it finally happened - 200dx on the way :)

[d94jonca]

been going back and forth between the 200dx and the longevity ac inverter for i dont know how long. in the end i decided on the 200dx, in part because it had a much better users manual.

on top of that, everlast are some hard negotiators... my first two bids got me nowhere and i was starting to think i'd be mig-welding for the rest of my life :) all pumped now - stay tuned for a review :)

[EVERLAST_SUPPORT]

Thanks for your purchase. You will find out tech support is top rated as well if you need us.

MIG is great, but a TIG unit is nice to had.

[PhilM]

been going back and forth between the 200dx and the longevity ac inverter for i dont know how long. in the end i decided on the 200dx, in part because it had a much better users manual.

on top of that, everlast are some hard negotiators... my first two bids got me nowhere and i was starting to think i'd be mig-welding for the rest of my life :) all pumped now - stay tuned for a review :)

I have written this before with a couple of DX200 people not to sound like a parrot, but the unit is excellent and not to be underestimated being their least expensive.

Just repaired a shattered cast aluminum swivel bracket for a friend's band saw that was almost destroyed when a garage door hit the bandsaw and it tipped. I am just a hobbyist but you may find 'friends' that need some work done when you have a TIG.

Phil

[d94jonca]

so, last week this big heavy box showed up on my doorstep. it was a bit dinged up on the outside but the welder was very well suspended in foam cushions and was in a perfect cosmetic condition. considering similar reports from other buyers it seems the frequent shipping damages are a thing of the past. unpacking the welder and the auxiliary components i was impressed by the quality and oversizedness of things. the leads are all copper and so thick they look like water hoses, big fat groundclamp with a strong spring in it, nice argon regulator that uses a little steel ball to indicate the actual flow etc. the only thing that detracted from the first impression was that the feel of some of the knobs were a bit gritty and with a tendecy to bind at some spots. with use they seem to have gotten a bit better.

firing it up and running some 6011 sticks was no problem. my prior experience of stick welding is limited to tack welds with an el cheapo transformer unit, and as one would expect this was a much more pleasant experience. i still need practice not to stick the rod when starting the arc though. however, when i tried setting it up for tig i ran into a problem: i just couldnt get any shielding gas. the regulator was working fine, i could hear the solenoid clicking inside the welder but no gas from the torch. i called up everlast, got routed via a few hops to mark, aka lugweld. mark systematically diagnosed the issue, and disassembling the torch revealed that the torch head was clogged by something that we just couldnt get to dislodge. at this point mark transfered me back to alex with instructions to ask for a new torch head. alex gave me a tracking number and told me to toss the old one.

well, it had been hard enough for me to wait for the welder, and after a few days of waiting for the torch part it became unbearable to log into the ups web site and see the express package travel by snail pace across the continent. one night i broke down and figured that since i didnt have to send the clogged one back i might just attempt to brute force it. i welded a drill bit to an extension rod and used this to simply drill the gas channel clear. no wonder we couldnt get the obstruction to dislodge; the last few inches of gas channel was totally filled with the same sort of black rubber compound that constitutes the outside of the head. after this the original torch worked just fine.

i've never used a tig welder before so i cant say if its better or worse than this or that machine, and since most of my welds still look like questionable i'm not going to post pictures of them as they would not do the machine justice. i do see what people are saying about the torch being quite big, and i also wish the trigger button was located on the head rather than the handle. i will probably add a secondary button there shortly.

the pedal is a bit tall, but it doesnt really affect performance. however, i cant quite understand how the max-amps work when the pedal is connected instead of the torch button. it is quite obvious that the max-amps is no longer controlled by the big red button on the welder, and rather by the separate knob on the pedal. however, without the pedal the red button lets me set the amp between 5-200 amps. but with the pedal connected, the pedal knob only allows me to vary max amperage between -1 and 53 amps. not sure if its supposed to be this way?

i've also been playing around with the lift start with limited amount of success. from reading miller tutorials, i was under the impression that lift start was different from scratch start in that the electronics sensed the short when touching the electrode to the work piece and limited current until the very moment when the electrode was lifted, making it a process far less likely to cause sticking and contamination. however, from what i can tell, lift start on this machine is essentially a live electrode that most certainly will stick to the work unless its scratched very carefully. this could very well be operator error though :)

the users manual is much better than the ones provided by "the other importer" but can be made even better. it is generic for all everlast tig welders and is still based ont the 2009 models. for example, i am not sure just how 4T would works on a machine like the 200DX, since it doesnt have adjustable preflow, adjustable initial-amps, adjustable ramp-up time etc, and in this regard the users manual offers no advice.

my overall impression so far is very positive with both the welder and everlast as a company. it is awesome to have a machine that allows me to crank down the juice to just a few amps and do thin thin steel that my mig welder would just blow holes in, not to mention welding aluminum without having to go 90 mph like with my mig. the only thing that i have a bit remorse about is not saving up a bit longer and getting a unit like the 250ex. it has a*lot* more features than the 200dx and despite being significantly more expensive it seems to be an even better value. i guess i was a little scared after reading all the boogie-man stories that (some) people on this board like to tell. knowing what i know now they dont seem to have a so much substance, at least not nowadays.

oh, and the replacement torch head? it finally arrived today. and not just a torch head, but a a complete torch assembly, cables and all. not sure if this was by mistake or if they were being nice about it, but unless they ask me to send it back after reading this review, i guess i got a spare torch :)

[EVERLAST]

Black friday sale start tomorrow , call us !