type of anti-freeze made for TIG welding, you cannot use automotive antifreeze. It wasn't that expensive, I think I bought 2 gallons. Without a water cooled torch your torch can get hot in your hand to the point that you have to stop welding and let things cool off.
Here's how its NOT like soldering and the things you will initially struggle with most likely. Unlike soldering you can't put the TIG tungsten tip into the puddle, that's called dipping your tungsten into the puddle when you do that welding stops and you have to put a new tungsten tip on or go re-grind the tip you just ruined by dipping it into the puddle. In soldering you put your tip right into the puddle and your soldering iron on the component so you have to break that habit, trust me you will soon tire of having to grind tungsten tips and learn to keep your tip out of the puddle lol.
Keeping your tungsten tip out of the puddle, but also keeping it close to the puddle, not too close not too far away, while moving along welding a bead, with only one hand on the torch, while feeding welding rod in with your other hand this brings us to positioning. TIG welders frequently perform dry runs the length of the bead they are about to weld, they frequently rest/slide their hand/finger on the part or rig something up to guide their hand to help them control the torch one handed. What you are welding can put you into awkward positions and force you 'out of position' as they say in TIG welding. The welding itself is fairly easy, its the positioning, moving, playing a game of Twister with what you are welding that warrants some dry runs and creativity. Add the TIG foot pedal. The foot pedal is basically a variable torch temp control. You step on the foot pedal full blast to strike an arc and generally keep it to the floor, but if you sense the part/puddle is getting too hot you can back off the pedal a bit to reduce amperage, get things under control, then go full bore again. Guys who are good with a foot pedal can do all sorts of things with them. But its one more thing you have to coordinate. They do make TIG torches with on/off switches right on the torch, that requires a bit of coordination, its easier to control the torch without also having to work the switch with the same hand, but it does eliminate the foot pedal. They make some torches with sliding switches allowing you to control the amperage like the foot pedal but that requires even more coordination. So far I prefer the torch with the on/off switch on the torch maybe 70/30 over the foot pedal. Sometimes I'm out of position and I just can't get situated to use the foot pedal but both have their uses and with more practice I may prefer the foot pedal as most TIG welders do.
TIG welder features...so the machine I purchased has pretty much every features available on a TIG welder. Less expensive TIG welders have less features, the fewer features the more difficult TIG welding is imo so TIG is easier with a more advanced machine. Mine has HF (hi frequency) start, you put the tungsten tip close to but not touching the part and a HF arc reaches out an initiates the arc. Less expensive machines have scratch start or lift start which takes more practice, HF is simply easier. I can setup basically everything, starting amps, ramp up amps, welding amps, ramp down amps, end amps. Most of it is preprogrammed and there is an easy to understand display. Similarly for the gas mine has preflow and post flow. In TIG your tungsten tip and weld need to be shielded in gas otherwise they get contaminated. A few seconds of preflow to get coverage before you strike an arc and several seconds of post flow to keep the weld and tungsten shielded until they stop glowing red. This was another thing I had to unlearn vs soldering, I was used to pulling my iron out right away when soldering, in TIG you have to keep still and allow the post flow gas to do its job. Its pretty easy on mine to select the right amperage and settings for a given material, steel, stainless, aluminum. There are a bunch of features specific to making aluminum TIG easier because its the more difficult.
So in summary I think its definitely worth buying a more advanced TIG welder vs a less expensive machine where its all on you and your skill.
His response to my post was, "Your description of how TIG compares to soldering is absolutely invaluable to me, so thanks so much for taking the time. At this point I must have watched 40 hours of videos on YouTube about TIG welding, and thus have heard "scratch start", "preflow", "postflow" and gotten a vague sense of it, but in those 40 hours NO ONE has described it as simply as you just did. So much for Mr. Tig and WeldingTips.com !!"
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*** At this point he was still trying to decide which welder to purchase, he spoke to this Mr. TIG guy on youtube who was pushing a CK welder he sells and bashing the quality of Everlast accessories vs the CK machine which of course included CK torches. But he was missing the much more important issue, the duty cycle on the CK machine really sucked compared to the Everlast. You can buy higher end accessories, you can't upgrade the duty cycle on your machine or add/change features. He ended up going with the Everlast after this post.
