Going Green: 200DV

[Rambozo]

Try a stubby kit. Then you can use the small cup.

[dumbwelder]

Yea that's better. I had a bottle of argon delivered and asked if they had any, but they didn't. Gonna hit up Airgas tomorrow. Is that a regular collet body? I did a quick search and all I saw were lenses.

[Rambozo]

That one is a regular collet body. You can get either in the stubby. As I recall it's an Anchor brand. I know CK has the lens versions. You can also find them at River Weld.
http://www.riverweldstore.com/index....oducts_id=7633
Not bad quality for Chinese parts and the price is damn hard to beat. Somewhere here I have a review of a bunch of bits and bobs I got from them a while ago compared to WeldCraft parts. There is only one size body, and you also need the stubby collets and an insulator. Then you just use the regular 9/20 cups.

[dumbwelder]

Try a stubby kit. Then you can use the small cup.

Can you do me a favor when you get a chance and post a pic of both collet bodies side by side? My local Airgas guy has never seen this and tried telling me that 'yea, we have it. Its just showing up as a standard collet body for a 17'. I don't want to go there and, well you know

EDIT: Nevermind. He finally saw the light

[Rambozo]

[Jacobelps]

Impressive welds. I should be investing in a Everlast 200DV also in a couple of hours. My main use will be on 1/4" alluminun and smaller but wanted to know it's real down and dirty capabilities. How's it holding up?

[DaveO]

Hey, Jacobelps- if you'll send DumbWelder a private message, he'll get an email telling him about the message, and he may be able to respond sooner.

[Jacobelps]

Thanks for the info.

[dumbwelder]

Impressive welds. I should be investing in a Everlast 200DV also in a couple of hours. My main use will be on 1/4" alluminun and smaller but wanted to know it's real down and dirty capabilities. How's it holding up?

For some reason I didn't get an email notification for this, sorry. I just checked my setting and it is supposed to send one for replies.

As I said in a PM, this machine is a great choice for exactly what you describe. If you're just doing some quick weld repairs I'm not even sure if a cooler is necessary.

I do have a complaint about the way this machine ramps down on AC. I hate craters of any size and it seems like the pedal is 'low resolution', meaning, its focused on the top-end and the lowest it will go when ramping down is too high to back off to almost nothing before the arc goes out. There is not much change in the arc when you get down to a certain point. I think the low limit is maybe 20a? It seems like its actually higher than that.

I took this thing on a jobsite to do some modifications to a couple of steel gates. Half inch 16g square tubing to one inch c-channel. I was limited to a 110v circuit and the 140a MIG I brought wouldn't do it so I bought some stick rods(not well versed in stick so I don't remember what they were outside of 3/32" size) and tried it out at home. If I remember correctly, on 110v set to stick, it is limited to either 90 or 100a, and on TIG it is 125a. The results I got from stick didn't instill confidence so I brought it out there and TIG'd it. If I had much welding to do it would have taken quite a while, but it went pretty quick.

So far so good with this thing. It seems to have an issue on AC which I haven't had much time to sort out with tech support where the amperage drops to almost nothing(showing 20a on the panel) for about a second or so, then goes back to what the pedal tells it. Almost like the pulse circuit comes in for a bit.

I've welded a good bit of .125" aluminum with it on 220v using 1.5% lanthanated tungsten with a stubby gas lens setup, a little stainless, and will soon give it a go on some titanuim. Outside of the quirks mentioned above, I'm pretty happy with it.

This is 1 of 5 and I used this machine for a little while until I realized the aluminum needed too much attention in the cleaning dept to TIG the entire job, so I used a spool gun to knock it out quick. 1" pickets to 1.125" frame, all .125" thickness.

[christian]

Wow,

Nice work!

Is that jig obsolete now that the 5 segments are complete, or do you just modify it for different spacings?

Otherwise, aluminum for fencing seems kind of rare, and the picket spacing seems kind of tight, i.e., labor and material intensive.

