My take on Everlast tig welders

[srp]

Everybody that knows me would say I am a die-hard Miller man, I have bought and wore out many Miller welders. We got our first water cooled Everlast 250EX about two years ago, we have a fab shop and weld a lot of chromemoly tubing and aluminum tubing. Our chromemoly welds have to be strong and have that race car look, the aluminum welds have to be strong, and look like the welds on the finest aluminum bicycles. The 250EX has done this day in and day out with no hiccups.

We have since added a Everlast 70 amp plasma cutter and now have another water cooled 250EX on its way. After buying tig welders costing between 4800.00 and 6500.00, its clear that Everlast is giving away things like the foot petal, flow meter, torch and cables. Replacing these things with the top of the line products like a Weldcraft 20 torch, Smith or Victor flow meter and the aftermarket petal or a least change the potentiometer to a Clarostat unit makes this welder equal to a top of the line welder. Miller Tigrunner packages come with these, but at a minimum cost of 4800.00 dollars.

Do I think Everlast is a better welder than Miller? NO! Do I think they are a better deal? YES! There is no way anybody could tell the difference between a weld of a Miller Dynasty and Everlast 250EX welder. I better stop now or the Miller people will think I don't love them anymore. LOL

I am in the market for a low cost small AC/DC tig, I was looking at the Longevity 200DX. The fact that there are 0 negative comments on their forum board and not even one person had shipping damage made me think they are deleting any negative posts. I would rather see problems being solved rather than covered up. I think I will go with a Everlast 185 Micro after I get more data on it.

After I get the new 250EX going, I will do some comparisons between the two on improvements.

[Jason]

its nice to see that a unit has lasted this kind of abuse for that long. Make me feel happier knowing the products can or will last. I would love to see some of your projects if you dont mind and have the time to post pics of them.

[Powertig]

Great post from a regular welder. I am glad to see that someone who welds day in and day out thinks that an Everlast is worth buying a second time. Longevity sorry (lifespan) is important as I won't likely wear out a welder. At least I haven't yet.

[GUNNER]

I can't comment about the EX250 but the EXT had so many issues that there's no way in God's earth and heaven it compares to my Dynasty 350! I agree with your statement about price because it's hard to beat and in fact I'll go far as to say it can't be beat! But, since the day I hooked up the Dynasty I have forgot I own a welder until it's time to flip the switch. There's never any doubt that it's capable and will give no problems. I hope at some point I get a chance to compare with a EX. However Todd on this forum also has both a 250EX and 250EXT and says there's no comparison in the arc between the two machines and the EXT is easily far superior to the EX. However his EX has given problems and required repairs unlike what you have reported so who knows? Had the EXT I had NOT had the foot control issues and would break off the arc religiously at 30 amps and sometimes above I would still have it sitting here simply because of the excellent value or BANG FOR THE BUCK it offered over the Dynasty! Like you I'm a die hard Miller lover and believe there's NO BETTER WELDING MACHINE MADE PERIOD ! However I do believe there's a place in every market for competition and price point does get a person's attention every time! I feel if the EXT issues do get worked out and the foot pedal gets to the point that it performs like it should it's a fine machine for most anyone and wouldn't hesitate owning another one myself. I also feel the foot pedal issue was compounded by the slop between the rack gear and the pinon gear on the potentiometer which helped to make the already weak foot control circuit shine even further. There's simply too much manufacturing tolerance designed into the SSC back lash !! After having that unit apart many times working it in my hands trying to figure out if it was the machine causing the issue or the pedal I decided it was primarily the machine but contributed to by the pedal.. I suppose the EX not having the pedal issue in the first place it's able to account for that slop. However you did indicate a change in potentiometers was helpful and could also be something to look into for the EXT as well as I'm unsure what brand parts are used by SSC.

