250EX Frist Impressions and and few welds...

[burner]

Got her in the mail today. Gotta say hat was some quick shipping, I ordered it a little after 2pm on Tuesday and it was here at 10am this morning, gotta like that.

Here are a few shots of it first out of the box. I was a little disappointed in the fit and finish. The knobs are not punched on center and some are longer than others. In addition to that one of the retaining nuts on the knobs is different from the others, like they just used what they had lying around. There are some scratches on the bezel, I don't care about that much.








This was also lame. I cannot stand it when people just mashed wires into a terminal. On top of that if you look close you can see where the wires arced when they did the testes at the factory.




No pics of the regulator, we use all types of flow meters so lpm is no biggie for me. I as surprised it had frit on the inlet though, that's a nice touch. It does seem like it has more pressure then the regulator I normally use, it could be the 250EX itself though. When the solenoid opens up you can really hear it kick outta there.

So I set her up at work just to see how it handles some of the tasks I would do with the Precision Tig 225 that's below. I did NOT buy this unit for commercial purposes. I set it up temporally to see how well it matches up to the Lincoln I use everyday.

Look how small it is! I love that!



Holy crap is this torch huge! This is a CK9 flex head with superflex hose, I use this mostly. We have a CK150 for more amps.




Okay now for a little bit of welding, I mean little, I don't have a water cooler for the torch so I can't really get into it. It's a lot louder than the PT225, those fans kick on and stay on, I was surprised by that actually.

Here is a quick shot of a jig I made for tacking up some stainless caps. That's the second piece of aluminum I've ever welded so don't judge me, lol.




Did this first run at 60, 2T mode, no pulse, no up slop, no down slope. It was not nearly as comfortable as the CK9 i would normally use and much harder for me to control. I was much slower with this torch and I couldn't see a thing so I touched a couple times. Never got truly comfortable with it.

[burner]

On this run I'm trying out the spot timer and the pedal in 4T mode. It took a bit to get use to and setup properly but not too long. Again I thought the torch was a B. You can see where I struggle In the first 2 columns, gets a little bit better on 3/4 then falls apart again on 5/6/7.

I should also note that with the spot timer I had more bad starts, half the time I couldn't see the gap well, the other half it was the pedal... it is not anything like what I'm use to. The pedal is very stiff, has very long throw and it slides around too much.







Another task I'll do is clean up the welds our orbitals make. You can see a crater in one weld and a "high spot" in the other.




Usually when I clean these up you can't tell the difference between me and the machines, well I can and you can but you get the idea. Here on the other you most certainly can, that's not a fault of the welder by any means. I just was not finding a good path with that torch, by this time my hand was cramping and I just couldn't get smooth.



Here I'm going against the grain, I wouldn't do this normally but I'm more comfortable on this side. I noticed that the pedal drops off it's amperage a whole hell of a lot faster than I was expecting, you can really see that in this pic.




So while I'm not impressed with the F&F at all, right away I could feel that "cheap Chinese crap" voice in the back of my head when I saw those little imperfections. I did only play around with thin stuff and still need to work out the settings, I'm not use to the pulse amps or pulse time, so far I gotta say I'm liking it quite a bit. I think once I get a new torch, an absolute must for me (maybe a pedal too), this thing is really gonna be awesome! The arc is as stable as the PT225 and waaaay lighter, I'm talking 300lb w/ cart and w/o bottle vs 62lb for the 250EX. As for all the extra settings I'm not sold on that being a plus just yet, the spot timer is handy though.

Can't wait to get a new torch and a cooler setup so I can really get into this thing!

[SeanMurphy265]

I could see how a different torch and pedal could make a big difference. I set mine and run in 2t, but I do not consider myself much of a tig welder either! I imagine if you get the same torch you use everyday, and get a pedal with the same feel you could see if there is any difference between the two welders.

[burner]

I could see how a different torch and pedal could make a big difference. I set mine and run in 2t, but I do not consider myself much of a tig welder either! I imagine if you get the same torch you use everyday, and get a pedal with the same feel you could see if there is any difference between the two welders.

I'm thinking the same thing. That's the same logic that had me buying a tig instead of mig for my home use.

[zoama]

Sounds kinda nit picky. I think you'll be very happy with it once you get a torch that you like and play around with it more.
Here's the torch I use most with my PP256 http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...ad-on-my-PP256 the same setup will work with your machine. I'm not a professional welder.

[burner]

Sounds kinda nit picky. I think you'll be very happy with it once you get a torch that you like and play around with it more.
Here's the torch I use most with my PP256 http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...ad-on-my-PP256 the same setup will work with your machine. I'm not a professional welder.

