My new PowerARC160STH update. rockey start (my fault)
Well, we hooked the 160STH a week or so ago, never fired it up, as it got late that night. Then we got busy.. My son went to use it a couple days ago, to try it out.
Stick mode was awesome, 6010 no less and nice. But the TIG he said was not right at all, and he was sure it was the torch as the stick was beyond fantastic.
I went out today, screwed up the tungsten twice in minutes, hot and all over the place... I could see little sparks and sometimes a acet looking flame coming out of the cup tip side. Bad gas or regulator, we are sucking in air. And it was a new spare bottle too.
Figured it out in short time. When I setup the torch, I used consumables from other WP torches, have a big sorted box of them, all sizes, etc.. Turns out the collet I grabbed was a 1/8" or more, higher/longer than all the others. Not sure where it came from. I did note the cap was not all the way down when I screwed it on. It was pulling in air around the o-ring, the extra heat and sparks gave that away.
Anyway, I opened the consumables pack (like I should have to start with) that came with the PA160 and put them on.
TIGs like a champ. Everything Duncan promised. Very nice machine...
I never use 110vac or a foot pedal. But for fun now that I solved the TIG bug, I dug and dug. Found a 47K (LX/EX pedal). Covered in shop dust and metal particles. Hit with the compressor. Plugged it up, and ranged it from like 3 amps to 160amps. So it also works with a foot pedal (new style and optional. And I doubt you will fit that in that plastic case). Will let my son play with the pedal later (hate pedals).
SO, all in all, not all the power of the 200DX-250EX, but very portable, no knobs to mess with (no AC/aluminum either though or pulse), works with a pedal.
For the introductory price, to me, you can not beat this thing for steel TIG on lighter metals. One heck of an entry level machine.
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