All about arklight

I have posted this same post on other welding forums, so it may look familiar

My welding background...
As a teen (about 25yrs ago) I had an uncle try to teach me stick welding for about a half a day and I did not do well. After that I had not touched another welder till about ten years later when my boss at that time, asked me to give it a try. Again I was terrible. I could not, for the life of me keep the stick from sticking. About this time my dad gave me a mig (I still have it) but never got the hang of it. Again didn't touch a welder till about 5 or 6 yrs ago. I was at a newer job and we had a Miller Maxstar 150 amp scratch start tig. My Boss there asked me to give it a try. It took me not time to get the hang of it. In less than a week my boss was very impressed. He said I could tig better than him, who was a professional welder. So I got my dads old mig welder out , now that I had a better understanding and gave it another try. It was a little better but not goog. I think I have made a total if 3" of decent weldments. I don't know why but tig seems mor intuitive to me. Any way, I barely got maybe 2 hrs of practice per week on that Miller tig welder for a year or so befroe that job cam to an end. that was about 4 yrs ago. So for the past 4 yrs, I haven't been able to weld. I relay enjoyed tig welding and would love to get back into it. and I have a 4'x4' sheet of 1/4" alum. that I would like to be able to cut and make into a water cooler for my welder. The one I don't have yet.



A little more about me...

I do tech support for an American company that imports foreign machines and sales them. we stand behind these machines 100%.If any thing goes wrong with one of are machines we make it rite ASAP. when a customer calls in for tech support, that call is answered in 3 rings or less, we trouble shoot over the phone, determine the problem ship out parts as need and dispatch a third party service rep to complete the repairs. In some cases one of us may even fly out to the customer depending on the situation. A few months back I had to fly out to one of our machines that had caught fire. It turns out the it was NOT properly installed by the customer. But we shipped the machine back to our facility in Fl, completely refurnished the unit and returned it back to the cust. in like new condition. This cost us more than we made in the sale. why? you might ask. to protect the name. Our Word of Mouth reputation is the best in the industry. People do NOT buy from us because we are the cheapest (we're not)! They know we support our product.

Still more about me...

I'm and amateur welder looking for a "Cheap" machine to learn on. I have no problem buying a Chinese welder from an American company, as long as they stand behind their product. I do NOT plan to earn cash with a welder. I don't plan on becoming a pro-welder or even getting certified. I just want to make stuff! But I don't have the cash for a name brand tig welder, and a plasma cutter. And even if I did, I can't justify spending that much money on a machine that will never pay for it's self. So I was looking at longevity, and Everlast. then I saw the add for the LONGEVITY 256 PI on sale. This past Friday I called ready to make the purchase, and found out that the warranty was dropped from 5 yr to 1. So I backed out. Now I"m Looking at the EVERLAST. But the EVERLAST sale rep started macking some claims about their IGBT tech that I cant find any thing on the web to back up. So now I'm doubting them.

Welcome! Once you try it and get a halfway decent weld, you're more than likely hooked :)

I've used some of the highest end machines (when in the Navy) and various others, I can say I'm really impressed with the Everlast machine I bought.

Mill, lathe, etc. I've found old US iron, the import stuff I just haven't seen a quality I'm after. But the Everlast machine was a roll of the dice and it came up a winner.

I'd hang on to that 1/4", use something thinner for a cooler, that's an expensive piece of metal to cut up and use for something like that when something much lighter would do.

What claims did they make that you're unsure of?

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Originally Posted by Trip59

What claims did they make that you're unsure of?

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That Everlast uses IGBT modules, where as longevity uses IGBT chips.
and I was looking for some sort of documentation to confirm this is true, and that the modules are better.
it does not matter now, the sale for the longevity is over, and I can't afford a welder that will suit my needs.

The difference in IGBT modules versus individual transistors improves overall quality control and serviceability, and service life. Plus it offers a weight reduction and a decrease in component circuitry. The Modules just bolt on basically. These are a "pack" of IGBT's that are premade into one little block. The individual IGBT are hand soldered onto a larger circuit board and have a larger room for manufacturing defects. Here's what the difference looks like, although this one picture is of mosfets, instead of IGBT's. They are similar in appearance, but the way they are mounted, the idea is the same:

Personally I like separate machines. If you are on a tight budget I would recommend going with a Supercut 50P (on sale on ebay for $400) and a 200DX (Amazon use to have them for $999 and free shipping... seems they are out of stock right now) That is if you need AC. If you dont need AC you might want to look at the i-Tig 200. (sorry just read about the al for the water cooler....)

Without knowing what kind of jobs you are planning on doing it's hard to make recommendations.

So far the 200DX has done everything I have NEEDED (having trouble welding soda cans, but that is just playing around... and probably more me than the machine).

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Originally Posted by performance

The difference in IGBT modules versus individual transistors improves overall quality control and serviceability, and service life. Plus it offers a weight reduction and a decrease in component circuitry. The Modules just bolt on basically. These are a "pack" of IGBT's that are premade into one little block. The individual IGBT are hand soldered onto a larger circuit board and have a larger room for manufacturing defects. Here's what the difference looks like, although this one picture is of mosfets, instead of IGBT's. They are similar in appearance, but the way they are mounted, the idea is the same:

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So simply put, just so we can be sure to follow, the difference is that with the 'modules' if there's an issue that block can be easily swapped out, whereas in the other machines without modules, the whole board has to be serviced?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trip59

So simply put, just so we can be sure to follow, the difference is that with the 'modules' if there's an issue that block can be easily swapped out, whereas in the other machines without modules, the whole board has to be serviced?

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Also,
Less weight, greater reliability and simpler internal design. Also the lower arc start on the 250EX is helped by the modules.

Generally speaking, you want fewer parts as that means fewer pieces that are manually assembled. Manually assembled pieces could possible increase the chances of human error. Higher density packaging allows the overall heatsink to be smaller so the case can potentially be smaller. Smaller heatsinks and fewer components also allow for a lighter package.

More components doesn't mean less reliability if the manufacturing process is performed by skilled assembly staff using quality components on well designed product.

When it comes right down to it, for me, I bought my welder because of the company behind it. The actual electronic components used inside were secondary. I want to be able to sleep at night after plunking down my hard earned cash.

Actually, more components do mean (all things equal) greater changes of failure. Chances of failure on machine that has 10 parts is less than a machine with 100 parts. Electronic or mechanical parts fail and the more there are the greater chance you have of something failing. Design yes, has something to do with reliability, but when you are dealing with something that has the potential of sufferering a lot of abuse, the simpler the better off you are. The best designed cars in the world are from Mercedes and BMW, but they are not known for the extreme reliablity because of all the sophisticated electronic and component design.