Bought an Everlast PowerTIG 250EX

Holescreek

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I've had a Lincoln Square Wave 175 for many years and it has performed very well on steel but lately I've had the urge and some necessity to weld more aluminum. I'm a self taught welder (if you don't count hundreds of hours of Youtube) and through the magic of video research decided on an Everlast 250EX. I called Everlast direct and ordered the welder and water cooler on April 25th and the welder arrived by itself on May 3rd. I called Everlast's shipping dept and was told that the coolers had just arrived and were shipping out on the 4th.

In the meantime I needed a cart for the new welder and while it would've been nice to be able to use the Everlast I couldn't run it without the cooler and did the task with the Lincoln. The cooler finally arrived on May 9th.

Here's a pic of the partially complete cart:

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I had the day off work (May 9th) and spent the first hour playing around with settings and used up the last of my Argon. I found a problem with the HF start working erratically and initially thought that there was a bad switch in the foot pedal. It didn't take long to figure out that I could scratch start the arc so I put a call in to Everlast tech support. Long story short, I played phone tag until I finally made contact about 6pm eastern time. Mark gave me a list of a couple of tests to run and also mentioned that the spark gap inside the welder may have gotten knocked out of position from handling.

This morning I removed the back cover and the screws from each side to open the welder up and check the gap. Mark said the gap between the carbons should be between .029" and .035", Mine was set at .015". When I put a wrench on the locknut to loosen the adjusting screw I found that both it and the screw were loose. (even though they were covered with anti-tamper schmoo). After reassembly the HF start was working fine and I got to play for a couple more hours running beads on aluminum and steel trying to get a feel for the settings. There is a huge difference between operating the old Lincoln transformer machine and the new Everlast inverter machine.

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I still need to mount tubes to hold filler metals on the left side of the cart someday soon.
 
A dream machine- let's hope it keeps running and doesn't become a servicing nightmare LOL
MS
 
Nice.
why couldn't you run w/o the cooler. The cooler is a nice to have, but it isn't necessary is it?
 
Mine came with both a water cooled and air cooled torch so I could/did run without the cooler for a while, but the air cooled torch is limited on amps to 125. Above that you need the water cooled torch and cooler.
 
I still need to mount tubes to hold filler metals on the left side of the cart someday soon.
I'm not sure why you want to put filler wire tubes on your cart. Filler wire should be kept in closed containers so they don't become contaminated, especially aluminum which oxidized quickly. Making the tubes to hold the containers the filler wire comes in is a good idea.
 
Nice.
why couldn't you run w/o the cooler. The cooler is a nice to have, but it isn't necessary is it?
There's a difference in an air cooled torch and a water cooled torch, both size and design. TIG welding aluminum on a water cooled torch gets pretty hot, and an air cooled torch gets hotter. The insulation on the torch lead is different on a water cooled torch and it runs inside the water supply line to the torch, and the torch body is a lot smaller. With that said; A quick start up to check things out wouldn't hurt.
 
What Rustrp said, I keep mine in their original tubes in my stainless tool cabinet which holds all my welding stuff. The BEST and lowest cost stainless tool chest for welding stuff is sold by Costco for only $399. You have to order them now they stopped carrying them in their stores, but everyone else sells this thing for $500 to $700 plus shipping. You can't beat $399.

https://www.costco.com/TRINITY-48"-Stainless-Steel-Rolling-Workbench.product.100161405.html
 
Congratulations! Welcome to the club.

There is a huge difference between operating the old Lincoln transformer machine and the new Everlast inverter machine.

Could you expand on that? I've never used a transformer based TIG machine. Any suggestions if I ever need to?

let's hope it keeps running and doesn't become a servicing nightmare LOL
Mine has been a dream to own. Personally from what I've heard and read the Everlast support is way better than the blue or red guys machines. Besides, you could probably buy 3 or 4 of the Everlast machines for the price of one of the others!

why couldn't you run w/o the cooler. The cooler is a nice to have, but it isn't necessary is it?

The advantage of the water-cooled torches is that they are often much smaller than the air-cooled and can therefore fit in tighter places. Some of them are so small that they have very little "thermal mass", and they can overheat quickly. That said, I have used my water-cooled torch for tack welding without the cooler running. That Everlast cooler is LOUD! I am thinking of getting a simple air-cooled torch, just so a I can enjoy TIG more without the roar of the cooler.

-brino
 
Brino exactly, that's the value proposition you can buy 2.5 of the Everlast machines for what a comparable Miller will cost you. So if your Everlast dies you could buy a 2nd one while the 1st is being repaired and still be in it for less money than a single Miller.

IF your welder is mission critical to your business, IF you cannot afford to have your welder down, then bite the bullet and buy Miller. I have at least 10 Miller service centers within driving distance of my house for parts and repairs. That's part of what you get for the higher cost Miller and Miller will 2nd day air parts out. But since I'm just a hobbyist Everlast made sense in my case.
 
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