The duty cycle on that CK machine kind of sucks especially for $2,150. I recommend you research duty cycles of like priced machines further. CK makes fantastic torches but man they need to improve the duty cycle. The .5 second pre-flow seems weird to me, this would be unacceptable to me as a noob. Maybe its a misprint? My pre-flow is adjustable from 0 to 25 seconds. I typically use 2-3 seconds, I mean I pull the trigger and this gives me a bit of time to settle and get ready for the arc and to make sure I got argon flowing. Maybe the pro's only need .5 seconds but as a noob a bit more pre-flow is helpful imo... I can upgrade my TIG setup with a CK torch, a Radnor/Harris/Victor flow meter/regulator, a wireless foot pedal those things are within my control. I can't however add features, duty cycle, and adjustability to the machine if it lacks those. So the quality of accessories are less important to me than the features and specs of the machine.
The duty cycle on that CK machine kind of sucks especially for $2,150. I recommend you research duty cycles of like priced machines further. CK makes fantastic torches but man they need to improve the duty cycle. The .5 second pre-flow seems weird to me, this would be unacceptable to me as a noob. Maybe its a misprint? My pre-flow is adjustable from 0 to 25 seconds. I typically use 2-3 seconds, I mean I pull the trigger and this gives me a bit of time to settle and get ready for the arc and to make sure I got argon flowing. Maybe the pro's only need .5 seconds but as a noob a bit more pre-flow is helpful imo... I can upgrade my TIG setup with a CK torch, a Radnor/Harris/Victor flow meter/regulator, a wireless foot pedal those things are within my control. I can't however add features, duty cycle, and adjustability to the machine if it lacks those. So the quality of accessories are less important to me than the features and specs of the machine.
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*** A series of tips I sent him...
Wireless foot Pedal - I might consider buying one of these. My foot pedal cord is really annoying. I'm already managing the torch cable and ground cable, it seems like I'm frequently having to bend over and reposition the foot pedal and cable, one less cable would be great.
TIG Mistake Eraser - One thing you will love about TIG is if you mess up, dip your tungsten and flame out, lay an ugly bead, forget to put your ground clamp on (face palm) hahaha I have made all the rookie mistakes. Whatever mistake you can weld right back over the top of your mistake, wet it out, dab a bit of welding rod and its like it never happened. See these beads, each of those beads had sizeable tack welds but you would never know it. I put those beads down after maybe 1 hour of practice TIG is that easy at least with my machine.
Shrinkage/Movement - Metal will move, shrink, warp towards the heat and this is especially true with TIG. With the machine making TIG welding so easy I think you will find managing and designing for the metal moving to be the biggest challenge. I was talking to a pipefitter about this and he said that's the difference between a 2nd year welder and a master welder, they know how the metal is going to move and adjust for this before they weld. These pro's will setup the parts intentionally out of square knowing the heat is going to draw them back into square as they weld. I saw one video where the guy was using a can of compressed air to cool the joint to pull it into square so there are tricks and techniques. But managing the movement extends all the way back to your design even. See the pic above, there is a design flaw that resulted in about a 1/16 inch pull out of flat, had I designed it just a bit different it would not have been an issue. And I had methodically tacked welded this up to limit movement and it was fine, and its very heavy 3/16 inch wall 3x3 tubing, but the full beads pulled it out of flat.
Welding Helmet - I started with a $99 auto darkening helmet but it had limited viewing area and no matter how tight I adjusted it it kept falling off. So I purchased a Millar Digital Infinity helmet, it has a huge viewing area and a new design head gear that was a big improvement. A skull cap helps further with the helmet slipping and protects your scalp. https://www.weldersupply.com/P/1066/NEWMillerDigitalInfinity
UV Light - FYI these TIG welders put out serious UV you have to keep everything covered up including buttoning the top button of your welding jacket. They will give you quite a sunburn.
***
Another post...
Word of advice regarding welding forums since I'm providing links to them...there isn't a bigger group of opinionated and frequently rude people on the web, don't take it personal when these people start in that's just how welders roll.
Also there are a bunch of knuckleheads who run to the forum to bash their machine and the company when sometimes the issue is user error. Here's an example regarding Everlast...there are quite a few threads on issues with Everlast failing to strike an arc. I myself had this problem with my machine, you hit the switch no arc forms and the machine throws an error code. So is the machine malfunctioning or is it that the users tungsten is contaminated or the area they are trying to strike an arc on is contaminated e.g. oxidized? In my case it was the latter not the machine.