I hope you don't feel I'm posting in your thread to dirty it up in the least, but lately around here I've been pretty outspoken about the same topic you posted about and the exact same machines you are comparing! I don't feel given the chance to choose between the dynasty and the EX or EXT and the price were equal you would pick either over the Dynasty. I agree the Dynasty is over priced for a very weak economy and even if the country wasn't going broke it's priced very high for a bunch of silicon boards in a metal box ! I do however love the fact that no matter what I decide to weld it's up to the job and if the welds aren't perfect there's no one to blame but myself! I've never had as much control over an Aluminum puddle with ANY MACHINE as I have with the Dynasty! In the past welding Aluminum meant you worked with whatever the machine was capable of giving you to work with. NOT ANYMORE ! With the Dynasty and somewhat the EXT the welder not the welding machine is in 100% control over the puddle and that makes every weld capable of being perfect !

On a related subject it sounds as though you do a lot of the same type stuff I do myself and I have to ask you what % of the time do you use a foot control compared to a trigger switch? Myself it's 100% of the time foot control because I have to have total control over the puddle at all times to produce the quality my customers demand and the structural integrity the ASME demands as well! Welding .058 4130 tubing properly is next to impossible without a foot control. You will over heat it and cause it to become brittle and subject to cracking and failure in the event of an impact! Just curious since I was told real welders don't use foot controls! Which still don't sit well with me since I've only been at this for 30 years now!

I wouldn't allow the fact that Miller don't have negative feed back on it's site bother me about buying one. Negative feed back usually comes from pissed off customers and becoming pissed off doesn't always happen if the company acknowledges problems when you report them and takes action! I reported issues with my EXT on day ONE ! and yet never posted any negative feed back on this site for weeks! Only after being told several times the machine had no problems and it was me not knowing how to properly set it up ETC over and over again did I find it necessary to post negative comments. Since the foot control issues had been noted during production of the first batch of units I'm told there were threads in the past that addressed delays in production because of foot control problems.. Anyhow knowing that when I reported a problem there shouldn't have ever been denial of the issue! Had I been told " we thought that was fixed but clearly not and we're sorry." I wouldn't have posted negative comments then either. It was the way it was handled and the constant blaming of me for the problems the machine had that spawned the negative feed back. So if Miller has no negative remarks on their site you may take that into account before you think they are editing negative comments out. Perhaps they are but without proof that's a lot to assume! Especially coming from someone that says there's no better welding machine made! Have you ever had any real problems with any of your Miller welding machines if I may ask? Because I can't recall having troubles until I completely wore out the last Syncrowave unit I had bit that's after owning it since 1991! I believe it was when I bought it.

I enjoyed your post it seems to be a real fair comparison to me.

[CGCINC]

I know I'm very happy with my 250EX. And I can't imagine the arc being that much better on the EXT because this thing is smooth like hot butter!!!

[blasphemy000]

Glad to hear that it's holding up under daily abuse for a couple years. I'm looking to own a 250EX w/cooler, WP20 torch, and the upgraded foot pedal that EL offers. I plan on doing some welding work on the side with this machine, but I think I'll mostly be building my own projects with it.

[brad3579]

I had a feeling this would bring gunner back out but this thread is about 250EX EL work horse Not EXT. When you buy anyting first model year it will have teething problems from welders to cars. You should expect this. I sure miller, lincoln and all have had problems with brand new products. I happy there are people like you that have to have latest and greatest to find bugs for the rest of us, but quit whinning you have your new miller and we know your are the worlds greatest welder wit 30 years experince and we should all bow when you grace us on the forum. GUNNER LET IT GO MAN NO ONE HERE CARES IF YOU CAN WALK ON WATER, GO BEAT YOUR CHEST ON MILLER SITE WITH THE REST OF THEM.

Being as how I am close to buying a Tig, I would like to keep Gunner around as it is good to hear about the bad also.
If I had purchased a 250EXT and had some of the problems talked about in the other threads, I too would not be happy.
Just because Gunner posts something about his "bad" experience with his Tig in a thread talking about how "good" they are, why do you feel the need to come in and slam him?
I think it is good to have the balance and let people make their own decisions.
Just my 2 cents

[Oleg]

I have deleted all non related posts to the subject of the original poster.
If you want to complain about ext model , open up new thread and do that. I will email gunner and he can join in.

