New 250EX, low amps, no gas flow

[Grunbay]

Well, after putting up with pure he'll getting EVERLAST to ship my welder (prepaid for 4 months!), I seem to be having a problem. I am an absolute TIG newbie, so perhaps I'm doing something wrong and someone can set me straight.

Set up for DCEN welding. Trying to lay a bead on a piece of steel. I cannot get gas to flow at all, whether there is pre flow set or not. The regulator is working fine. I can get gas to the back of the unit, but nothing out the torch. In addition, When the amp knob is turned up all the way it reads 185 on the display. When I weld, I get a weak spark and the display shows around 40. I assume that means amps output during the welding process. The spark is too weak to even melt the steel.

Am I doing something wrong? It seems as though it ought to belt out the juice and weld up a storm, but I got nothing.

Can someone give me a set of initial settings on the 250EX for welding steel so I can confirm that the problem is not just me either not doing something I should, or doing something stupid?

[Wrenchtamer]

Are you using the foot pedal?

[everlastsupport]

Can not help on the delay, that is something you need to talk to sales about. This is the tech support forum.

Make sure you have the unit in TIG mode, and not STICK or MMA. Do you have the pulse on when you see the 185 amps max? If so turn that off.
On the gas, also make sure no packing foam is lodged in the gas inlet port. The display is not accurate when the unit is actually welding, so ignore that.

Best thing to is call into tech support, one of us can walk you though the settings and see what the issue is.

For starters, turn all the green knobs off, hook up the torch switch (not pedal), switch to HF start, 2T, DC, pulse OFF, spot off. Without knowing the thickness of the steel, you will have to set the amps. If it works, try with the foot pedal. Last resort, call in to our tech support line.

[Ray]

Talked to him this morning, he had wired the plug wrong.

It’s Saturday, got the call at 6:39 AM my time, called him back at 7:25.

If you hook the red wire up when running single phase.

You get, 50% power on the display and no gas. The troubleshooting consisted of, take your plug apart and wire it like this..

Didn’t hear about the shipping fiasco.

[everlastsupport]

Good job Ray,

People really should call Everlast (on a phone) for support before posting a rant and.or terse information here. We see it all the time. Ray, on the phone, caught it right away.

Anyway, he's up and running and that is the main thing.

There are also post here on this forum on wiring the 250EX for single phase (CAP OFF THE RED WIRE). So the answer is on the forum here as well.

Calling is better than posting if you are new to welding or wiring a plug on a welder. Not trying to bash anyone, but future customer see this and panic I am sure and there was nothing wrong with the welder and a simple call to tech support would have (and did in the end) resolved it right away. Even on Saturday.

[worntorn]

Now that the machine is plugged in properly the next step would be to watch these videos, all six of them.

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/...-settings.html

It will also give you an idea of what the machine is capable of when human error/fidgeting is not part of the equation.

Glen

[everlastsupport]

Good point Glen.

TIG takes time for many people. I find the O/A guys and people that solder pick it up quicker than others, but either way, a couple hours here and there and you have the idea and lots more hours and you are good.

Not sure what Grunbay has done. But the videos are very good. And I would start with steel and work into aluminum later. Since you can see the pool a lot better.

[performance]

185 amp readout is key...always a miswire in my experience.

[everlastsupport]

Note the 185 amps here applies to the 250EX unit. 1/3-phase unit wired wrong.

[performance]

185 amps yes, but I have found lower amps when people miswired all of the welders, even single phase. The 225 will usually read 175 or so. 200, about 150 or so. Correct the wiring, and it will go to working.

[worntorn]

185 amps yes, but I have found lower amps when people miswired all of the welders, even single phase. The 225 will usually read 175 or so. 200, about 150 or so. Correct the wiring, and it will go to working.

I believe the correct procedure is (1.) Rant, (2) correct wiring then it will go to working!

Glen

[Tritium]

I believe the correct procedure is (1.) Rant, (2) correct wiring then it will go to working!

Glen

That is how I handle it but usually by PM.

Thurmond

[Grunbay]

Perhaps I could have gone straight to working had the pathetic instructions included with this welder had even hinted at the correct wiring! There was no information at all, so I wired like I wired my compressor.

Nevertheless, I received an excellent call back from Everlast's technical support people, who was very friendly, informative and patient with my request, a lesson that could be taken by some of the users of this forum!

[performance]

Grunbay,

We do try to tell people to download the manual on line. And a link is located in bright red at the right top of every web page on the site. Sometime it gets missed. If you haven't already, please download the manual from the site.

[worntorn]

Perhaps I could have gone straight to working had the pathetic instructions included with this welder had even hinted at the correct wiring! There was no information at all, so I wired like I wired my compressor.

Nevertheless, I received an excellent call back from Everlast's technical support people, who was very friendly, informative and patient with my request, a lesson that could be taken by some of the users of this forum!

Ouch!
the rant continues.
I did give you a link to six good videos which will help you with your EX settings. I spent a bit of time digging those out since Jodie's site is loaded up with so much info sometimes it is overwhelming. You are welcome!
I also poked a bit of fun at you for starting in with a rant at the same time as asking people for help. Perhaps I'm alone on this, but I still think that is a bit of a strange way to tackle your problem.

Glen

[morgaj1]

Perhaps I could have gone straight to working had the pathetic instructions included with this welder had even hinted at the correct wiring! There was no information at all, so I wired like I wired my compressor.

Thicken up your skin a little.

[Gman]

http://www.everlastgenerators.com/manuals.php
Just to help those searching for "weak spark". (like me) I never seen that BIG RED manuals button. It is kind of hanging over to the right, off the screen.