Yeah maybe.... I'm not unhappy by any means. I think it's a good unit so far, killer value. Either way I'm still gonna say what I do and don't like about it.

[burner]

Sounds kinda nit picky. I think you'll be very happy with it once you get a torch that you like and play around with it more.
Here's the torch I use most with my PP256 http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...ad-on-my-PP256 the same setup will work with your machine. I'm not a professional welder.

At first I was planning to get an air cooled torch similar to that, the CK9. But then I saw that the CK9 and CK20 have the same dimensions and changed my mind on the air cooled. It will cost more for the water cooled stuff but not really, with the single torch I won't have to run 2 different torches so it's actually less money.

I do want to stay as portable as possible so I when I can I'll build a cooler that I want to mount to the base of the 250EX. For now though it's a sealed bucket and a little 110v pump, and I mean little.

Here's a shot of what I'm hoping to achieve.




This is the pump that's in the unit, I have a few spares.

[CGCINC]

I have 0 complaints about my 250EX. I've been using it since last September and I love it!
FOR SURE you gotta get a different torch unless you have Banana hands like Tony Robbins!

[burner]

Got a little rushed there at the end, it was time to walk the dog.

For the tasks I was doing, which were pretty simple stuff, it was every bit as good as the PT225. I'm thinking with a little more setup I could have used 4T mode and set the downslope when I'm doing the clean up welds. Doing that one could have perfect clean up welds on every one. that's a plus to anybody doing tubing for sure. Hmmm I wonder how that could translate to headers...

[blasphemy000]

On this run I'm trying out the spot timer and the pedal in 4T mode.

Pedal is supposed to be used in 2T mode from what I understand.

[burner]

Pedal is supposed to be used in 2T mode from what I understand.

Yeah, I just realized i mixed up 2T/4T. I'm about to go and fix it, lol, thanks....... Or not, I can't edit the post anymore. People can figure it out though.

[Rodsmachineshop]

are the round things aluminum your spot welding 4T/2T or Rocker Switch. This switch selects for control of the TIG weld cycle via the TIG torch trigger. In the 2T mode, simply touch and hold the trigger to start the arc and continue holding while welding. The machine will cycle automati-cally according to the settings selected on the machine. Release trigger the to finish.are the round things aluminum your spot welding stops 4T operation allows full control of the welding
cycle. By touching and releasing the trigger
once, the preflow, start current and up slope
are initiated. By touching and releasing
again, the down slope, crater current, and
post flow are initiated. Only a momentary
pause between touching and releasing is
necessary to activate the up or down cycle.
*Note: The use of the foot pedal overrides
these functions. Place the setting in the 2T
position to use the foot pedal. The foot pedal
is used to manually control the cycle.

[burner]

I got 2T and 4T mixed up a few times in the post. That first batch I did in 4T by setting the up/down to 0 and the no pulse. I pressed the switch to tack and then again to stop. On the second batch I used the the spot timer after setting it up, I did some with the pedal too actually. Don't think I mention that in the initial post.

[Titan winch]

The pot that has the black lock nut is not a random thing. all units have this.
Cheers

[burner]

The pot that has the black lock nut is not a random thing. all units have .
Cheers

LOL, I didn't know that. Doing production and QC work myself I noticed it right away.

[Rodsmachineshop]

hey my pulse amp ratio is the same with a black nut but noticed it a bigger nut and shaft probably because it a more heavy duty pot than the rest

[Brian Ski]

I was a little disappointed in the fit and finish. The knobs are not punched on center and some are longer than others. In addition to that one of the retaining nuts on the knobs is different from the others,

I was thinking when I seen that, that the potentiometer was probably an odd value and came from a different supplier. Like Titan posted that is probably the reason if they are all similar.

This was also lame. I cannot stand it when people just mashed wires into a terminal.

Where was this wire at??? Was it the power cord??? Was it on the plug side or in the machine???

So what is up with the wrenches welded together??? Bored or are you trying to tighten 2 bolts at the same time?????? LOL

BTW thanks for the honest review... Sounds like you are pretty happy.

Also thinking the pots maybe drilled correctly but the silk screen cover may be out of spec. Makes it look a little off.

[Rodsmachineshop]

hey i dont use plugs there too expensive i just shove the wires loose in the plug sockets on the wall and duct tape so they dont fall out of the socket lol

[Brian Ski]

hey i dont use plugs there too expensive i just shove the wires loose in the plug sockets on the wall and duct tape so they dont fall out of the socket lol

Aw c'mon... Who was that spending all the money on the plug adapters the other day??? I am with you just jam them into the outlet. Who needs plugs. Nothing more universal than that!!!

[Rodsmachineshop]

those plugs add up fast at about 20 bucks a pop lol the new miller welding carts this year