MTS250 first impressions

[TheGary]

I have used this welder a few time now and I like it very well. The mig is smooth and I have no problem welding heavy plate with it. I did put a tweco 4 gun on it to handle the high amps better and to give me more reach (15ft). My only complaint is the case and that being said I new what I was getting. THis would be perfect with 2 things. AC tig and a pelican case, With the case being more important. The AC is a wish but would be nice. The blue welding co. Has a competitor that I looked at but it needs the extra 50 amps of power to be in the class with the MTS. That model is the Multimatic 200 ( right case but not enough power to compete). I chose the power but In my mind I wish I could of had both the power and the case. I think a 2nd model with the pelican type case would be a home run . Mybe even another model with 300 amps . For in shop use the existing case is good but for true day to day mobile use it needs the better protection of the pelican type case. Before I purchased it I was concerned about spray transfer mode but it seems to handle it fine with 035 wire. Just be carful of the duty cycle witch has not been a problem for me. It is very rare that I would have a weld long enough to max out the duty cycle . This welder has the perfect balance between power and size. It just needs tougher packaging. The 10lb spools are no problem either , It is worth the added mobility that the smaller spool gives. Most of the mig welding I will do with this will be in the 200 to 220 amp range and A 200 amp machine would be history very quickly.

[Kempy]

I have a MTS250S and have put many rolls of wire thru the 30A spool gun, mainly 4043 .047 wire, I spent 6 hrs. last month and put 3 rolls of wire on a aluminum flat bed truck welding .375 plate and .25 plate to the bed, it was a big repair job. I just love the way the 250S weld aluminum with the 30A spoolgun?

[TheGary]

Hi Kempy, I have not adapted my 30A gun to the MTS yet. I have been rebuilding a 48" Morbark chipper for one of my customers for the last week. I still have a couple more days work on it. He has a large band saw that I am flipping everything to make it right hand next and then I have to widen the conveyor system 4 feet to adapt the new saw to it. All of this will keep me out of trouble for the next 5-6 weeks . I won't have time to play till after those jobs get done. I need to order a 7 pin connector to wire the 30A to the mts. I will play with the MTS250 for a while on these jobs. I ordered a drive roll to run 1/16 flux core wire with the MTS ( I could not find one locally so I had to order it from a place in the UK.) . I am disappointed that Everlast does not carry that kind of stuff for the MTS. The machine will easily run the wire with no problems that I can see. I will run the 1/16 flux core for a while and if it works out well I will probably sell my Xtreme 12VS wire feeder. I have run my MTS off my gas drive for several hours the other day, it worked fine so it looks like it will be my field mig welder. I am having a problem with the burn back control on the MTS. It does not seem to do anything no matter where I turn the nob. But I have not had time to play either, I have been running it standard mig mode so it might only work in synergic mode ( I was gone all winter and when I got back I have been swamped with work to the point where it was all the time I had just to get the MTS unpacked and working.)

[Kempy]

TheGary,

I have been so busy myself doing things not all welding mainly machining parts and a little welding but only used the MTS once in the last two months.

[sshogrin]

I bought the 2015 250S with SM200 spool gun. MIG is excellent with great control arc control. TIG works well, but I'm with TheGary on wanting AC TIG option, with the inverter base, I'd think this wouldn't but that much more to ask for this unit. The stick side has great arc, especially when fine tuning with the arc force. I love the infinite control of all parameters.
Now to the spool gun. I actually wanted to do a quick repair outside, but didn't want to use stick, so I threw a roll of flux core in my SM200. It would be nice to have some type of documentation with the spool gun, so I had to tinker with it to figure it out. Once I got it figured out, dialing in wire speed was so nice since it's at your finger tips on the gun. I thought it might be a little awkward to use with the weight of the spool, but found it to be balanced well. After some time with it, I can see using the spool gun a lot more. I've got a longer work clamp cable now, so I can leave the welder where it is, put some solid wire in and use with gas, and work on stuff across the shop with easy set up.
When working on thinner stock, the 120v option is great, and makes for better flexibility. Most of the stock I'll be welding will be at most 3/8", so I don't foresee running into any duty cycle problems. Overall I am more than pleased with the PowerMTS 250S and SM200MTS spool gun.

[TheGary]

How does your burn back control work? Do you see a difference when changing it.

[sshogrin]

I see differences with adjustments, especially when used with post flow. When set to "0", and at higher feed rates, it will for sure stick out way too much, and want to push the gun away and stick when using post flow shielding. I have not adjusted it, or don't know if it is even used with the spool gun, when using the SM200MTS spool gun. I can say when using .030" flux core (no gas with the spool gun) and I had the voltage/wire speed set for some 1/8" mild steel, it seemed to act like it was burning back very similar to using the EV25 MIG torch with a 10# spool of solid and gas.