Was this for around a pool?

Besides that, maybe try the SSC pedal on your 200DV. I bought one as an upgrade for a 210EXT, and it seemed a little better, but then tried a new CK SteadyGrip amptrol that I like well, as it also keeps your hand cooler. Mine is pictured on a 17 flex head torch with a stubby gas lens. The pistol grip makes for a good prop too.

This is 1 of 5 and I used this machine for a little while until I realized the aluminum needed too much attention in the cleaning dept to TIG the entire job, so I used a spool gun to knock it out quick. 1" pickets to 1.125" frame, all .125" thickness.

[dumbwelder]

Nice work!
Is that jig obsolete now that the 5 segments are complete, or do you just modify it for different spacings?

Thx! I have to make 2 more panels for another phase of the project but after that, the jig is pretty much useless, yes. That's why I just heavily tacked it together for easy deconstruction.

Otherwise, aluminum for fencing seems kind of rare, and the picket spacing seems kind of tight, i.e., labor and material intensive.

1.5" spacing. I tried to explain this to the customer, but anyone with zero fabrication experience will just think 'thats ridiculous!'

Was this for around a pool?

4 stall dog kennel and there is another single stall that will come a little later. Concrete is already poured.

Besides that, maybe try the SSC pedal on your 200DV. I bought one as an upgrade for a 210EXT, and it seemed a little better, but then tried a new CK SteadyGrip amptrol that I like well, as it also keeps your hand cooler. Mine is pictured on a 17 flex head torch with a stubby gas lens. The pistol grip makes for a good prop too.

That is cool! Never seen it before. If you have the room, that looks pretty good!

[dumbwelder]

I'm welding some .060" aluminum sheet and this machine seems to be having issues. It starts out fine and then outta nowhere it cuts out for a split second, then comes back. When it does this it seems like the gas flow stops because the tungsten and material is instantly contaminated. I've tried to reproduce the issue trying to narrow it down but it isn't a continuous thing.

I've acetone'd the material, brushed it, then acetone'd it again. I'm using a stubby gas lens with a #7 cup, straight argon at about 15cfh.

When I first got the machine I've got another call in to tech support, but figured I'd post a pic of the aftermath. You can see that it runs fine but as soon as 'it' happens I have to file it out and start over.

[dumbwelder]

Update: I went with recommended(by Mike K) settings(balance around 30, Hz around 130) and the problem persists. I thought it might be a dead spot in the pedal, but it just did the same thing again while not moving it.

It cuts out for a split second, the comes right back and the arc is brighter and seem to be concentrated on the very tip for another split second, then spreads back out. By this time the tungsten has taken damage and the material is contaminated.

I'm hoping Mark can chime in or give me a call because this isn't fun and I have to get these parts done.

As you can see it welds fine until this happens. No warning, no indication of contamination, just boom, done

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPOUFrulqri/

[Rambozo]

Sounds like your idea of no gas flow might be whats happening. Does it happen often enough that you can check for that?

[dumbwelder]

I replaced the cheap hose that came with the flow meter yesterday because it definitely was leaking slowly. When it happened a few times yesterday I tried reproducing it on a piece of scrap so I could see what the panel and flow meter are doing, but it wouldn't do it. Only when it fooled me into thinking it was fine I would go back to the real parts and it would happen randomly.

Somebody at Everlast said it sounds like the control board yesterday.

[Blaster]

I don't know about the newer machines like yours but I've had SO Many problems with the pedal that came with my PP256 that I would want to eliminate it from the picture all together. Can you use a torch with a sw or put a temp sw on yours to test it. My pedal problems were from both the mismatched parts (belt & cog) that were in it AND the connection at the machine...

[dumbwelder]

Good advice, thx. I've lost too much time trying to diagnose this thing this week. Gonna have to rent a Dynasty. I agree, the pedal feels cheap. Can't expect much out of a $1300 machine, though. I was told yesterday that a new pedal should be available some time this year.