IMPORTANT! When I first got the machine I had a buddy come over who had some welding experience. At first we didn't have any problem, but of course the several tungsten's I had ground were all brand new. It was only after we had dipped them in the puddle and started regrinding them that we ran into the issue of failing to strike an arc. It seemed random at first but wasn't, I figured it out in short order. You grind these tungsten's electrodes to a pencil point but not to a needle point, close but not that sharp. On some of these tungstens I had not ground the contamination off the very tip of the tungsten, you are talking maybe .010 to .015 diameter of the tip but it was still there. I noticed this when the machine failed to strike an arc on a tungsten I had just re-ground. I happened to look at the tip and saw that it was still black not shiny. So I swiped the end with some 600 grit sandpaper and bang she struck an arc no problem. We confirmed this several more times and once we made sure to grind off the tip when re-grinding we had no further issues. There was a couple of times when things went wrong during welding and the shielding gas didn't have a chance to keep the part clean, well same deal it doesn't like to strike an arc on contaminated material. I moved to a clean area of the scrap we were running practice beads on and it struck an arc no problem. So I hit the contaminated area quick with a wire brush, bingo. So TIG likes clean electrodes and clean materials, and clean filler rod for that matter. Maybe the Everlast is more picky about this than other machines I don't know but if I just keep things clean I never have an issue striking an arc.
***
Another post...
Final thoughts on tungsten. They come in various alloys, I have been using the Airgas brand (Radnor) purple tungsten which they recommended. They said local shops have been telling them those have been working well on both stainless and steel. I have had no issues with them. They come in a few different diameters, 1/16, 3/32, and 1/8. I have been using the 3/32 with good results on say .090 to .180 thick stock. You would go with the 1/16 for thinner stock at lower amperages and 1/8 for thicker stock at higher amperages. Similarly filler rods come in a few diameters. I have been using 1/16 with but its too thin for the 3x3 3/16 inch wall tubing I have been welding, in that poof and you have used up the rod, fillet welds on that tubing take a lot of filler. If you don't feed in enough filler, fast enough it will melt it off the side of the tubing above the weld bead, they have a term for that but I don't recall what it is. So I'm moving up to 3/32 rod and 1/8 rod. The 1/8 may be too thick in that it melts too slow at the amperage I'm using we'll see. Finally the filler comes in different alloys, I have been using 308 for stainless but they sell 316 also but I think they said its more difficult to work with. For aluminum I have no clue I have yet to even attempt TIG welding aluminum.
Metal Moving - I did tack weld that stand with substantial tacks, moving around to different joints not letting any one joint get too hot. And that would have worked fine for when I did the full beads, the metal moving was a design error on my part. That stand has 4 legs, I cut two short legs 12 inches in length and for the other two legs I just used a single length 24 inches long and welded the two short legs to that, this was the design error. If you weld the end of the tubing you get minimal movement, but if you weld in the middle of the tubing watch out, no matter how many tacks you use its going to bow towards the heat. I found this to be true not only on some flat 3/8 thick cold rolled steel but incredibly on this heavy 3x3 3/16 wall stainless tubing. I thought no way the heat could bend it but it did. It bent that tubing about 1/16 out of flat, I ended up having to shim one of the casters to compensate. Had I cut all 4 feet to 12 inches and welded them to the end of the center pole the movement would have been minimal.
Clearly I need to learn more here because when they weld up frames, bicycles, motorcycle, race car frames they are welding tubing in the center all the time so I clearly don't know the technique for doing that without bowing the tubing towards the heat. If you watch welding videos you will see that they use blocks of aluminum and other methods of wicking the heat away. Bottom line there is more to this welding stuff than first meets the eye. UPDATE: I saw on an episode of How its Made they were welding up bicycle frames out of aluminum tubing, here's how the dealt with the welds pulling stuff out of alignment...they heated the entire frame up in an oven to anneal it to make it soft, then knocked it back into square with soft blow hammers and stuff, then heat treated it again to strengthen it. So metal moving, that's going to be a learning curve.
The switch on the torch is the bomb for tacking, no way I'd use the foot pedal for that. Another example of advantage TIG over MIG. When I was tacking with the MIG after each tack I had to snip the end of the MIG wire clean and to length before I could make the next tack weld. That's why they sell those MIG welding wire cutters. Man I had those snipped off ends flying all over the place which WILL by the way puncture a tire, I never had an issue but my brother had gotten some flat tires from MIG wire cutoffs, the steel MIG wire is pretty stiff. With TIG you can just go to town tacking like crazy, just like soldering.
