My new PowerPlasma is on the way.....Yeah

Well I decided to pull the case on the new PP70, what else is there to do on Christmas Eve besides mess with your plasma cutter.....the life of a bachelor I guess...;)

I found one stripped screw on the case, but it came out okay with a little encouragement.

What I found inside was almost what I expected.....the spark gap was off....In fact I can't imagine how it could have gotten as it was unless someone accidentally whacked the gap electrodes while the case was open...one electrode looked fine the other was bent way over to about 45 degrees. No way did it just bend that way even if the unit was dropped. Which it may have been as I found the air regulator was twisted at an odd angle and the dial seems to not be mounted parallel with the front plate and the bracket it is mounted on is pretty beefy and spot welded to the front plate...short of smacking it I don't think it will easily be bend into a more aesthetic position but it works fine as is, probably just a manufacturing variation and is purely cosmetic.

I found some instructions here on the forum about adjusting the spark gap, so using a plastic feeler gauge I set the gap to .0525, which looks to be about where the old one was and where it would be if the electrodes were not bent. And Now we have ignition....yes.....I would like to know the optimal gap setting. I expect the correct gap will be needed for optimal operation and I do not want to burn up the unit. I made a light test cut but had some problems with the arc dying (probably me). I also felt like I had to cut very slowly on my 1/8 inch angle iron test piece, maybe 1 inch every 5 seconds. Maybe that is related to the gap or my technique, I do not know.....

Darren,

Wish you had called my cell yesterday. I give almost every customer with a support issue my direct number.

Anyway. Do not try to use the until we talk today. I PM'd my cell to you. Since it is Christmas, if I do not answer, leave me your number so I can call you back.

We are open weekends in tech support, but holidays like today, well, I might have to call you back :)

I spoke with Mike on Christmas day and he talked me through checking the unit over...now that is service.

I expect maybe something might have happened in final assembly of the cover after initial testing (the unit has an october test label on it), to me that would account for the odd screw and maybe the tweaked gap point, they are relatively close to each other. I am still working to discover the reason I can't seem make a decent cut, possibly something else was tweaked that I just don't see, or maybe it is me, but I don't know what I might be doing wrong. I am going to double check things even though a replacement unit is going out on Monday, again pretty impressive on the part of Everlast to make things right...and I expect now that the shipping season has past it might have a little smoother ride too.

Overall, while I am personally a bit disappointed I could not get to work right away, I feel like Everlast has been extremely responsive and reasonable which is all I ask. Once I get everything working as it should, I would recommend Everlast to a friend and when I have the need, time and money I would consider a nice green welding or generating unit. Every maker I have ever worked with has these sorts of issues from time to time and none have made more of an effort to correct things or provided better or more timely support than Everlast.

Darren,

We have beefed up the units, and the packaging, but in so doing, we have increased the machine weight which seems to have offset the packaging upgrades. So we still are seeing some shipping damage, though slightly milder, it is still occuring. Next shipment, we will work again on the packaging.

As far as customer support you are correct. I don’t know of any company that would offer such customer support especially over the holiday like Everlast. As far as the shipping issue I would suggest packing the units in an airplane black box, it’s the only thing these shipping companies can’t break!
Wayne

Oddly enough, the last units that came to me ground in bubble plastic, and I am many miles away from the warehouse, where all fine, but it was not during holiday shipping.

In the last three weeks, I had two people with cracked front bezels, but the units where fine. One fellow with crack front and back and bent rails, that one did not. Darren's looked minor but did not work. Murphy working there.

So the shipping has improved, just looks like we need to make another tweak. All in all with the holidays, it has not been that bad from a tech support standpoint. I just feel bad for the couple that we could not getting going.

But we will get another unit on the way ASAP.