I ordered a TIG welder !

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brewman !

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Yes I did. Don't ask how much it was. Actually, its a combination unit, it does stick and TIG. I'll sell my stick box to cover some of the cost of purchasing the TIG machine.

It should be here by the end of the month.

WHY ?

Because I'm tired of having to track down a welder and beg him (or pay him $100) every time I need something light/aluminum/SS welded. And that is a lot of times.

I need to get back into home brewing. And I need a TIG welder to do that and a lot of other jobs that are coming up.
 
Nice, I wish my home service would support one... my house is old and I only have 100amp service. My miller is at my farm and its a pain to head down there and back just to draw a few beads.... maybe a new generator would fix the problem.
 
Nice, I wish my home service would support one... my house is old and I only have 100amp service. My miller is at my farm and its a pain to head down there and back just to draw a few beads.... maybe a new generator would fix the problem.

90% of TIG welding will take less than 50A. Run a sub box off your main box and you are good to go.

My garage had a single 15A feed to it. I ran a 60A service into it. I've had to run a feed for welders at every house I've ever lived in.
 
Yes, I do have an update.

I have an Everlast Power Pro 256 on loan. It works great. I haven't done a lot of TIG welding with it yet, but its a great arc welder. The TIG function is excellent too.

I am very happy with it.
 
What about the one you bought?

There was a shipping mix up. I ordered a PowerTIG 250EX. I got shipped a Power Pro 256. I'm using it until they get a PT250EX in stock.

I also bought a Power Plasma 80. Its great as well.
 
That's funny, the one I got was the Everlast PowerPro 256 as well. I've so far used the stick welding and plasma cutter to build a bumper for my Jeep. I need to get an argon bottle to try the TIG function. So far it has been an awesome little machine, we'll see how it holds up, but for as often as I'll need it, it definitely won't get used like a commercial machine.
 
7014 and 7018 welds with the PP256. 160A on the 1/2" plate welds.

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I'm a newbie at TIG, but it seems to work well for that too.
 
Really nice stick work. My welds drastically improved when I ran out of a found stash of 30 year old rod and bought some new. My stick welds are not near as nice and neat as your work, you look like you've done that before.
 
Thanks.

I've never welded professionally and I've never taken a welding class. All self taught.

I only weld about 20 pounds of rod a year, but I've been doing it for 35 years, since I was a kid, so you catch on after a while.

Like I said, my PP256 welds really nice on stick. I don't think I ever laid a bead that nice with my Miller Dialarc 250.

My Powerarc 300 came in on Friday. I wired it in, but I haven't used it.
 
I am going to cut corny kegs apart and shorten them to 10-12" so they fit in my fridge beside the milk, to take HB to parties and such.

I am going to TIG them together at the joint. The hard part will be cutting them for a nice fit with no gaps at the joint.

After about 15 of them, I should be good at TIGing thin SS !
 
The jury is still out on Everlast. Some folks love em, some hate em and a few just dont care either way. I have read and heard the good bad and ugly but would be willing to give one a try. Seems like they are good or bad right out of the box so it doesn't take long to know if you got a good one or not. Good luck with the new machine and keep us posted on your results, issues, likes, and dislikes. The most common dislike I have seen is the extra large tig torch being a PITA, but thats about it so far.
Wheelchair Bob
 
I'm 3 for 3 with Everlast, providing the PowerArc 300 actually welds. It certainly turns on and strikes an arc.

I actually bought the PowerArc 300 partly because when I searched I found horror stories, so its my insurance machine. That and I wanted more duty cycle when stick welding at high amps.

One of the things I didn't like about the PP256 is that if it goes down, I would lose my arc, TIG and plasma functionality all at once.

Regarding the TIG torch, the PP256 is rated for 200A on TIG. For that sort of power you need a water cooled torch, which is what it comes with. By all means, buy a smaller torch if you want one. Some welders don't even come with torches. If Everlast shipped it with an air cooled torch, some people would complain about it being the wrong one.

First impressions, I'm impressed as hell. I think that some of the complaints Everlast gets are from people who don't have much welding experience.

When I started Arc welding with the PP256, I couldn't keep the arc going. Turns out that I had the pulse function on and it works while arc welding. I think that is cool. Had I not noticed that, I'd probably be sending my unit back as defective.

If my machines last 10 years, I'll be extremely happy.
 
Are there any applications where pulse would be useful for stick welding? High deposition perhaps?

I could be wrong but any welder I've ever used did not allow the pulse function with stick.

Your only need to use high deposition rods is when welding something thick and the goal is to lay down as much weld as possible so as to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete the welds.

If your welding something that calls for high deposition the thickness of the material will be able to handle the high heat input.

In that case pulsing would be unnecessary since pulsing is used to control heat input.
 
Are there any applications where pulse would be useful for stick welding?
Just like when TIGing. If you had a situation where you need amps to keep the arc going but those same amps would produce too much heat. Keep the amps up and pulse it to turn them off for a bit to keep the heat down.

Everlast has a MIG welder with pulse capabilities for just that reason.
 
I used the PowerArc 300 today and if anything it welds better than the PP256. Pretty unbelievable for a $450 machine, being 300 amps and all.

I got some TIG practice in today. My first time ever TIGing aluminum. Its supposed to be hard to do, but once you get the settings dialed in, its easy.

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The key with aluminum is to get the AC balance right so that it cleans the metal but doesn't ball the electrode tip. Its cool changing the AC frequency and watching the puddle get bigger and smaller. I was experimenting with settings when doing those welds.

The PP256 rocks.
 
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