New 250EX owner, a few problems

[Adambomb]

Hello fellow welders, I am happy to say I'm the new owner of a power tig 250ex as of yesterday. Once wired, the machine powered right up, and I was anxious to try it out. I am also new to tig welding, so go easy on me guys.

So the issues I have found so far are (1) the HF start does not work and (2) after completing a bead and letting off the pedal, the arc continues to flow. The only way to stop is to pull the torch away from the work. I have a feeling the two issues are interconnected, but I don't have enough experience to figure it out. Any insight is appreciated. I have tried resetting the HF points gap anywhere from .025 to .060 and still no joy. I have also put in an email and a couple messages to tech support, so hopefully Mike will get a chance to get back to me soon.

[performance]

check this without the foot pedal engaged. Try the torch switch only.

[Adambomb]

I had tried both the foot pedal and the torch switch on 2T and 4T to no avail. So after you suggestion Mark, I messed around with it again, but this time I held the button on longer (10 seconds or so) and the HF kicked in. I dialed down the preflow to 0 and now the HF works just fine in torchand pedal modes. The arc remaining active after lifting the pedal or releasing the torch switch is still present, but it does go out by itself after 6-7 seconds. Perhaps this is a cool down feature/program?

[Wrenchtamer]

does the arc seem to be ramping down before it goes out? Just a thought but try setting weld parameters end amps and downslope to zero? I have a 256, which they say is basically a 250ex minus a couple of features plus plasma, and if preflow is set too high the hf can take a long tme to initiate. Postflow does not seem to affect arc time but downslope does. Just a thought.

[Rugar]

Try setting the preflow, postflow, upslope, and downslope all to 0, and the start amps and end amps to 100% as a test to see if it stops and starts the arc when you release the pedal or switch.

If that all works, then go to this link for a series of videos on what each of those functions does.
http://www.everlastgenerators.com/video-library.php

[sschefer]

On the pre-flow issue. Set it to about 1 second and post flow to 1 sec per thou of metal thickness. I use about 10 seconds as a default.

Just before you start to weld, tap the pedal and that will give you about 11 seconds of flow to purge the hose. You can start to weld as soon as the initial purge rush is done.

On HF start, I found that even after setting my contacts, the first start need to be a lift off start. After that HF start worked fine but I frequently touch the tungsten to material briefly before starting to correct polarity. This is a pretty common practice on all TIG machines. I did it on my Lincoln and the Dynasty I borrowed.

Technically, the upslope and the down slope should be turned off when using the pedal. The pedal is used to control it.

The 4T position is mainly for a mounted torch but it can come in handy when welding weird out of position stuff where you need a little extra help. Normally you'll use the 2T position.

Theres a lot of knobs on the machine but once you realize when to use them an when not to, your welding will improve. TIG takes practice and every machine takes time to get used to.

I've only had about an hour on my 250EX and I really like it. It took about 30 minutes to get a feeling for what all the knobs do and I'll probably never try all the possibilities.

Hope that helps.

[Adambomb]

does the arc seem to be ramping down before it goes out? Just a thought but try setting weld parameters end amps and downslope to zero? I have a 256, which they say is basically a 250ex minus a couple of features plus plasma, and if preflow is set too high the hf can take a long tme to initiate. Postflow does not seem to affect arc time but downslope does. Just a thought.

The arc does ramp down, so I'm sure it has something to do with the down slope adjustment. I'll turn it down to 0 and see what happens when I get home this afternoon. Thanks for the suggestions guys, this is just a minor stumbling block and mostly due to my lack of experience (except for the initial HF point gap setting). I'll post my results later today

[Adambomb]

I tried setting the upslope and downslope to zero. The first couple arcs I initiated still did not shut off like before, then with no other input things started working correctly, with the arc stopping as soon as the pedal was released. I'll keep an eye on it....hopefully the phenomenon will not return. After a few messages over the last couple days, I was finally able to talk to Ray, a west coast tech support specialist who informed me the HF gap is supposed to .040" As delivered my machine was .080", and right now I have it around .060", so I need to open it back up and reset the points. Is it normal to have to open up and repair a new machine? Being new to tig welders I can say I don't know of its normal or not. I am a little dissapointed at having to correct this small but important discrepancy, but Alex did say he would make it right so I can't complain too much. On learning to tig weld....all I can say is I am GLAD I learned oxy/acet welding in H.S. I'm rusty, but it has given me a big head start.