Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi ,

im new here but been welding for a couple years now , just purchased a brand new everlast powertig 185dv to practice some aluminium tig at home. first out of the box did some steel bead trying everything on the dc side of the machine ( worked perfect as expected from a brand new machine ). then try the ac side of it, now the fun begins, did a few bead noticing something strange like if mid weld the arc will suddenly go off and back on in a unstable fashion. at first i tought it might be me but i didnt dip the tungsten at all. so i started the idiot check list from the top , made sure that my ground is good ( undo the dinse plug tighten the lug and did a ohm check with a meter on it ( perfect result ) ) , did the same with the torch lead, next i made sure i had no leak on my argon line and double check for cfh, next tried both with gas lens and standard cup , tried both with the finger switch or the pedal , same result . the arc start good with th HF and then start stuttering . the longer i watch the arc going crazy i realise that the arc does not really go off it kinda stay on very low and then like a pulse go back up again in a non stable action. And then i realise that at the very momment the arc go down i can see the ball on the tungsten beeing formed and pull to the material as if the arc lost is dcen side and became only dcep for a second ( pulse is off btw) .To add to the weirdnest if i start the arc and start moving right away it seems to help keeping the arc constant ??? but still do the stuttering after 3 inch of weld. At this point i contacted everlast support ( wicht was very quick to respond ) and they made me do the idiot check all over witch i did ( cause i really wish this is an operator error and not a machine issue ). im looking for some more insight here. i already found forum with the same exact problem but no answer to the problem except they had to ship it back paying for the shipping. i mean its a brand new machine. hope you can help me here maybe i overlook something, hope im the dumbdumb here.

here is a video off the probleme just trying to get a pubble going : https://youtu.be/Uy_7EcKbw3U

and setting and setup :
plug on 120v
80amp on AC
3/32 , 2%lanthanated tungsten ( blue)
1/16 stick out electrode
1/16 tips to work distance
25cfh
100% argon
no.5 standard cup
pulse off
30%cleaning
150Hz

Boul wrote:25cfh

That seems pretty high for a #5 cup. I'll watch to see what others say.

Might try knocking down to 12-15. I would also try sticking the electrode out more, should be like 5/16".

I'm no expert, and don't do aluminum *yet*.

thanks for the reply i already tried more stick out and about 10-15cfh with the same result and the tech guy at everlast told me to tried to get a really short stick out and more argon to get that puppy shielded making sure that the arc have plenty of argon to make is path to the material. but did not change a thing for the trouble.

Sorry but I think you have a problem with the machine.
Can you show what your dc welds look like?


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Yup, looks like a machine problem because it starts out sounding normal, then changes on it's own.

i fear so, i don't have photo handy of steel weld but the dc side is working flawlessly with pulse and everything its only on AC that have the problem. i fear its one of the igbt or whatever is the doing the ac switching. witch is really frustrating coming from a brand new machine which has 2 stickers of quality control taped on it.

does the problem vary with amperage?
one thing to check is incoming power supply.
if its worse under high loads it you may have issues with power supply eg undersized cables 120v cables bad connections etc.

otherwise i would suspect its an HF problem.

btw do you have pic of the tungsten. i wouldn't expect much balling at 80 amps.

yes i start with a sharpen electrode with blunt tip but as soon as the trouble start the tungsten ball up like if i have it on real high DCEP. the 120V input is one of the culprit i admit i didn't thought of playing with amperage ill try that next. right now i dont have access to 220v but i think the machine is suppose to handle AC 80 amp on 120v ( or maybe not ). thanks for the idea this is why im here.

3/32 tungsten

Reversed polarity or frequency is ay out of wack.

Boul wrote:the 120V input is one of the culprit i admit i didn't thought of playing with amperage ill try that next. right now i dont have access to 220v but i think the machine is suppose to handle AC 80 amp on 120v ( or maybe not ). thanks for the idea this is why im here.

I think tweake may have hit the nail on the head. In the manual it says it requires 32.6 amps on 120v.

Even on a 30 amp 120v circuit that might be cutting it close. DC goes just a tad higher on 120v, but it looks like only 5 amps.