[srp]

I read in one of the threads where someone was wiring up a 185 Micro on 110. If this is possible what is the max amperage output and duty cycle? I think the Diversion 180 only has about 125 amps on 110.

Thanks

[srp]

I know I'm very happy with my 250EX. And I can't imagine the arc being that much better on the EXT because this thing is smooth like hot butter!!!

That's kinda how I feel, I have never welded on a EXT. The Dynasty has soft square wave. triangular wave and sine wave, I like the regular advanced square wave on it. Does the EXT have independent electrode negative and positive amperage like the Dynasty? That is one thing I do like.

[brad3579]

We got our first water cooled Everlast 250EX about two years ago, we have a fab shop and weld a lot of chromemoly tubing and aluminum tubing. Our chromemoly welds have to be strong and have that race car look, the aluminum welds have to be strong, and look like the welds on the finest aluminum bicycles. The 250EX has done this day in and day out with no hiccups.

What kind of Chrome-moly tubing jobs does your shop do, I will be trying a roll cage, sub frame connectors etc. for one of my cars after getting a TIG (and learning how to use it).
Where are you located, I am in Minnesota.
Here are a couple of "before" pictures from one of my projects.
This one is getting a little make over, a completely different drive train and about another 350 HP.
Thanks
Brad

[67cudafb]

Brad nice ss way don't you start thread and tell us about the car and your plan what engine/ tranny turbo blower you said 350 hp jump so must be something special. You can put it under projects with out welder. Love to hear about and I will post my mopars and wife's mustang have to take pics and get them posted. Good luck with build

[srp]

All I can only reply to is the quality of welds my 250EX and cuts of the Everlast 70 amp plasma cutter will produce, for over two years the 250EX gets used every day and mine too will puddle in like butter. I don't know what more I could ask for, maybe an option that would massage my feet and scratch my back!!!

I have had the plasma for only about a month. All I can say is it's a monster. We are buying a second 250EX, I hope it will weld as good as the first. I will post it's performance too.

We live in Oklahoma and build drag chassis, exhaust systems and do fab work on custom motorcycles.

[brad3579]

Brad nice ss way don't you start thread and tell us about the car and your plan what engine/ tranny turbo blower you said 350 hp jump so must be something special. You can put it under projects with out welder. Love to hear about and I will post my mopars and wife's mustang have to take pics and get them posted. Good luck with build

Thank you
I will get some more pics together and do that.

We live in Oklahoma and build drag chassis, exhaust systems and do fab work on custom motorcycles.

I am on a few national car forums, if you give me a little more info on your location and capabilities I might be able to steer a few people your way.
Also, if you have a website post a link.
Thanks
Brad

[srp]

Brad,

Sorry I can't highlight your comments to reply, when I do it deletes my whole post. I sold my two large buildings so lack of space limits me from building full size chassis like pro stock and street cars. We are focusing mainly on pro-street motorcycle fab work and anything for drag Banshees.

Some of you may have already heard of me, we have a line of Banshee pipes marketed under the name of Sniper Racing Products (srp), My distributors are RDZ Racing and Passion Racing Engines. A full description of them can be seen on their web sites, I think RDZ has a good close up of some of the aluminum mufflers I have welded. Thanks so much for offering to push work my way, I would like to do the same for you.

Gary

[srp]

Gunner,

Don't know how but I missed your post until now. I had never heard of a 250EXT until last week, sorry you are having problems. Any issues I ever have had with Miller welders were resolved completely. I would be offended if anybody bashed Miller, I would see them as a squeaky wheel looking for some grease. In my earlier post I stated Longevity had no negative feedback, it seems strange there is no posts of them resolving issues. Miller does allow negative posts as well.

I always use the foot petal, When I get a new welder I set it on max amperage and never change it. If you are having problems with 4130 cracking, PM me and I will tell you what we did to stop it, if this forum has personal messages.

