Kevin turns on the machine – you can tell because the display panel is lit – but the welder is almost silent. “Can you hear that cooling fan screaming in the background?” he asks. “Isn’t that niice? It’s a quiet, quiet fan, but it appears to push a lot of air through there.” The welder’s duty cycle at 250 amps is 35% – that’s at maxiumum amperage.
One of the other changes Everlast has made on the machine is that it now has Lift Start and High Frequency start – as far as Kevin knows, it’s the first multiprocess welder that has both types of start for TIG welding.
Kevin emphasizes that this machine is DC only, but if you want to weld aluminum, it is spool gun capable.
The last great change is pulse. Not only does the machine have pulse in MIG, it also has pulse in the spool gun setting and in TIG.
They also have a Synergic function for the spool gun and MIG that lets you designate what type of wire you’re using – steel, stainless steel, aluminum – and what size wire you’re using. Then you just adjust your voltage, and the welder selects amps for you. You also can override this automatic function by just going back to your standard setting and adjust it any way you want.
Kevin has been using the welder for the past few days on a sculpture he’s been fabricating and he likes it. It’s easy to set up, easy to start welding with it, and he really likes how easy it is to switch from MIG to TIG. You just swap cables, push a couple of buttons, change to a different welding gas bottle, and you’re using the other type of welder. So it’s easy to switch back and forth.
Now it’s time to make some sparks! Kevin puts on his safety equipment and gives a brief rundown of his settings on the panel. He has the machine set on MIG pulse, with 22.8 volts on the high side and 252 inches on the wire feed. Then if you scroll through all the settings, you find that the pulse time is set at 32, pulse frequency is set at 70%. The base voltage is set at 61% of the welding voltage – so that’s 61% of 22.8. You can also set your downslope, your post flow, etc.
Next Kevin welds some sections on the sculpture. Then he shows the finished welds. “It runs a nice little bead,” he says, showing several welds. The first one looked a little cold, though, so he boosted the voltage from 22.8 to 24 volts, so the subsequent welds look better.
Some other facts about this machine: It will run on 110 or 220, and right now – it’s brand new – it’s $1689. That’s for a 250 MIG / TIG / stick that can run on 110 or 220.
“It’s a nice machine,” Kevin says. “I’m going to have fun getting to know this one better.” He’ll play with the TIG and do a video on that, and do the same for the stick (arc) welder.
Or you could take a moment and enjoy his special guest ….