I had wired up a 30 amp 220 twist lock outlet for my Lincoln 210MP and have been using that for the Everlast with no issues. I have not run it at max amperage but I have had it cranked up pretty high with no issues, welding 3/8 thick cold rolled steel. Both Lowes and Home Depot carry the outlets, cord plug ends, and power cord. I cut the clothes dryer style plug off my Everlast cord and installed a twist lock. I considered making a short adaptor cord with a dryer plug end on one end and a twist lock on the other but decided that was silly. I used 10 gauge 300 volt flex cord, a 25 foot length. Nothing even gets warm let alone hot. These inverters are not like the amp sucking old buzz box transformer style welders. If ever the day comes when I need a 40 amp circuit I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Perhaps when welding thick aluminum I don't know.
Wireless foot Pedal - I might consider buying one of these. My foot pedal cord is really annoying. I'm already managing the torch cable and ground cable, it seems like I'm frequently having to bend over and reposition the foot pedal and cable, one less cable would be great.
TIG Mistake Eraser - One thing you will love about TIG is if you mess up, dip your tungsten and flame out, lay an ugly bead, forget to put your ground clamp on (face palm) hahaha I have made all the rookie mistakes. Whatever mistake you can weld right back over the top of your mistake, wet it out, dab a bit of welding rod and its like it never happened. See these beads, each of those beads had sizeable tack welds but you would never know it. I put those beads down after maybe 1 hour of practice TIG is that easy at least with my machine.
Shrinkage/Movement - Metal will move, shrink, warp towards the heat and this is especially true with TIG. With the machine making TIG welding so easy I think you will find managing and designing for the metal moving to be the biggest challenge. I was talking to a pipefitter about this and he said that's the difference between a 2nd year welder and a master welder, they know how the metal is going to move and adjust for this before they weld. These pro's will setup the parts intentionally out of square knowing the heat is going to draw them back into square as they weld. I saw one video where the guy was using a can of compressed air to cool the joint to pull it into square so there are tricks and techniques. But managing the movement extends all the way back to your design even. See the pic above, there is a design flaw that resulted in about a 1/16 inch pull out of flat, had I designed it just a bit different it would not have been an issue. And I had methodically tacked welded this up to limit movement and it was fine, and its very heavy 3/16 inch wall 3x3 tubing, but the full beads pulled it out of flat.
Welding Helmet - I started with a $99 auto darkening helmet but it had limited viewing area and no matter how tight I adjusted it it kept falling off. So I purchased a Millar Digital Infinity helmet, it has a huge viewing area and a new design head gear that was a big improvement. A skull cap helps further with the helmet slipping and protects your scalp. https://www.weldersupply.com/P/1066/NEWMillerDigitalInfinity
UV Light - FYI these TIG welders put out serious UV you have to keep everything covered up including buttoning the top button of your welding jacket. They will give you quite a sunburn.
***
Another post...
Word of advice regarding welding forums since I'm providing links to them...there isn't a bigger group of opinionated and frequently rude people on the web, don't take it personal when these people start in that's just how welders roll.
Also there are a bunch of knuckleheads who run to the forum to bash their machine and the company when sometimes the issue is user error. Here's an example regarding Everlast...there are quite a few threads on issues with Everlast failing to strike an arc. I myself had this problem with my machine, you hit the switch no arc forms and the machine throws an error code. So is the machine malfunctioning or is it that the users tungsten is contaminated or the area they are trying to strike an arc on is contaminated e.g. oxidized? In my case it was the latter not the machine.
IMPORTANT! When I first got the machine I had a buddy come over who had some welding experience. At first we didn't have any problem, but of course the several tungsten's I had ground were all brand new. It was only after we had dipped them in the puddle and started regrinding them that we ran into the issue of failing to strike an arc. It seemed random at first but wasn't, I figured it out in short order. You grind these tungsten's electrodes to a pencil point but not to a needle point, close but not that sharp. On some of these tungstens I had not ground the contamination off the very tip of the tungsten, you are talking maybe .010 to .015 diameter of the tip but it was still there. I noticed this when the machine failed to strike an arc on a tungsten I had just re-ground. I happened to look at the tip and saw that it was still black not shiny. So I swiped the end with some 600 grit sandpaper and bang she struck an arc no problem. We confirmed this several more times and once we made sure to grind off the tip when re-grinding we had no further issues. There was a couple of times when things went wrong during welding and the shielding gas didn't have a chance to keep the part clean, well same deal it doesn't like to strike an arc on contaminated material. I moved to a clean area of the scrap we were running practice beads on and it struck an arc no problem. So I hit the contaminated area quick with a wire brush, bingo. So TIG likes clean electrodes and clean materials, and clean filler rod for that matter. Maybe the Everlast is more picky about this than other machines I don't know but if I just keep things clean I never have an issue striking an arc.