Gary

[zoama]

Brad,

Sorry I can't highlight your comments to reply, when I do it deletes my whole post. I sold my two large buildings so lack of space limits me from building full size chassis like pro stock and street cars. We are focusing mainly on pro-street motorcycle fab work and anything for drag Banshees.

Some of you may have already heard of me, we have a line of Banshee pipes marketed under the name of Sniper Racing Products (srp), My distributors are RDZ Racing and Passion Racing Engines. A full description of them can be seen on their web sites, I think RDZ has a good close up of some of the aluminum mufflers I have welded. Thanks so much for offering to push work my way, I would like to do the same for you.

Gary

Gunner,

Don't know how but I missed your post until now. I had never heard of a 250EXT until last week, sorry you are having problems. Any issues I ever have had with Miller welders were resolved completely. I would be offended if anybody bashed Miller, I would see them as a squeaky wheel looking for some grease. In my earlier post I stated Longevity had no negative feedback, it seems strange there is no posts of them resolving issues. Miller does allow negative posts as well.

I always use the foot petal, When I get a new welder I set it on max amperage and never change it. If you are having problems with 4130 cracking, PM me and I will tell you what we did to stop it, if this forum has personal messages.

Gary

At the bottom right of every post there's a - Reply | Reply with Quote | Multi-Quote. If you want to qoute multiple posts, use the multi quote for all but the last one and then use reply with quote for it. To PM someone, click on their user name and you'll see the options.

[GUNNER]

Gunner,

Don't know how but I missed your post until now. I had never heard of a 250EXT until last week, sorry you are having problems. Any issues I ever have had with Miller welders were resolved completely. I would be offended if anybody bashed Miller, I would see them as a squeaky wheel looking for some grease. In my earlier post I stated Longevity had no negative feedback, it seems strange there is no posts of them resolving issues. Miller does allow negative posts as well.

I always use the foot petal, When I get a new welder I set it on max amperage and never change it. If you are having problems with 4130 cracking, PM me and I will tell you what we did to stop it, if this forum has personal messages.

Gary

I didn't mean to sound like I'm having issues with 4130 cracking because I don't. Thanks for the offer to help out. My post was intended to extract information from another long time TIG welder such as myself on the subject of foot controls. I to use a foot control on everything and as awkward as it can at times laying on my back upside down twisted up in some race car roll cage still using a foot control it's very necessary when welding 4130 tubing. There has been some debate around here about foot controls and REAL WELDERS don't use foot controls type of comments being made during the several weeks I had the EXT and was having huge issues with the foot control circuit. It seems during the testing of the prototype machine by an Everlast employee that post here daily he decided that the EXT didn't need to be performance checked for use with a foot control and failed to do so by either choice or perhaps oversight, or even just lack of knowledge of proper use of a TIG machine. Either way it wasn't done and that failure resulted in a machine that was sold as the top of the line TIG machine offered by Everlast having severe teething problems that could have easily been avoided. This resulted in me posting several negative post here directed at the responsible party of this problem and subsequently not being a very popular guy on this forum as demonstrated by the immediate personal attacks from a select little group of haters every time I post on any thread. These negative comments from me were a direct result of the person that failed to performance check the foot control telling me several times that I needed to learn how to weld because real welders don't use foot controls! His solution to the foot control problems the EXT had was to simply unplug it and use the remote torch switch like ..... again in his words " real welders do!" I explained several times to him that it's impossible to do the type work I do without a foot control and maintain the quality of weld integrity and professional looks expected by my customers without a foot control and that it was of no interest to me if the machine welded perfectly with a trigger switch I simply don't use them and can't use them. This was met each and every time by the same uninformed reply of .....real welders don't use foot controls and I needed to learn to weld. After weeks of hearing that galacticly moronic reply I came here and posted the same type of insulting comments in his house as he did in mine. This has resulted in a little group of guys that aren't welders by trade making more insulting personal attacks because they aren't capable of understanding the issues at hand and resort to personal attacks that they justify because I personally attacked the person responsible for the whole mess in the first place and that told lies to his boss that my machine didn't have a problem and the issue was I didn't understand how to properly use a very complicated piece of equipment..

