Just setting up my MTS-200 and thought I'd share some first impressions.

0) It's exciting to buy a machine from a company that's doing something about the insane cost of Blue, Red, Yellow and Maroon welding equipment.

When I can buy a microwave or a DVD player for $100, the price of American welders doesn't make any sense. Nor do comments guys make on other forums about Chinese equipment--where do those guys think their big-screens come from? And do they think the new Beijing skyline was welded up with Blue?

1) What computer makers used to call the "Out of Box Experience" could be improved. A printed manual would be nice. Yeah, I know--I can print one, but a printed manual would be nice. So would fittings that would permit connection of the supplied regulator to the supplied gas hose. Why make your new user run down to the hardware store for a fifty cent fitting?

2) The color coding on the supplied power cord should be illegal in the United States, and maybe it is already. Yeah, green's a 240v hot in Europe and green w/ yellow tracer is ground --but we ain't in Europe. One day one of your customers won't read the non-manual, or will get confused, and will electrocute himself. Everlast won't be debating the situation (RTFM, he shoulda read the manual) w/ a bunch of welding geeks like me online. It'll be Everlast's insurers' attorneys debating the situation in court against some very slick plaintiff attorneys (they didn't even care enough about the safety of their customers to use a properly-coded power cord) and a weeping widow in the front row. If the ensuing judgement blows out the policy limits--and it could--(this is America, fellas), it'll be goodbye Everlast.

3) The fan noise is horrendous, and it's not on demand. (I wonder if you could design a noisier system if that was your intention?) Sure other guys say just crank up the rock-and-roll--those are the guys who'll be getting fitted for hearing aids in another ten or twenty years. Or they say, well the other shop noise is so loud it doesn't matter. It matters to me--I want to be able to hear my baby call my name in future.

The engineer who designed the MTS-200 cooling system obviously didn't ace fluid dynamics at Berkeley, or in all fairness he didn't have the budget to develop a quiet system. Perhaps there's no room in the price for an on-demand system--but look at PC's and just about every kind of office equipment now days. Other company's can do it--it can't be any harder than designing an inverter power supply. Almost nobody runs fans anymore when they don't have to run.

4) It'd be nice to be able to use the little spools of wire on the MTS-200. Why? As a recreational welder (and that's gotta be the company's major market niche) I don't burn that much wire, and when I do I'd like it to be fresh--not all oxidized. And just saying, Well run copper-plated wire," isn't the right answer. Copper oxidizes too--ever see a not-shiny penny? And sometimes you don't want to contaminate the weld w/ copper.

5) Has anyone put a pedal on the MTS-200? Half the fun of owning import tools is hot-rodding them. One boneheaded way would be a simple mechanical connection, like a flexible control shaft, to the amps-control. Or one could rig a little motor to spin the amps control and put a switch on the torch handle or a pedal. Or maybe there's just a simple pot behind the front cover that could be relocated. Sure, that'd blow out the warranty, but ya gotta pay to play.

6) If there is just a potentiometer amps control behind the front panel, one could replace it with a _programmable_ pot and with the help of a simple micro-controller, rig up a rudimentary pulse system. Anyone tried it?

7) Just out of curiosity, can I use the HF (hi-freq, not Harbor Freight) box that's buried out in my garage somewhere with the MTS-200, or will it blow out the electronics (of the MTS)? It's one of those old-school boxes guys used to attach to tombstones to make 'em into DC TIG's. It impresses HF on top of the DC weld current.

*** Finally, thanks, HF for a heckuva bargain. ***