Powerpro 205 makes me think one day i can call myself a welder

[Chuck_jkl]

Holy crap this is a Fantastic machine from a Fantastic Company.

I'm a 47 year old ex Chef and have been a network engineer for the last 25 years. I've always liked customizing and building stuff. 10 years ago I got bak into Biking and started moding my Harley and turned it into a chopper all using bolt on stuff and getting stuff welded by friends. A few years ago i picked up another harley for cheap. Last year got a garage and decided I was gonna teach myself to weld. So i picked up a italian mig (marquette) used, tried it for a week and saw a deal on a Millermatic 140. Sold the other one quick fast. I read, watched and praticed alot. I'm getting decent the beads aren't always pretty but they are sound and don't look like fido's butt. I modded the bike a bit and fabbed a few things. I really enjoy doing this. I noticed that for frames it probably would be better to tig. Ding ding ding. I told myself get a tig and learn. Well 8 months of research and shopping brought me here, the proud owner of a Powerpro 205. Probably too much machine for my needs but you can never have too much power.

Duncan her in Canada is knowledgable, honest and patient. He helped me choose a machine for my needs. The machine was ordered on a friday afternoon and got it on monday morning. Everything in the box was perfect and as described. Setting it up was a breeze with the help of the manuals and this forum. Let's not forget the big boss Jean who agreed to let Duncan give me a bit of a discount.

I started on the machine a week ago on mild steel and struggled a bit with feeding filler but got better as I concentrated more . I was using 1.5% lanthanated and this stuff called E3 (purple band) this was ok. I plowed through and was able to lay some good beads but grinded a lot of tungsten.

Today I recieved some blue band tungstenand a roller guide for the plasma (ordered thru Duncan).

I had played a bit with the plasma and found out I sucked freehand. I tried with a roller guide big big difference.

A buddy of mine gave me a piece of 1/4" T1 plate 48 by 35 something. I want to make a nice welding table with it (later) I needed to cut it down to a nice 48x30 to use as a table top for now, my oldwelding surface was 24x36 3/16 mild steel and was warping from heat. The plasma cut this T1 stuff like butter it was easy and simple with the roller guide and a fence

Next retry AL with 2%lanthanated on a 1/4" scrap piece of checker plate. Yesterday I layed 6 or 7 bead and it went ok after playing around with bal and freq. Today I changed to blue band tungsten andi laid 10 or so beads and they were really nice even for a newb like me.

This thing is awesome and helps me a lot. Maybe one day i can call myself a welder but till then I'll be a melter of ####. That is very good with a grinder.

Thanks again Everlast I will recommend you guys to anyone who asks

Chuck in Ottawa

[Kempy]

Chuck

Glade to see you like the machine I have a friend looking at the Powerpro 205 also and I told him about our Canadian distributor and Duncan who I talk to also. Good look with the new Powerpro 205 and a new member of the Everlast forum.

[MuttonHawg]

Wow - another ringing endorsement for one of these machines! Really glad to hear how much you like your PP205, because I'm hoping to get either a PP205 like you, or a PP256 in the future, and so far nothing I've read has dissuaded me at all. I was leaning toward the slightly bigger machine because, in my mind, once I'm investing that sort of money I might as well go just a little bit more and get the extra power that the 256 provides. What caused you to choose the PP205, rather than PP164 or the PP256, if you don't mind my asking? Did it just hit a bit of a sweet spot?

[Chuck_jkl]

Well my first thought was a miller diversion 180. I started reading reivews and stumbled across Welding tips and tricks reviews of the powertig 185. I started thinking i could save money and get a plasma also. After a while of poking aroung and trying to gather as much info possible. The only drawback with a multi process machine was if it broke you loose all function. Seeing as this is not my trade just my hobby this is really not a problem. Then lurking here and talking to Duncan convinced me that this was not a chinese company but a north american company selling a chinese built product. Like most other companies. So i got to talking with duncan a few times over the last month or so. I told him what i was planning on doing and he suggested the 164. Now it probably would have been plenty but I know myself and probably will do more than what i'm planning on and would need to upgrade. I hate upgrading. The 205 seem to be plenty and i would not be running the machine full tilt all the time. It fit my budget and let me get more goodies like a miller digital elite helmet. The pp256 needs more power than i could supply and the cost of upgrading my wiring for my shop could not be justified.

Taking all that in consideration the choice was "easy" lol.

Also everytime I settled for less instead of getting what I wanted, it ended up costing me more to upgrade than if i got it in the first place.

The 205 is a pretty powerful little machine with plenty of adjustements.

Hope this helps

Chuck

[MuttonHawg]

Helps alot - thanks! Your reasoning sounds very much like mine. If I can avoid it, I prefer to get what I'll want/need eventually rather than upgrading. Like you, I figure it saves me money in the long run. Like you, I'm not a professional welder, so the downside of losing everything if an all-in-one unit need to be repaired doesn't worry me.

I don't have an issue with power, which sounds like the main reason you didn't go for the PP256. I'm fortunate in that my breaker panel is on the outside of my garage, and it was super easy to install a 50A 240V outlet with a very short (about 3 feet) run of 6ga wire. I can't imagine anything I would ever do in my garage that would exceed that capacity!

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your 205.

[Chuck_jkl]

Well I got 60 amp service in my shop. With light, tools, compressor, welders and let's not forget heating(damn cold here in the nation's capital) I'm pretty much maxed out. I need to ensure I'm not running a bunch of stuff all at the same time.

As for pics I'm a bit camera shy ( very critical of my stuff) plus i always say #### should of brought the cam, but i have an iphone in my pocket.

[Trainguy]

Hello Chuck:
I'm in Cumberland which is part of Ottawa. I just bought the same machine and I love it, havent had enough time to try different metals and settings, but this PowerPro is just awesome on mild steel. I'm still learning the controls,