My new Everlast 250 LX TIG AC/DC welder and some stainless tube welding !

[Vinhtec]

You can setup a back purge off your argon bottle by just teeing in after the regulator and attaching another flow meter, and use the flow control on it for a shutoff. I have my old Everlast LPM flow meter doing this duty. The fittings are all 1/8" NPT so just a tee and a couple nipples will do it.

With backpurge the back of your welds should be nice & pretty.

Preflow is not required at all. Mine is always at 0 even though I can preflow. The argon stays in the line pretty good, and anyway the line builds up a little pressure when it's off, so you get a blast of argon the moment you start which clears the line.

Looks like things got a little hot there by the burning your getting on your weld tops. That will get better with practice. Torch angle, arc length, speed etc, and tubing isn't the easiest to be learning on. Don't worry much about tungsten stickout: make sure you can see what you're doing. Which cup did you run?

Consider getting some pickle juice (stainless pickling acid) from the weld shop. It's expensive but it keeps your welds from rusting and will also clean off the heat marks. For raw welds I pickle them, and then scrub them lightly in the sink with a scotchbrite pad. The sink is got water with washing soda added to neutralize the pickling acid. Takes no time at all, and cleans everything.

I've played with the pulse, but never actually use it. Maybe if I was doing something really thin (1/16 is thin but not real thin. Even 18ga isn't real thin).

My LX225 came without a plug. In fact it did come with a detached regular non-locking 20A 240v plug for some reason. A gift perhaps?

Hey Paul thanks for the info. I saw a tee like that on a welding supply website to split the argon off the bottle. I will probably do that when I get a larger tank. Mine is a 125 or so and I bet I would use up all my argon pretty fast. I read that you can use argon c02 75/25% mix to back purge too and I actually have a full bottle 300 size tank that I want to use up. It was for a mig machine but the mig machine welds like crap with the gas on it so I just run the flux weld wire.

The 250 LX came with a 5,6,7 size lens and I used the 7 size seemed to be the largest. I dont know if that was the right thing to do or not? But I got a lot of heat that is fact!

I never knew you could pickle the pipes for corrosion protection and cleaning. This was just a test on if the machine could weld but I plan on doing a lot more tube welding in the future. I always wondered how the guys get their stainless pipe clean after welding because it produces so much heat and coloring.

Well I had a small bead with the pulsar on and the heat soak was not bad at all. I just need to perfect it but I think it will be a great to for welding in the thinner areas where heat is a definite problem.

You got a nice gift there !

Thanks for all your help and advice!