Initial thoughts of my 250ex

[PinkNinja]

I just fired it up and welded with it for the first time... Did some aluminum beads...

First aluminum in a few years. And from a Transformer to an Inverter it's a little weird.

It'll take me some time to get a hang of everything.

My initial thoughts:
Arc starts seem.... Strong? Seems there is a stronger burst of gas upon pressing the pedal. Could seem that way because I'm welding in my basement and it's as quiet as a coffin.....
The arc itself is great. No real problems. Everything works the way it should.
Once I get back into the aluminum groove I anticipate things will get even better.

So other than having to learn to weld aluminum again. And understand all the settings again. My ONLY gripe SO FAR.... The gas fitting on the back of the machine is a barbed fitting. And I can't change it without taking the machine apart. Which I'm not going to do.... So I can't use my old gas lines and regulator AT THE MOMENT....

Once my welds are up to my standards I'll post some up.

Cheers,
Adam

[performance]

Increase the pre flow, and the arc will start smoother. As far as the fitting, its fairly easy to make an adapter with a pig tail hose and a argon fitting.

[PinkNinja]

Okay I'll increase the preflow.
I know I can make an adapter... I guess I was just trying to say my only gripe with the machine is rather trivial.

So far I am VERY pleased with this unit...

[AussieChris]

To reduce that rush of gas at the start make sure your gas hoses are as short as possible. I used to have about 10 feet of hose between the flow meter and the welder but once I built my welding cart, I reduced the length of hose to less than 2 feet and it made a huge difference.

Chris
Brisbane Australia.

[jakeru]

Here is another thing you can do to reduce the rush of gas at the start...
Tip for reducing wasted shielding gas
(reduce the the ID of the hose)

Anything to reduce the volume between the flowmeter's needle valve and the solenoid inside the machine will help. Another approach is to switch to a flowmeter with a lower pressure.

[aaxiss]

great info there Jakeru, going to add that to my to-do list for when my welder arrives. I really dont want to have to redo things and having information like this from the get go really help alot . thanks.