Kevin starts out by showing us the “Green Monster,” Everlast’s new POWERTIG 255EXT. He raves about the manual, which is written in English by a welder who works for the company and tests the prototype units before writing the manual. The book goes into great detail on the machine’s functions, how and why they work, something Kevin really likes.
The welder also comes standard with a 25-foot water cooled 20F torch, a 25-foot air cooled 9F TIG torch – cooler not included. Everlast supplies a nice, heavy-duty ground clamp, a good foot pedal, a flowmeter for the argon bottle and some consumables.
Next, Kevin shows the TIG welder’s front panel. The upper left corner has a memory section, which lets you pre-set nine different settings for particular kinds of work you might do – 1/8″ steel, 1/4″ steel, stainless, copper, whatever – then lets you save those parameters for instant retrieval.
Below it is an easy set-up panel. It has three options: a normal set up, where you set up your parameters, as well as an AC easy set-up and DC easy set-up. For the latter two, you just set your amperage and go from there.
Next, he shows the digital control panel that shows you your settings. All of those settings are adjusted with the red control knob. You can turn the knob one number at a time, but if you push it in and turn, it turns 10 numbers at a time, making it much easier to go from a high amperage to a low amperage (or the other way) quickly.
In the bottom left corner is the high-frequency, lift start or stick mode control. At the bottom right are the stick (arc) welder controls: arc force, hot start time and hot start amperage – like most TIG welders these days, it has a stick welder built right into the machine.
Next, mid-left on the control panel, are the TIG pulse controls, from off to standard AC/DC or advanced AC/DC. Above that is the 2T / 4T panel, which lets you select the foot pedal or hand control.
Above it, top left, is something Kevin looks forward to learning more about: an AC wave form control panel. The machine has four different wave forms available in AC: square wave, advanced square wave, triangular wave and sine wave. “That’s going to be fun to play with!” he says.
Also on the front of the machine you have your ground, gas connector, pedal or trigger control, and your torch connection, which you switch with your ground depending upon whether you’re using TIG or arc.
On the back of the machine, you have your gas inlet for argon, the power cable, a circuit-breaker style on / off switch, and a 220-volt, two-pronged outlet for your water cooler. Caron likes this – by plugging your water cooler into it, you can have the cooler on the cart and leave it turned on. Then when you turn your TIG welder on and off, you turn your water cooler on and off, too, so you don’t burn up your torch.
There are a couple of issues with the machine, though. One of them is the welder’s gas connection, which comes out straight out of the bottom middle of the welder – right where the argon gas bottle is. So you either kink the hose or move the welder forward on the cart, where it doesn’t sit as well. If Everlast could move the gas connection over a little, that would fix the issue. Kevin also is thinking of simply getting a 90-degree fitting to put the hose to the side. The other issue is that the fan is LOUD. Kevin talked to one of Everlast’s engineers, who explained that the fan needs to be in the back of the welder so that it can pull the outside air in and blow it right onto the welder’s heat sink, which is the hottest part of the welder, the part that has to be cooled the quickest. That increases the machine’s duty cycle.
Speaking of duty cycle, the welder’s is 60% at 250 amps, and 100% at 200 amps. So that big fan is doing its job!
Kevin says this is a really stout machine with a lot of functions and a lot of variables. You can either let the machine choose the settings for you, or you can adjust them specifically for your job, your weld, your joint, your location, etc.
In a forthcoming video, Kevin will fire up the welder, setting it low at, say, 5 amps or so, with the air-cooled torch, then put the water-cooled torch on it and “crank that puppy up” and weld a piece of 1/2″ steel or the like and see what it can do.
Finally, Kevin thanks his viewers for watching. It’s been a great year. He’s had a lot of fun doing videos, showing new machines and sharing what he’s creating in the studio. He wishes everyone a safe and happy new year and says he’s taking next week off and will see everyone next year!