***
Another post...
Final thoughts on tungsten. They come in various alloys, I have been using the Airgas brand (Radnor) purple tungsten which they recommended. They said local shops have been telling them those have been working well on both stainless and steel. I have had no issues with them. They come in a few different diameters, 1/16, 3/32, and 1/8. I have been using the 3/32 with good results on say .090 to .180 thick stock. You would go with the 1/16 for thinner stock at lower amperages and 1/8 for thicker stock at higher amperages. Similarly filler rods come in a few diameters. I have been using 1/16 with but its too thin for the 3x3 3/16 inch wall tubing I have been welding, in that poof and you have used up the rod, fillet welds on that tubing take a lot of filler. If you don't feed in enough filler, fast enough it will melt it off the side of the tubing above the weld bead, they have a term for that but I don't recall what it is. So I'm moving up to 3/32 rod and 1/8 rod. The 1/8 may be too thick in that it melts too slow at the amperage I'm using we'll see. Finally the filler comes in different alloys, I have been using 308 for stainless but they sell 316 also but I think they said its more difficult to work with. For aluminum I have no clue I have yet to even attempt TIG welding aluminum.
Metal Moving - I did tack weld that stand with substantial tacks, moving around to different joints not letting any one joint get too hot. And that would have worked fine for when I did the full beads, the metal moving was a design error on my part. That stand has 4 legs, I cut two short legs 12 inches in length and for the other two legs I just used a single length 24 inches long and welded the two short legs to that, this was the design error. If you weld the end of the tubing you get minimal movement, but if you weld in the middle of the tubing watch out, no matter how many tacks you use its going to bow towards the heat. I found this to be true not only on some flat 3/8 thick cold rolled steel but incredibly on this heavy 3x3 3/16 wall stainless tubing. I thought no way the heat could bend it but it did. It bent that tubing about 1/16 out of flat, I ended up having to shim one of the casters to compensate. Had I cut all 4 feet to 12 inches and welded them to the end of the center pole the movement would have been minimal.
Clearly I need to learn more here because when they weld up frames, bicycles, motorcycle, race car frames they are welding tubing in the center all the time so I clearly don't know the technique for doing that without bowing the tubing towards the heat. If you watch welding videos you will see that they use blocks of aluminum and other methods of wicking the heat away. Bottom line there is more to this welding stuff than first meets the eye. UPDATE: I saw on an episode of How its Made they were welding up bicycle frames out of aluminum tubing, here's how the dealt with the welds pulling stuff out of alignment...they heated the entire frame up in an oven to anneal it to make it soft, then knocked it back into square with soft blow hammers and stuff, then heat treated it again to strengthen it. So metal moving, that's going to be a learning curve.
The switch on the torch is the bomb for tacking, no way I'd use the foot pedal for that. Another example of advantage TIG over MIG. When I was tacking with the MIG after each tack I had to snip the end of the MIG wire clean and to length before I could make the next tack weld. That's why they sell those MIG welding wire cutters. Man I had those snipped off ends flying all over the place which WILL by the way puncture a tire, I never had an issue but my brother had gotten some flat tires from MIG wire cutoffs, the steel MIG wire is pretty stiff. With TIG you can just go to town tacking like crazy, just like soldering.
I had wired up a 30 amp 220 twist lock outlet for my Lincoln 210MP and have been using that for the Everlast with no issues. I have not run it at max amperage but I have had it cranked up pretty high with no issues, welding 3/8 thick cold rolled steel. Both Lowes and Home Depot carry the outlets, cord plug ends, and power cord. I cut the clothes dryer style plug off my Everlast cord and installed a twist lock. I considered making a short adaptor cord with a dryer plug end on one end and a twist lock on the other but decided that was silly. I used 10 gauge 300 volt flex cord, a 25 foot length. Nothing even gets warm let alone hot. These inverters are not like the amp sucking old buzz box transformer style welders. If ever the day comes when I need a 40 amp circuit I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Perhaps when welding thick aluminum I don't know.
