The 253DPi is a double pulse MIG welder. It’s also a stick welder (arc welder), but it’s primarily a MIG machine set up for aluminum and exotics, making it great for working on vehicles. The aluminum where the double pulse seems to come in.
The display panel has 9 presets to let you save your favorite settings. It’s synergic, which means you tell the welder what size wire you’re running and what metal you’re welding, and it gives you the industry standard settings, which you can then fine tune.
It has 2T and 4T settings, and a gas test button, so you can check and adjust your gas flow. The welder has a wire jog button so you can feed the wire easily. There are amps and volts / herz displays, and a wire selection with for .030, .035 and .040 welding wire. Another button lets you indicate the type of metal: steel, a couple of types of aluminum and stainless. There’s also a mode button for stick welding, straight MIG welding, single pulse MIG, double pulse MIG and a setup panel.
Kevin puts on his welding safety equipment and gets ready to run some test beads in single and double pulse on some 1/8″ cold rolled steel. First, single pulse. His settings are 160 amps and -2 on volts. Kevin Caron points out something unusual on this machine: in single pulse mode, the voltage reads from -5 to +5. That’s just in relation to the settings already set on the machine.
You can adjust the amperage, which also controls the wirefeed. He has inductance set at 4, metal set on steel and mode on single pulse.
Kevin tacks the metal on both ends, then runs a bead. The weld looks good, and there aren’t nearly as much spatter as with his other MIG welders.
Now he’s ready to try out the double pulse. What’s the difference between single and double pulse? Single pulse varies the voltage up and down to control the heat. A high pulse improves penetration while a low pulse keeps the puddle hot. Double pulse varies the voltage and the current, which should create more of a “stack of dimes” look.
He’s still at 160 amp and 0 volts – that means it’s just at the synergic setting, which the machine has set. He set the pulse frequency at 32 herz, the pulse time on at 70 and the peak arc force at -1.
He welds using double pulse, then shows us the results. The single pulse side is smoother, with a little more spatter, while you can see a bit of that “stack of dimes” look on the double pulse side. Kevin says it’s probably just a setting to get it right.
There’s a quick look at Everlast’s Power i-MIG 253DPi – there will certainly be a video about welding aluminum with it soon! This machine is on sale right now for $2,200 (regularly $2,850).
Kevin is ready to go back to playing with this welder, but you might want to stick around for another moment and watch him trip over his tongue ….