Welding Tips and Tricks

Just purchased a Everlast Powertig 225-LX. Im having alot of trouble with the arc starting consist and at times not at all. You can hear and see the HF arc but just wont start the arc and when it does it sputters not smooth at all and at times loses the arc and will not restart. All this is in AC have not used the DC yet. And other times the arc starts smooth as silk and welds great and very smooth. My tungston is 2% thor. with straight argon. The tungston and argon on this machine I have used on a Miller 180 SD and never had one issue at all, smooth arc starts with a stable arc with the miller. Could this be a result of the foot pedal on the everlast unit ? BTW the machine is in 2t mode with the foot pedal and in 4t with the torch trigger the machine have very low power, havnt done much messing around in 4t with the torch trigger as of yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated !!! Thanks

Almost sounds like your not gettin a good ground. Make sure the piece your grounding to is clean and shiny and solidly attached to the piece your welding too.

Failing that it could very well be the gas. Get alot of people on the forums that have problems with their arc and it turns out to be a bad tank of gas. It happens.

I dont think it is the gas, as I have used the same bottle on the miller 180 SD, It could be the ground, I welded together a pair of intercoolers today and it did much better but still having some issues. I think I will replace the ground clamp, Its not to my liking anyway. Has anyone replaced the foot control with another brand as to get a shorter unit ? Thanks Russell

Jody had an issue with his and called tech and they had him adjust the spark gap and move a metal clamp to eliminate a hard or rough arc start. Same issue, inconsistent start, arc wander and sputters. Worth givin the tech guy a call and see what they can suggest.
Bob

Bob that has crossed my mind as well. I will give them a call Monday and let yall know what they say.

It could very well be the HF gap. I had to reset mine as well as move a feed wire away from the HF coil.

Also, check that the pot in the foot pedal is moving right in relation to the rack as the pedal is pushed down. Seems to be a common issue to have to tweak the adjustments on the pedal to get smooth operation.

That said, Everlast support is great.

I reset the gap on the HF points they were misaligned and around .050 wide. The arc is better but still by no means stable and hard to start. The higher the amps the smoother the arc is but at lower amps still getting lots of sputters. I will call Everlast tomorrow and see what the next step is. Mike at Everlast had me reset the HF points, but by the time I got home they were closed.

Well, After speaking with Everlast tech support was decided to send the machine back in for exchange. Eeverlast sent a call tag and all needed paper work to ship the unit back Smooth at this point. Was told that a replacement machine would be sent out as soon as my machine left the UPS dock here. This is where the disappointment comes in.................... After I ship my tig machine back and email the tracking number to Everlast, so they can get me the tracking number on my replacement machine as was discussed on the phone with customer support prior to me shipping mine back in. That is when Im told they do not have a 225-LX in stock and it will be a few weeks before a new shipment arrives. It is upsetting that this was not brought out upfront but only after I ship my tig back , which was usable in current state but just not right, Now here I am left with out a tig unit. Everlast offered a full refund, or a repaired unit and some off the new price ( not sure I want a used repaired unit ), or a refurbed 250-EX in a few weeks, more waiting there on this option. I really dont want a refund at this point just what I paid for. My Econo Tig has issues thus the reason for buying the 225-LX. Thats where I am at this point.

Are they offering you a new 250 EX at the 225 LX price when it comes in?

For me that would be very tempting as I wish the LX had a couple of it's features.

If you could get a 250 at the 225 price i'd jump on that faster than flys on a cow patty.

kermdawg wrote:If you could get a 250 at the 225 price i'd jump on that faster than flys on a cow patty.

It really pays to enter Everlast contest that they frequently run on their board. Last contest not only had a Grand Prize of their new 200MTS machine it had an unannounced Second Prize Machine as well. Also unannounced was a one time, no time limit discount of 50% on any machine they sell for all who met the qualifications of the contest. I highly recommend watching their site for contest. I was a qualifier and am about to add either a 250EX or their new 250EXT to my herd of machines for a ridiculously low cost just as soon as I can raise the cash. As one of the board moderators stated "It Pays to Play".

Thurmond

Well, I opted for the 250-EX Hopefully I will have it in a couple of weeks. LOL I guess I really need to not break anything on the dragster until the new machine arrives !!

Well I got my 250EX today, so far so good. I got it all wired up and did some sample aluminum welding very smooth so far. Didnt have time to do much but so far its a smooth machine no arc splatter like the 225lx. Everlast customer service has been really good, Oleg and Alex did exactly what they said they would do and called letting me know what was going on.