Greg, I'll start backwards and go up the list.Originally Posted by hildstrom
Thanks for the feedback. First, safety; I plasma cut toward my open garage door parallel to my car. I welded with my body between the electrode and the car. There was no danger to my car in either case, but it is difficult to gauge the distance between the vehicle and the sparks in the video. The brake rotors came off the car in the background with about 60k miles on them. I cleaned them outside with a wire wheel and did not use any chemical cleaners. In the stick welding video, there was a fan just outside the frame to my left blowing welding fumes away from my face. It was also running when I was plasma cutting. It assured there were no buildups of any gas vapors on the garage floor prior to any sparks flying. I'll do my best to appear more safety conscious in any future videos.
As far as the manual goes, it is much better than the Super250P manual, but there is always room for improvement. I did not intend this thread to be a complaint about the manual, but here are some additional thoughts since you asked.
The arc force control has no units associated with it and the description is somewhat lacking. Using subjective terms like forceful and buttery make no sense to me in this context, but that could be because of my lack of experience. The arc force is arc-length controlled arc current. In my testing, setting arc force to 10 decreased the average current by 40A or so unless I short-arced it, which would briefly increase the current to 160A. It has more of a constant-power behavior than without it. What is the actual arc force control range in amps? There is a typo in the specifications table "Open Current Voltage". What is the open-circuit voltage of the plasma torch? What is the pilot arc current? What is the pinout of the torch/pedal control connector and what type of connector is it? This information is useful to someone wanting to use a torch-mounted variable finger control. Where are the schematics? How do I check and maintain the internal HF spark gap? Please take these comments and questions constructively because overall I am happy with my new unit.
The air/argon switching issue is a relatively minor thing, but the argon regulator to 1/4" NPT adapter I made should be easy to provide. It would be nicer to have separate units, but that would be more expensive and take up more space than this all-in-one unit. It would be sweet if there were quick-connect fittings for both sides of the welder. This would let you switch between air and argon in a second at the back end. A quick-connect fitting at the front would make switching torches faster. This is the same issue I have with my old ShopSmith. The machine can do a lot of different things in a small space, but switching between processes takes a little bit of time.
When you say "the unit failure you had was related to shippng damage", which unit are you referring to? Are you talking about the Super250P or the first replacement PowerMaster 205? I did not notice anything obvious with either of them. Thanks. -Greg
The unit failure on the 205 PM was damage resulting in shipping. It usually shows up as a broken or damaged trace, everything else being undetectable.
The issue that you cite about the changeover has been already addressed for the future. The solution that you created may work okay. But the water separator really should not have argon run through it. Rather, it would be better and far more efficient to make a "permanent" T connection between the water trap and the gas inlet with shut off valves attatched. You can buy a specific valve just for this type of setup from welding supply stores for your gas connections. This is what many customers find to be the best solution, by twisting a valve to shut one off and twisting a valve to open another.
The arc force control is generally around 50-60 amps. The terms "forceful and buttery" are common in the trade when describing welding charachteristics. The term "crisp" is also one that is used as a synonym to "forceful or sharp" arc charachteristics. It is as you say, likely due to inexperience. They may be subjective, but nearly all aspects of how to set up a welder properly are subjective in nature. Infact, no two welders or weldors weld the same. We cannot guess the level of the customers understanding or welding capacity either. So, we use standard and acceptable terms of the industry in our descriptions in order to avoid confusion by our more experienced customers who understand what it means. The boosting of the amperage increases overall wattage to prevent rod sticking, improve penetration and to hold metal in place in out of position welding as the voltage falls in a short arc situation. The arc force nomenclature of 0-10 is actually a common designation offered by Miller and others on their units, to serve as a percentage marker of total available amps of arc force.
The typo will be fixed in coming revisions. The meaning is still conveyed though.
The question of the plasma OCV should be about 200V, since the same basic electronics are used in the plasma systems. There is no practical reason to publish pilot arc current. But as you should be aware, the pilot arc on your machine is established differently that a High Freq cutter which is generally much lower than an HF pilot.
The pinouts change from time to time. That is why they are not published along with the schematics. The schematics, pinouts etc are proprietary information and are NOT going to be published publicly, unless there is a need for them to resolve a problem. Then they will be (as some are now) published on the forum via techinical bulletins when we feel that the need to release such information is vital to customer support. You will not find Miller, Lincoln or any of the other guys providing schematics. You may find simple wiring diagrams. The reason being, is that a schematic is the same as a "secret" recipe of Coke or KFC. We can provide simple wiring diagrams if you request, but of course, they are included with the box manual and though the English is lacking, are fairly reliable to the basic components. Backwards engineering is always going to happen. But because of our competitions constant copying of upgrades and improvements in our designs, we will not give them a road map to do so.
The point gap maintenance is a safety issue regarding accidental discharge of capacitors and possible harm that it may cause to the operator. Those gap settings are available on a case by case basis. We want to discourage unauthorized customer tampering with our units, unless we are there via telephone to guide them through a sometimes tricky process.
Hope this helps. See the picture for the argon connector which can serve as a unifying valve for the argon versus air changeover issue you have noted. This is standard, off the shelf welding supply parts.
Mark
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