Howdy from South Carolina

[mredhawk]

Hey everyone,
Im Morgan from SC. Im a hobby machinist and want to take up tig welding. I can do some mig, but thats about it. I am planning on getting a 250ex to learn on pretty soon. Thanks for all the good information yall post here, it has really helped getting over the learning curve (at least the book learning part).

[christian]

Hey,

Welcome!

Please let us all hear about and see photos of your new unit when you get it set up and how you like it.

Peace,
C. Livingstone

[zoama]

Welcome. What part of SC ?

[everlastsupport]

Welcome to the forum Morgan,

The 250EX is a great machine. I have a 210EXT and 255EXT, both great too. But I really miss the 250EX. Once you get the color knobs, it is simple to setup.

If you go in your profile you can put you City and State in there.

A lot of good people here, but go look on weldingtipsandtricks.com (you will see a lot of great stuff and see out products in action in many).

[mredhawk]

Thanks for the welcome, yall. Zoama, I am in the Irmo area. Whereabouts are you located?

Yeah, I like weldingtipsandtricks...a lot of good info there. I bought some stuff from his store to help support his site. Those tig fingers he has seem pretty neat.
Might take me a while before I can order the 250ex. I was all set to put in my order and then my Highlander started whining about wanting a new timing belt. I don't have time to do the job myself, so it looks like I will have to wait just a little bit longer to get the machine. Oh well, I reckon that's how it goes. It will give me a bit of time to finish assembling the cooler I am building based on some of the designs from this site. I will put up some pics for yall if you want when I have something worth looking at. Hope yall have a nice weekend!

[zoama]

About 70 miles northwest in Sparkle city.
Uploading pics as well as serveral other functions on this forum has been borked for many months with no word on when repairs will be made. You'll have to host pics on another site like photobucket to put them up here.

[everlastsupport]

For months I have asked for the FTP password to the website (A Jeff or Leon have it). In fact, I emailed Oleg "today". Not sure why no one wants to fix it. And I have called Mark a couple times too. So I have no idea what the deal is.

[mredhawk]

Well, I jumped in and got a 255ext. I have only had it for a few days, but have been practicing on some scrap steel. I have to say, I am impressed with this welder. It seems very well made and, based on what I have seen on the youtube, has very nice arc characteristics. I have actually managed to make some beads that do not look like boogers (although I have contaminated my tungsten a bunch of times).

I would like to add an elbow to the gas inlet on the back so that it fits on my cart better. Is there one yall have used, or any threads that you could point me to that deal with what type to get? All of the different type fittings are somewhat confusing.

Thanks!

[everlastsupport]

The EXT line is nice. I am a simpler persn and like the knobs. But I upgraded to the 255ext and 210ext, but still for the price the 250EX is a great machine. You mean you want to add a 90 degree angled barb to the back?

[mredhawk]

Yes, if possible. The current hose connector interferes with my cylinder. It is the 5/8" cga type, and when the hose is connected, the barb sticks out too far. I have thought about using a 3/8" flare elbow fitting, as they are both the same width and threads per inch. They have the elbows at Home Depot, but they have a 3/8" mpt thread on the other end, so I will need some adapters, too. I was just wondering if there was a once piece fitting that would do the job.

[Rugar]

Yes, if possible. The current hose connector interferes with my cylinder.

I just put a piece of rec. tubing behind mine to keep the machine slid forward from the cylinder.

[Rambozo]

Yes, if possible. The current hose connector interferes with my cylinder. It is the 5/8" cga type, and when the hose is connected, the barb sticks out too far. I have thought about using a 3/8" flare elbow fitting, as they are both the same width and threads per inch. They have the elbows at Home Depot, but they have a 3/8" mpt thread on the other end, so I will need some adapters, too. I was just wondering if there was a once piece fitting that would do the job.

What you want is a Western AW-407. CGA "B" (032) male to female elbow.
If you need a welding gas fitting, chances are Western has it.
Should be available at your LWS or the usual online suspects.

[christian]

Hey,

So you got the 255EXT instead of the 250EX.

I think that's a good move, even though the 250EX is priced really well for that kind of output, the EXTs (like my 210) have the waveforms, the memory, and the cool schematic interface.

[mredhawk]

Thanks, yall, for the tips. Rambozo, thank you for the spec on the adapter. I ordered one from WeldingSupply. Christian, yeah, I decided to go up one on the machine. The 250EX looks great, but there were a few features the 255 has that I think will be useful..seems like I always pick some machine or another and then end up getting one a level or two more expensive and blow my budget. This seems to be a common trend...I would be willing to bet yall have done it a time or two, too.

[mredhawk]

Got the connector yesterday and installed it. Perfect. I ordered it from WeldingSupply. Here is a link for anyone else that may go looking for one:
https://weldingsupply.com/cgi-bin/ei...UNDEF:X:AW-407