What size breaker on the 120v circuit?

I've seen a lot of people popping the breakers on 20 amp 120v circuits, even with the smaller Everlast inverters. I have never run mine on 120v, as I only have a 20 amp 120v circuit. I run it on a 30 amp 230v circuit. (Power i-Tig 201)

yess youre right , on the rating it says 32,6 amp PEAK ( max inrush ) which mean when i strike an arc the first few second the amperage will bump up at full amperage in this case 125 amp AC. otherwise at 100amp on AC with 120v power supply its said it draw 20amp continuous ( at 100amp on AC) and 5amp continuous ( at 100amp on DC ). Assuming at 100amp the machine draw 20amp, on 80 amp ( whit a rule of 3 ) it will draw +-16amp ''im no electrician correct me if im wrong'' . An 15amp breaker , which im currently on , can sustain a 20 amp load for a few moment before tripping. that aside, my probleme right now is not popping breaker, i can actually ( at 80amp ) run a good full minute of continuous weld on ac ( with the trouble of course). but maybe you're right maybe the machine try to suck more out of the wall that the wall can give and it choke up. ill do more experiment on monday with a fresh bottle of argon.

Boul wrote:3/32 tungsten

as mentioned, are the leads the right way around.
is the cleaning action the right way around, remember some are reversed to others, you might want to try it 70%.

Boul wrote:. but maybe you're right maybe the machine try to suck more out of the wall that the wall can give and it choke up. ill do more experiment on monday with a fresh bottle of argon.

check the voltage especially with it running.

As others mentioned, make sure your balance is set properly. Can you take apic of your setting? No way 80amps melts tungsten unless ep.
The electricity will not bottle up, but the machine igbt could throttle if you are pushing the limit (just a guess).
You could check for voltage drop but i don't think so. If you had a loose connection, the voltage would drop as it heats up but it would not bounce in such a predictable manner.
Wh at happens if drop to 50amps?

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here's pic of the setting, notice on this machine the % is for the cleaning so 30% means 70% EN. i cannot do testing right now ( which i'm dying to do ) cause i dont have argon left...

Looks ok. I would still try the 70-75%.
Most pots have a common and opposite terminals. There is a chance it was hooked up backwards.

This might explain the balling but im curious if it could explain the surging.

Good luck once you get some argon!

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I have an Everlast 200DV, so not the same, but close. Definitely sounds like an issue with the welder to me. Since it is brand new, I would plan on sending it back to Everlast for service or replacement. Be careful opening up the welder and only do it if Everlast instructions you to do so during testing...otherwise your warranty on that brand new machine could be voided real quick.

allright ,
so i was able to do more test on the machine , turn out im a complete goof ball ( as i was hoping ) . so the solution was a good clean tungsten , not too much cfh , enough post flow to keep your tungsten clean ( i mean keep your tungsten clean ) and enough amp to get a quick puddle. i didnt know how peculiar an AC arc was at lower amp , everytime i welded aluminium with other machine was 150 amp and up so i guess the higher amperage help clean up any mess that is on your tungsten. so i think the main mistake i did was not taking care enough of my tungsten and not running enough amp for the material thickness. so now machine is running awesome heres some pic i did today , im really stoked to be able to practice aluminium on 120v outlet. sorry about all this, i think a was too excited to get the machine running the first time and didnt take care about the basic stuff. thanks a lot all for the support !

Boul,

Those welds look great!

Glad you figured it out!

nice job.
good to see you got it sorted.

Looks great!
Remember the 6P plan
proper planning prevents piss poor performance

One of Jody's videos - I think it was a Everlast 256SI, he had issues with the AC TIG not acting right. Had to adjust the Hi freq point gap. After that the machine ran like a champ.

Nice weld. Still not sure why it was surging? Low amps? Dirty tungsten? Something's not adding up but all's well that ends well

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Simclardy wrote:Nice weld. Still not sure why it was surging? Low amps? Dirty tungsten? Something's not adding up but all's well that ends well

He did say it was dirty tungsten, not in those words exactly, but that's what he said.