Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey everyone,

New to the forum, long time follower of Jody on YouTube. I have a small fabrication shop in Roanoke, VA called Lift Arc Studios. Ive been welding for almost 15 years, mostly MIG, but have about 5-6 years of TIG welding now. I mostly weld mild steel between 16ga to 1/4in and aluminum of similar thickness.

I recently purchased the Everlast Powertig 210 EXT for my shop. The TIG I was using before that was a Miller Dynasty 210 which was on loan through a Miller demo program. It wasn't the DX version so it felt a little too "dumbed down" for my liking and having looked at the pricetag of the 210DX, i started looking at more affordable options...starting to wish i just bit the bullet and went with the blue team.

For context, the following problem never happened with the miller plugged into the same outlet as the new Everlast.

I made a video explaining the problem and I've already reached out to Everlast directly but I figured I'd cast a wide net and post something here too.

In short, the problem im having is when initiating the arc on aluminum. Once the arc starts, it sputters, wanders, cracks and pops until eventually smoothing out. Ive already checked the gap on the HF electrodes but i dont think thats the problem anyway being that the arc is in fact coming on. The base metal was wirebrushed with a new brush and cleaned with acetone. The 4043 filler was cleaned with acetone. The ground clamp was clamped directly to the work piece. The 3/32 purple tungsten was sharpened then balled before welding using 60% cleaning for a few seconds on a scrap piece.

Heres the video: https://youtu.be/-GSkXB-anDE

Thank you for any and all help. I cant seem to find any other examples of this happening on the web. This is the newest model and I dont believe many have the 2021 model yet. I pre-ordered it...

Cheers,

Tay
Lift Arc Studios
Roanoke, VA

The video says it has been removed....not sure about that.

I would try not balling the electrode at all...just leave it a point and see what happens. I'm far from an expert, but I've found that at lower amperages I get some arc wander and instability if the tungsten isn't fairly sharp...but that does go away after a couple of seconds or as I increase the heat.

Similarly, that can happen when running amperage on the low side for a given tungsten diameter. I first saw this edge welding on 1/8" aluminum with a 3/32 tungsten...if the tungsten was a bit balled the arc would wander and sputter, but that was much better if I sharpened it. I tried 1/16" and zero wandering or sputtering.

I've seen this with multiple machines, to include my older PowerTIG 210EXT.

Tay, what thickness material are you working on? I"ve switched to 2% lan electrodes and found it makes a lot difference in arc start,,,for me anyway. Also, I've found that thin material needs thinner electrodes and right tight to the material. I also sharpen the electrode to a crayon tip,,,kind of blunt on the end and a short shoulder.
Your video was removed so can't help there. IF you can sit tight for a bit, I'm sure cj and lt will chime in.

I’ve got a 210EXT and haven’t had any issues with aluminum. I use 2% lanthanated and grind to a point, and don’t ball the tip. Last project I did was a repair on a lower engine cowl, about .030 3003 material. Aside from dirty material that I couldn’t get all the paint off of (no room to get in behind a rolled edge), everything else went OK.


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Those machines are a bit of an enigma. For a while the advertising indicated the machine had solid state HF start, yet they have points (those two statements contradict each other). I know this doesn't help you, but a few other folks have had this problem with no successful resolution. I think there were a couple of threads about this on welding web.

I have recently helped a buddy learn to weld, and he has an Everlast TIG (shop bought it before he arrived). I don't normally thrash products, but I will say it is the worst piece of crap I have ever used. May well be this particular unit, I don't know. But I would have bought a PrimeWeld ALL DAY over an Everlast based upon my experiences with both (similar purchases between 2 new welders).

Maybe if I spent a couple of hours with the manual on the Everlast and tuned it back and forth I could get it to weld suitably, but I have never been so underwhelmed by a machine. Ever.

I know that doesn't deal with your issue, but perhaps it's relevant to the machine quality. Going from a Dynasty to an Everlast is like swapping from a Mercedes to a Yugo. Might be the nicest Yugo ever made, but it's still a Yugo.

I have an Everlast 255EXT and purchased it new February 2020. Previously, I had a Primeweld 225 - good machine, but I wanted digital control. I've been tig welding for about 1 1/2 years. Anyway... I have had ZERO ISSUES with the machine and practiced 1 -3 hours per day until recently (life gets in the way, sometimes). Most of my problems have been technique. The manual for the 255EXT states says to point the tungsten 2.5 - 3X the diameter and to slightly truncate the tip over 50 amps. Says do not ball the tungsten while using AC as an erratic arc will result. Pure and zirconated tungsten should not be used in an inverter. I use 2% Lanthanated with good results.