New 256 so far GREAT machine

I picked up my new 256 today ,,have only done a few minutes with it so it is hard to right a whole bunch of good things about it . BUT for the few minutes I used it on .125 aluminum scrap that I had in the truck . it took a few minutes to get the amps dialed in because I do not use a foot pedal and I used the 2T mode it was great. Plenty of heat when dialed in and nice arc control even though the tungsten was balled up on the end even off to the side it was still a very controlled arc nice cleaning action and stable to use.
I tried the 4T but without time to spend on trying to get dialed in I just used 2T for the most part.
I will be hooking it up this weekend at the house when I get another job finished with my Miller then the fun of a new machine starts. That job needs to be out the door saturday night so I will definately be doing some playing on sunday getting used to it....
I will try to get pictures of results posted ( If my camera has batteries) I have an old digital that goes through batteries like peanuts..
Cant wait to play on sunday..
Gary

Hey Gary ...

Mike called me told me all about you picking up a unit .... please do enjoy it !
Dont forget to post some pictures of your choppppppers :)

Thanks Oleg,
going to try and get it hooked up later today after I finish another small job.
Marine work keeps me going on weekends most of the time they are rush jobs and they get changed last minute and need to be done yesterday ..

Ok, got the welder connected later this afternoon and did a little experimenting with some beads , Did not take pictures because they are on a big piece of scrap that has been welded on by my old MIG and the miller TIG as well pretty much full of beads but I will pull out a piece of new material and get photos later on this week.
Well it is pretty much a straight forward macine in the 2T mode set amps and pre and post flow and go , cleaning and freq was adjusted after a few beads and nice cleaning could get it turned down to pretty close to the puddle so that looked nice then dumb ole me decided to just go right on to 4T ,,, well after blowing a few holes in some 3/16 and 1/8 I went back to the 2T to just try out the welder a bit.It does a nice job .better than the weldor could do:rolleyes:
So the best beads where in the 2T but after some trial and lots of error I was able to get in a few beads with the 4T settings working pretty good. I have not tried any other functions of the welder like plasma or stick but will try tommorrow to get better control in TIG and some pics of how they come out..
The only thing I do have to say is the etching from the cleaning does get deep into the material though.Not sure if that can be fine tuned with balance and freq settings . But great welder so far.Oh had to add that in my chrismatas presant hurry up and run mode I thought the argon hose to the back of the welder was a pretty tight fit so I did not put on a clamp Sooooooo after letting the welder cool down for awhile then shut down the welder I here a hisss of argon because I did not put a clamp on the hose in my excitement so there went a few hunder lbs or argon.....Gotta make a gas run in the morning now..
Gary

Here are a few setting and pictures of a few welds I just did with basic 2T settings , the picture of the front panel are the setting that where used but I did vary the pulse time and rod size I used .062 and .125 5356 rod on a few of the welds near the bottom but basically the same settings .The picture I think shows 74 amps but it was on the low cycle when it took the picture . This was .125 thick 6061 aluminum , Main top amps where about 110 amps.The reason for the black marks was seems like the wind would just start to blow when I was starting up the welds. Sorry the pictures of the welds are not the best but my camera is older and does not like to get detail of the weld beads in good focus.And just noticed I posted the picture upside down , I am right handed so the start is where I was getting an erratic arc for just a second as well..
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Here are a few more pics but set in 4T mode basically the same settings that gives about 2 pulses a second maybey a touch slower like 1.5 pulses. Didnt need to change anything other than the 4T switch.. One picture was the backside with no rod just pulsing a square or something getting used to the pulse then in that picture was 1/16" rod bead. Then the second picture was different travel speeds and 1/8" rod..
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Hey Gary,

Looks like your camera did fine, no blur at all. And thanks for the posts.

Did you end up at Prax for the gas?

Yeah Mike ,
I had to get my 52 back from them because the last time I needed gas they only had a 42 so I got that one ,then yesterday had to trade back to my 52. But I have the 2 52cf tanks that I can handle but I am going to go down to Lake worth supply when I need fills .But I will have to call them to see if they have 52s that they can trade out when I need gas..
And also in the pics of the welds you can tell I did not even try to clean the aluminum, just wiped the dust off and let it rip so there are some contaminants in the welds but the cleaning worked great on the AC Balance still only at a few percent.So far I am really liking the way the welder is working. And next week "if I have time" I am going to fire up the plasma I have a sheet of rusty 3/16" steel I am going to start cutting for a welding cart and a small table to make up.