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- Dec 18, 2013
- Messages
- 2,347
*** Okay so back to your particular situation, buy the Miller Dynasty or Everlast 255ext. There's no one size fits all answer to this question. I could go either way depending on the particular needs of the person. In my case I am not welding every day or even every week. Its strictly hobby use for me and infrequent. I could not justify buying the Miller but I didn't want some lame entry level TIG welder so I went with the Everlast. I took a risk, while Everlast has fewer owner complaints in the last couple of years they still only have a single service center which is one guy in Idaho. Repairs can take a long time and you have the shipping expense there and back. 5 year warranty so there is some comfort there and I could afford to be without my welder while it was being repaired. Worse case if the thing was a total failure I'd go buy the Miller.
So that was my situation. But if I were using the welder more frequently, daily, weekly, trying to make a living with it or supplement my income I'd pony up the money for the Miller no question. The reason is Miller has a vast support network. Hell I think I have 4-5 different Miller dealers within 30 miles of my house. I could get a Miller repaired much more quickly. They will have some parts in stock. Some will give you a loaner machine while yours is being repaired. Someone using their welder to earn a living needs that level of support as time is money and customers don't really care if you have issues with your machine. At $7k for the full package about half that is for the machine and half is for the support imo.
Another post...
Welding Cart - This is the BuildPro welding table of welding carts. Its a Metal Man UWC3 and by far the most heavy duty stand available that I have found. All the rest are really thin gauge sheet metal. Those rear wheels are large, have metal hubs with bearings and there is a substantial solid axle, I think the thing was over .800 in diameter. The front casters are heavy duty and locking. The top shelf is thick gauge steel. The front handle is worthless I took mine off. As carts go this one is one of the largest yet the Everlast 255ext barely fit front to back. These larger inverter TIG machines are large and long. The Everlast torch cooler is also a behemoth, I had to take the top of the cart off and set it down in there it was too large to load from the front. I picked up some rubber sheet from a local hardware store to keep the welder from sliding around. Most of these welders have hard plastic feet that slide around.
So that was my situation. But if I were using the welder more frequently, daily, weekly, trying to make a living with it or supplement my income I'd pony up the money for the Miller no question. The reason is Miller has a vast support network. Hell I think I have 4-5 different Miller dealers within 30 miles of my house. I could get a Miller repaired much more quickly. They will have some parts in stock. Some will give you a loaner machine while yours is being repaired. Someone using their welder to earn a living needs that level of support as time is money and customers don't really care if you have issues with your machine. At $7k for the full package about half that is for the machine and half is for the support imo.
Another post...
Welding Cart - This is the BuildPro welding table of welding carts. Its a Metal Man UWC3 and by far the most heavy duty stand available that I have found. All the rest are really thin gauge sheet metal. Those rear wheels are large, have metal hubs with bearings and there is a substantial solid axle, I think the thing was over .800 in diameter. The front casters are heavy duty and locking. The top shelf is thick gauge steel. The front handle is worthless I took mine off. As carts go this one is one of the largest yet the Everlast 255ext barely fit front to back. These larger inverter TIG machines are large and long. The Everlast torch cooler is also a behemoth, I had to take the top of the cart off and set it down in there it was too large to load from the front. I picked up some rubber sheet from a local hardware store to keep the welder from sliding around. Most of these welders have hard plastic feet that slide around.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2013
- Messages
- 2,347
***
Another post...
The Everlast has its warts, I posted a detailed review of my 255ext. I don't pull any punches. First off they put the gas inlet in a retarded position, smack square in the center of the back/bottom of the machine which is where...yes where the argon tank is located (face palm). I actually had to modify my welding cart to move the machine forward so it would clear the inlet fitting and hose. The Everlast flow meter/regulator is also retarded, the industry standard gas hose has two male fittings. Because Everlast chose some oddball flow meter with a male fitting they had to supply a non-standard hose with one male and one female fitting. I purchased a Radnor 355 flow meter/regulator which came with a heavier duty hose, a bit pricey but cry once right. The final issue I had with my Everlast was the color coding of the torch cable/hoses good lord. Their is an industry standard for color coding these, with a water cooled torch you have cold water coming from the cooler, and hot water returning to the cooler, and a gas hose for the argon. I connected the hoses per industry standard color coding then spent 15 minutes blowing the coolant out of my dang torch argon line(face palm). So pay particular attention to the instructions when connecting the torch hoses to the machine.
