The machine is dual voltage, so it will run on 110 or 220, and a “pigtail” converter is included.
The duty cycle is about 100 percent at 70 amps on 110 power, and about 100 percent at 130 amps running on 220 volts. It can burn 1/8″ rod all day long!
The control panel is very simple. There’s an amperage display, a power light, an overtemp light, a stick / TIG toggle and an amperage control knob. On the bottom of the welder there are positive and negative receptacles for hooking up your ground clamp and stinger.
There’s also a 6010 plug for guys who like to run that high cellulose coated electrode designed to provide an arc powerful enough to penetrate deeply into base metal. If you like to run 6010, just pull your stinger out of the positive and move it over to that special 6010 receptacle.
As far as the TIG function goes, you’ll need to get a torch with a control knob to control the gas – there’s no gas setup inside this welder. There’s no solenoid or anything, so you need to come directly off the bottle. So you need the torch, the hose, the flowmeter and, oh yeah, the bottle of gas.
Kevin is ready to burn some 7018 and see how this stick welder does. He grabbed some 1/8″ steel scrap out of the bucket, set the machine to 124 amps – let’s make some sparks!
Then, just for fun, Caron decides to run some 6010 on the metal, too. At first it’s a little warm – he started out at 120, turned it down to 90, and now to 75.
Kevin looks at his welds and says he needs more practice – he won’t even show the welds! “I’m not a very good stick welder,” he admits, “But I think the machine will do a nice job. It’s the operator that seems to be the problem.”
At $400, the Everlast PowerARC 200ST has 200 amps of stick welder – more than Kevin says he’ll ever need. He has to weld some 1/4″ steel plate here pretty soon, though, so this welder may get to come out and play on that job.
It’s time to go back to work, but you might stick around for one more moment to see the Voice try to be funny ….