Help! My welder has a problem somewhere between the stool and the torch

Hi All,

I just wanted to post my startup experiences here in case it helps any other new Everlast customers. I've done a bit of welding with a crappy flux-code welder I had years ago, but never any "real" welding. Some time ago I decided to learn to Tig weld and build something real, without using bolts. The PowerPro 256 seemed like the perfect fit for my needs.

I brought home my new welder and it sat unopened for a week due to scheduling issues - so by the time I found the time, I was REALLY eager to start running some test beads. So I set about wiring the unit. I have an old-style NEMA 10-50 "ungrounded" plug in my shop, and it's a rental home so unless I want to pay through the nose to have an electrician re-wire it, it's my only choice (there's also the chance that the landlord would say "no, you can't do that" - in which case I'd be SOL). Plenty of current, but not the plug recommended for a welder. So I bought a new NEMA 10-50 cord end and wired it up. Easy enough, and I had it done in only a few minutes. When I powered the unit on, it seemed to function: the display lit up, the fan came on. Nice quiet fan too - never seen that in a welder! (That should have been a clue)

I was ready to cut a piece off a large plate of Aluminum on which I could practice. But when I donned all my safety equipment, plugged in the leads, air, control plug, pilot arc, put the cutting torch to the edge of the plate and pressed the trigger, no arc, just an arcing sound coming from inside the unit. Needless to say, I was devastated - there would be no welding today.

I freaked out a bit, thinking the control electronics had just been fried by some stray arcing, until I remembered the spark gap that is used to start the main arc - oh thank goodness - that's what that sound is. The shipping box had been pretty beat up by the gorillas at UPS so I figured it succumbed to the Samsonite treatment. So I bought another feeler gauge (mine was hopelessly lost, again), and took apart the case. The spark gap was just as I had read it was supposed to be on the forums. It wasn't that.

I scoured the forums the rest of the evening, and had a Eureka moment the next day at work. Long story short: when wiring the unit, I had paid attention to the instructions that came with the cord end, not the support folks here on the forums. Duh. As a result, I had swapped the ground with one of the hot leads. I ran home on my lunch hour, re-wired the cord end, and powered it up again. The fan sounded MUCH stronger this time. I barely had time to put on some gloves and power the torch to test it before I had to get back to work. Bam! Put a neat little hole in the edge of the plate. Later that evening, the cutter made quick work of the plate - with a damn fine looking cut too.

Symptoms of a mis-wired plug or one lead of your 220 being open:
1. Fan sounds quiet enough to have a conversation next to the unit, you have a problem. The fan should sound smooth but pretty loud - just shy of pushing the unit off the table and having it fly around the room.
2. No air flow when you hit the torch button
3. An arcing sound from within the case.

A NEMA 10-50 plug seems to work with the unit, but you have to verify two things:
A) Make sure that your "neutral" (vertical blade in the outlet) is actually grounded. I'm not certain that a continuity test between another ground and the "neutral" will do this - luckily I was able to physically trace it to the ground rod outside. Most of these "neutrals" are likely true grounds but I wouldn't leave it to chance.
B) Make sure the green ground wire goes to the vertical blade, and the black and white wires go to the diagonal blades below the vertical one. When you buy the cable end, pay attention to the wire stripping lengths (if any), but ignore anything regarding wire color.

So, this is a textbook example of what the support personnel are saying: most startup problems are the customer's doing, and can be solved pretty easily. So far this seems like a great welder.

I would make a suggestion, however: In the manual (which is great work), the wiring info is included in the paragraph that describes the power cord. I think it needs to be split out into its own section. This would draw attention to it, saying "HEY! Dummy! You have to pay attention to this!" Before I got the welder I read the manual word for word online, and it honestly didn't register with me. Ideally, something like this diagram, with wiring diagrams for the plug-side of the connection - only divided up into sections: This is the plug we recommend (NEMA 6-50), these other 50-amp plugs may work and here's how to wire them, and these are plugs that you absolutely cannot use.