When I seen your post and noticed you apparently have many years welding experience same as I do I wanted to get your input on foot control use and have another established welder publicly post the importance of a foot control on a TIG specific machine. It seems posting facts isn't enough when you have a gang of uninformed haters on the attack that have one purpose behind their post and that's to inflict their hatred onto a selected target. A real Rodney King type of crowd if you know what I mean.

The above mentioned issues ultimately convinced me to return the EXT machine and purchase a Dynasty 350 to replace it. The funny thing is these guys hate that so much that they even post insane remarks about the Dynasty machine. If it weren't so pathetic it would be funny but it's truly pathetic to read negative remarks made about what's most probably the finest TIG machine sold in America today by a bunch of guys that have never welded with either an EXT or Dynasty and probably never will. I understand brand loyalty and loyalty to people but at some point it comes time to realize there's probably a better mouse trap made. Personally I haven't welded with an EX machine but I understand it don't have the issues the EXT has but I also understand that it's not nearly as smooth as the EXT when it's working in the ranges where it don't exhibit problems. These observation come from a member here that owns both an EX and EXT. As for Miller being perfect there's no such thing as perfect when it comes to machinery no matter who makes it. I do have my personal picks of the equipment I've worked with over the years and it seems it's all blue for some reason. I choose Mazak CNC equipment over any other given the chance to program and operate any of it, and Miller has always been my choice for a welding machine. I do however feel that it's possible for someone else to produce a high quality machine at a much more reasonable price than a Dynasty and that's why I decided to give the EXT a chance in the first place. I don't post negative comments about any other Everlast equipment because I would be lying since I've never used anything they make except the EXT machine. The only insulting remarks I made about anyone was the people that insulted me first and after that it's game on. There are a couple of members here that couldn't seem to keep their nose out of other people's business and started makes insulting comments directed at me even though I don't know them and never mentioned their name. This has led to me placing some on the ignore list which is a first for me on any forum. I'm glad to see another qualified welder posting informative comments about welding and not another uninformed hater here to wage personal attacks against anyone and anything that they are jealous of or about.

From what I read in your reply to my first post my guess is that you wouldn't take kindly to being told you need to learn how to weld because real welders son't use foot controls either! Just my guess but I'll go on record as saying it's spot on accurate!

[GUNNER]

All I can only reply to is the quality of welds my 250EX and cuts of the Everlast 70 amp plasma cutter will produce, for over two years the 250EX gets used every day and mine too will puddle in like butter. I don't know what more I could ask for, maybe an option that would massage my feet and scratch my back!!!

I have had the plasma for only about a month. All I can say is it's a monster. We are buying a second 250EX, I hope it will weld as good as the first. I will post it's performance too.

We live in Oklahoma and build drag chassis, exhaust systems and do fab work on custom motorcycles.

It seems we do a lot of the same stuff.. Here's a very small example of some of the stuff I've done over the years.. Keep in mind most all of this is cardboard cut outs hand painted by a local Indian tribe! According to the haters anyway.....
A completely fabricated 9" Prostock Housing

A complete drag chassis for a 63 vette body

Our house car 4 years ago

Same house car in the staging lanes complete with me under the heading for all the haters to remember who I am

A 4 Link Dragster Chassis still on the jig

A ProComp motorcycle chassis I built back in 1991

My own race bike I built way back in 1989 I also machine my own parts as well. That duel Mag drive was a one off unit I built to supply spark for the duel plug cylinder head I was using.

Me getting it done again for the haters


I also build custom one off turbo systems for bikes.. This unit was for a ZX10R that ultimately went on to run 247mph in the standing 1 mile..


My company Logo

[67cudafb]

Love those pro mod cars and top fuel bikes/ funny bikes got to have big brass ones to throw leg over that beast.