PowerArc 140ST just arrived

Arrived via UPS today, got the NEMA 6-50 plug attached (took a bit of doing making the strain relief functional - that plug is designed for a MUCH larger diameter cable). Box was completely undamaged - not even bent corners. Packing inside was great, though one of the tabs that holds the lens into the minimalist welding mask was broken, so that's non-functional. But I wasn't exactly planning on using that mask myself, anyway. There were a couple pieces rattling around inside the machine, so I took the cover off to make sure they weren't metallic - turns out they were 2 plastic tabs that snapped off something attached to the bottom. Buttoned it back up, powered it up, and no problems.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to actually trying it out soon.

I feel like a kid at Christmas - excited to have a new toy, and to learn a new skill! It's killing me that I won't get a chance to play with my new toy until this weekend.

Haha. I feel like a kid when others talk about their units. You have a great piece of equipment there! Will you be using the tig function with it?

I plan to TIG, but not right away. I still need to clear a space in the garage for the bottle (a space which will eventually be filled by the welding cart, once I build it and put the bottle on that). I'm sure that learning to stick weld properly will keep me busy/entertained for a little while, anyway :)

I just wrapped the power cord with electrical tape until it became the right diameter for the strain relief to start functioning. How'd you rig it up?

Most people don't know, but the strain relief on those plugs are reversible, at least on the brands I have. Thy have a large side, and a smaller side. If you have a metal half circle type, just turn it over.

The one I bought you could turn it around, but the 2 screws then became to short.

performance - mine was the half-circle-shaped clamp you mention. I thought about reversing it, but to my uncalibrated eyeball it didn't look like there would be enough space left over. Rather than actually TRY reversing it, I put a small zip-tie around the cord and clamped the strain relief onto the zip-tie. That took out the last little bit of free space that was in there. I also looped the 3 internal conductors around the top of the plug pins before securing them with screws, because those clamps were also a little difficult to really munch down on the wires. Now it's pretty darn solid - each conductor held in place with a screw and a loop of wire, plus the strain relief on the whole cable.

I didn't use electrical tape because, in my experience, when it gets hot (which, here in Arizona, is pretty common during our 8-month summer), the adhesive kind of breaks down and becomes gummy and slides around. The zip-tie seemed like a more stable option for me.

I've really been enjoying playing with stick welding on my imig 200. I found the Everlast very easy to strike an arc and really haven't had one stick yet on me. I'm still trying to get used to the electrode holder and so far I'm having trouble getting it to bite firmly on the smaller rods.

Same here. Mine was a plastic strain reliever, but the instructions said I could turn it over for smaller diameter cables. Once turned over though, there was no way to use the supplied hardware to hold the entire thing together.

Here's another strain relief idea. I just stripped back the cable a bit and used the split insulation to double up another layer around cable. Works great so far. A quick tug to check and nothing moved. A milwright buddy of mine used to go one step further and score the outer sheathing a bit when contacting rubber to rubber, nothing deep though.

It grabbed onto any soft surface strain reliefs and held. You can pull on it and break the cable before it let go. Actually happened when they lifted an HMC and the convey fell off the forklift. Snapped the cable in the center and the relief held. It was only 1/0 but I was amazed.

Thanks Tanh - I like that idea the best! On my next welder, I'm definitely using your idea if I can't find somewhere to sell me a replacement cord with a molded-in plug.