***
Another post...for a guy that was going to go with the EX vs the EXT thinking the EX was analog and the EXT was digital...
As for the EX vs the EXT you are going to laugh, basically the control panels are exactly the same analog control panels only you get a few more advanced features with the EXT machine and the ability to save multiple setups to memory which is quite handy. But the controls are pretty much the same on both machines. If anything the EXT is more intuitive. Lets have a look at the control panels for each and discuss...
So how would I explain this, basically the Everlast engineers asked themselves how do we get rid of the EX 13 knobs and 5 toggle switches to reduce cost, improve reliability, and free up more space on the control panel for additional features. The EX user interface is not easier than the EXT to understand, and its not more complex the two user interfaces are pretty much the same from a user perspective because the vast majority of the functions are exactly the same on both machines. The EXT does have a few more features that you don't get on the EX, the ability to save multiple setups for example which is important for us noobs, more on that in a moment. The EXT is more precise in its adjustment in that your adjustment is displayed as a numerical setting where on the EX you twist the knob and kind of guess at what the setting is based on the printed scale around the knob. If anything I would give the EXT the advantage in intuitive user interface design. They have drawn a diagram right on the panel that is a visual of welding a bead or tack from start to finish and where all these settings apply during the welding process. Argon Pre-flow, Start Amps, Up Slope, Welding Amps, Pulse settings if you are using pulse you don't always, AC frequency if you are using that feature its only on Aluminum really, Spot time which I think is the EXT's tack weld feature I have yet to use it, then down slope, end amps, and argon post flow. When I first looked at his diagram I said ah I get it. You use that green arrow on the left to select the knob for each of these settings e.g. move the LED light from setting to setting along this diagram then use the one red knob to adjust each. The setting value is displayed on the big Amps/Function display. The rest of the settings around the screen are mostly on/off switches except for the Memory feature which lets you save I think up to 8 different setups.
So both control panels are really analog interfaces. The Lincoln 210MP in contrast has a digital interface with a small computer screen, computer software, and umpteen software menus to navigate.
Memory Saving Settings Feature - You will fine tune your settings based on the type of metal and thickness. Not enough amps and your weld doesn't wet out, too much and you get burn through or it melts out material from outside the bead, this can be the difference of just 15 amps from one extreme to another on 1/8 stainless and probably narrower for thinner material. On the EX I would have to take pictures of all the knob settings so that I could reset the knobs the next time I was welding a particular metal and thickness, that would be pretty annoying. Its not too bad when you are not using the Pulse feature but when you do or you are welding aluminum there are even more settings to remember. So here the EXT has a real advantage. The Lincoln 210MP has even more advantage here in that you can save more than 8 or 9 setups vs the EXT and you have a computer screen so you can name the setups vs the EXT is just setup 1-8.
Another post...
The Everlast has its warts, I posted a detailed review of my 255ext. I don't pull any punches. First off they put the gas inlet in a retarded position, smack square in the center of the back/bottom of the machine which is where...yes where the argon tank is located (face palm). I actually had to modify my welding cart to move the machine forward so it would clear the inlet fitting and hose. The Everlast flow meter/regulator is also retarded, the industry standard gas hose has two male fittings. Because Everlast chose some oddball flow meter with a male fitting they had to supply a non-standard hose with one male and one female fitting. I purchased a Radnor 355 flow meter/regulator which came with a heavier duty hose, a bit pricey but cry once right. The final issue I had with my Everlast was the color coding of the torch cable/hoses good lord. Their is an industry standard for color coding these, with a water cooled torch you have cold water coming from the cooler, and hot water returning to the cooler, and a gas hose for the argon. I connected the hoses per industry standard color coding then spent 15 minutes blowing the coolant out of my dang torch argon line(face palm). So pay particular attention to the instructions when connecting the torch hoses to the machine.
***
Another post...for a guy that was going to go with the EX vs the EXT thinking the EX was analog and the EXT was digital...
As for the EX vs the EXT you are going to laugh, basically the control panels are exactly the same analog control panels only you get a few more advanced features with the EXT machine and the ability to save multiple setups to memory which is quite handy. But the controls are pretty much the same on both machines. If anything the EXT is more intuitive. Lets have a look at the control panels for each and discuss...