Gary

Well I had a chance to weld up some .250 aluminum plates today ,, the machine is awsome I have to say..I played with the 2T 4T and pulse for about 6 or 8 rods of 5356 and the problem that I was having after 10 minutes of welding was remembering the difference between the AC freq and Pulse Freq I think I am going to stick a post it note on there until I can remember that AC freq is AC FREQ that effects arc timing and Pulse Freq is the pulses percent in TIME not freq..I just kept thinking AC freq and would adjust the wrong knob.. so some welds got messy.. And also I cant believe the difference in welding amps between the Miller Diversion and this unit..I would have the miller turned all the way up and take 5 seconds to get a puddle and the 256 at 130 amps was puddling the .250 aluminum within a second and a half..Then turning off pulse was a totally differnt monster..
I will throw up some practice pics but will be hard to tell what my setting where because I was all over the place and had 5 diffent setting when welding these few pieces today but the one inch or so real smooth weld was with no pulse , some where 2T and 4T. The metal was kinda of clean so I had ac cleaning all the way down and still does a fine job,The etching is a little deaper than I would like but it cleans the crap out of the weld puddle in a heartbeat..
Here are a few pics:
Gary

Thanks for your time in posting on the AC/aluminum mode, I have had a couple of recent tech calls I sent to the forum to read your information.

It's sometime easier for people to see the panel and read, and saves me time setting their knobs by phone.

The welds look strong.

Thanks Mike,
I also had to swap out my argon in the middle as well , you can see the black marks , that bottle got sucked dry . Didnt realize it was going dry until it burned up an electrode:rolleyes:
What I would suggest people to do is set the welder right next to them so they can make adjusts without getting up and down , today I had mine just off to my right so I just had to reach over and turn a knob.Thats why all of the welds look a little different I think I did an inch or so and then make a change just to see what would happen..
But I am getting used to it and actually love being able to make all of the changes with the turn of a knob . just takes getting used to what does what..
Gary

Gary,

The Pulse Frequency IS the number of times per second that the amps cycle between high and low amps that you preset and then back to the starting point. For example: Welding amps is 100, pulse amps is 80 (80%) then it is the number of times per second the welder bounces back and forth between the two values.

AC frequency is the number of times per second that the POLARITY is alternated in a full cycle...in other words positive to negative and back to positive again.

Both are completely separate functions and are NOT related.

Don't forget that our regulators are in metric, not cfh. Set it at about 7

Thanks Mark ,
that is where I was getting confused when I first started the machine the other day and it is finally getting sunk in my head , I also need to just remind myself that they are in the 2 seperate groups and color knobs so that helps .Blue being pulse setting and yellow being AC Freq and balance. But at least I am getting used to the welder now ..
And I haad that problem before with my MIller regulator at first sucked a bottle dry in no time but I have been setting around 7 on the regulator now.
Today when I started I only had 300 lbs of gas left when I started the bottle , I finished a job the other day that took most of a bottle. But conected to a full bottle now so good to go now .
Thanks for the info
Gary

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Originally Posted by Gary

Thanks Mark ,
that is where I was getting confused when I first started the machine the other day and it is finally getting sunk in my head , I also need to just remind myself that they are in the 2 seperate groups and color knobs so that helps .Blue being pulse setting and yellow being AC Freq and balance. But at least I am getting used to the welder now ..
And I haad that problem before with my MIller regulator at first sucked a bottle dry in no time but I have been setting around 7 on the regulator now.
Today when I started I only had 300 lbs of gas left when I started the bottle , I finished a job the other day that took most of a bottle. But conected to a full bottle now so good to go now .
Thanks for the info
Gary

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You are not alone on this, they have way too many buttons! (but I like) Its tough going from a hobbiest mig(1 switch and 2 knobs) welder to this! I accidentally started the cutter in 4T! DOH!

Slick it wont take long to gt used to all the knobs , once you get a setting right it just keeps on going. I have to admit I like just taking time to mess with the welder now. Cant wait until the next job come in now.I didnt use it on the last job because I was in a rush to get it out the door and didnt have time to et used to the new machine but now I have sold the miller and ready to use the 256 for the next job.At least with the 256 I can make adjustments to anything but the Diversion I had all I could set where the amps.
Gary

Even our "competition" doesn't understand their own units. They copy features, but then proceed to tell people to plasma cut Aluminum in AC with their plasma cutters...As Bob Engval says...there's your sign. lol.

For the record, plasma cutting is done in DC only.

Very informative post!!!! and the pics do it justice.

You can see the speed/heat adjustments on one of your practice pieces but for a first go very impressive. I suspect my fist aluminum welds will be fourth or fifth generation before I get brave enough to post them!