So how would I explain this, basically the Everlast engineers asked themselves how do we get rid of the EX 13 knobs and 5 toggle switches to reduce cost, improve reliability, and free up more space on the control panel for additional features. The EX user interface is not easier than the EXT to understand, and its not more complex the two user interfaces are pretty much the same from a user perspective because the vast majority of the functions are exactly the same on both machines. The EXT does have a few more features that you don't get on the EX, the ability to save multiple setups for example which is important for us noobs, more on that in a moment. The EXT is more precise in its adjustment in that your adjustment is displayed as a numerical setting where on the EX you twist the knob and kind of guess at what the setting is based on the printed scale around the knob. If anything I would give the EXT the advantage in intuitive user interface design. They have drawn a diagram right on the panel that is a visual of welding a bead or tack from start to finish and where all these settings apply during the welding process. Argon Pre-flow, Start Amps, Up Slope, Welding Amps, Pulse settings if you are using pulse you don't always, AC frequency if you are using that feature its only on Aluminum really, Spot time which I think is the EXT's tack weld feature I have yet to use it, then down slope, end amps, and argon post flow. When I first looked at his diagram I said ah I get it. You use that green arrow on the left to select the knob for each of these settings e.g. move the LED light from setting to setting along this diagram then use the one red knob to adjust each. The setting value is displayed on the big Amps/Function display. The rest of the settings around the screen are mostly on/off switches except for the Memory feature which lets you save I think up to 8 different setups.
So both control panels are really analog interfaces. The Lincoln 210MP in contrast has a digital interface with a small computer screen, computer software, and umpteen software menus to navigate.
Memory Saving Settings Feature - You will fine tune your settings based on the type of metal and thickness. Not enough amps and your weld doesn't wet out, too much and you get burn through or it melts out material from outside the bead, this can be the difference of just 15 amps from one extreme to another on 1/8 stainless and probably narrower for thinner material. On the EX I would have to take pictures of all the knob settings so that I could reset the knobs the next time I was welding a particular metal and thickness, that would be pretty annoying. Its not too bad when you are not using the Pulse feature but when you do or you are welding aluminum there are even more settings to remember. So here the EXT has a real advantage. The Lincoln 210MP has even more advantage here in that you can save more than 8 or 9 setups vs the EXT and you have a computer screen so you can name the setups vs the EXT is just setup 1-8.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2015
- Messages
- 1,463
Coolidge, thank you for the posts and information.....a lot of great stuff there. I learned stick welding on a Lincoln and Mig on a Miller Heliarc in the 80's. We had a TIG, but for some reason it was off limits to most of us. I've owned several electronic manufacturing companies and as a result have engineered, designed, and soldered 1000's of prototypes. Watching TIG back in the 80's, I always thought it closely resembled soldering. It also provides the cleanest weld, bar none. I don't care about production speed, I want quality, clean welds.
You are 100% correct on the need to protect yourself from the UV on TIG...it is intense.
I too feel like MIG is a glorified glue gun, where as TIG just seems the right way to join metal. (JUST MHO.....no flaming please) I have a cheap MIG and it does just fine.
I did look seriously at duty cycle and is another reason I like Everlast 255, it has an excellent rating. What attracted me to the HTP is build quality. The tear down of the 221 shows a very well designed and laid out machine. The Everlast tear down I saw was their 201 TIG and I was not impressed by the quality. This is one reason I wondered if you had taken your cover off? I talked to Mark at Everlast and he encouraged it as well as tout this is a user repairable welder if you feel up to it. Basically all modular.
The input current requirements are all over the place on most of these machines. The Everlast is one of the most efficient.
I am also a big fan of Infineon (a German company) for their IGBT module. I have used their products in many designs.
You are 100% correct on the need to protect yourself from the UV on TIG...it is intense.
I too feel like MIG is a glorified glue gun, where as TIG just seems the right way to join metal. (JUST MHO.....no flaming please) I have a cheap MIG and it does just fine.
I did look seriously at duty cycle and is another reason I like Everlast 255, it has an excellent rating. What attracted me to the HTP is build quality. The tear down of the 221 shows a very well designed and laid out machine. The Everlast tear down I saw was their 201 TIG and I was not impressed by the quality. This is one reason I wondered if you had taken your cover off? I talked to Mark at Everlast and he encouraged it as well as tout this is a user repairable welder if you feel up to it. Basically all modular.
The input current requirements are all over the place on most of these machines. The Everlast is one of the most efficient.
I am also a big fan of Infineon (a German company) for their IGBT module. I have used their products in many designs.