Spark Gap Contacts

[Brian Ski]

I have very little idea about what you are talking about. I have seen a couple threads with the spark gap mentioned. I see you have a combo machine. Now the questions. Is the spark gap on all plasma cutters??? Just combos??? On TIG machines also???
I am guessing it is inside the cover. Is it a maintenance item where it needs to be adjusted???
Do you have any pictures???

Thanks for any info... Brian

[Ron66]

This should help explain.

[Ron66]

Here is a similar setup in their cut50

vs
Miller's

[Ron66]

Mine would look more like this

[Rivets]

Ron,

The 250 EXT has a much improved set of points. There's a picture of them somewhere on this site.

I tried to buy a set from Everlast so that I could upgrade my own PP256, but to no avail. I even pestered Duncan to bring me back or ship me a set from China during his last factory visit, but he did'nt do it.

I would certainly be interested to know how your build turns out.

Cheers,
rivets

[damilfman]

Hello all...

Been on the forums now as a guest for quite sometime. Hopefully this is the right thread to post my problem. Anyways after purchasing a few Everlast from Oleg with no problems I ran into my first hiccup the other day. I recently purchased ( a week ago) the Power I-tig 200 and finally got around to setting the unit up on Friday night. The box was in greats shape and everything packaged neatly inside. Went to go lightup with HF and no arc. I could hear the gas valve kick in obviously with some pre-flow added. I tried using the unit with both pedal and torch switch. And also in 2t/4t postions. Again no HF start. I flip the switch to lift arc and no problems lighting up. Arc is pretty damn smooth. Although one thing I did notice in HF mode I could get a arc started by using a lift arc technique. Anyways I opened the covered up checked the HF contact points with a feeler as most did with HF start problems. Gap was misaligned a tad and I thought by re-aligning and setting the .30 gap would fix my issue. It didn't unfortunately. I was frustrated since it was a Friday night and no tech support available on weekends. Anyways else out there encouter this problem??? I'll be calling Ray on Monday.

[performance]

Can you see the arc when you press the trigger? I mean do you see the bright blue light coming from the vent in front of the welder, or do you hear a soft buzzing sound when you hit the trigger or the pedal? You should. If not, then you need to check for loose wires going and coming from the HF...otherwise it will probably be a bad HF board, which is extremely rare for this unit.

[Brian Ski]

This should help explain.

Thanks, will have to dig into the video later. Dial up is ridiculous!!! I am in a dead zone!!!

All I can get out here is dial up... I am making a collection of videos when high speed is available.

Thanks for the other pics guys...

[NRM]

I can't remember what member did modified his unit but he put his homemade points on the outside for easy adjustment and is happy with the outcome. I will try and find the post for reference.

[Ron66]

I would love to what others have done. If you move the points to the front you could access the points by just taking off the front cover.

[Jake98]

I think it was 'Lamename' that made those points, but I don't think it was on this forum?

[Ray]

I can't remember what member did modified his unit but he put his homemade points on the outside for easy adjustment and is happy with the outcome. I will try and find the post for reference.

Truth be known it was working well before making the homemade points, once he set it to .028 it worked well, he just chose to mountthem external. I think they would have been fine otherwise.

[Rivets]

Thanks for the info Ray.

Still, I would like to improve the ease of the points adjustment on my unit.
Do you happen to have a set of 250EXT points kicking around that I could purchase, and if so how much ?

Thanks.

Andy

[watercooler]

I have a 200DX newer version and was having arc problems at first and after opening the machine and closed up the arc a little bit(I never measured any thing)I then found out that it was my foot pedal that was bad and so my thought was if I have a closer gap,lets say than normal will this affect my machine over time and what the difference between and wider and a closer gap?

[Paul Moir]

You're tuning a circuit by adjusting the spark gap. At the optimal setting, you'll get the highest HF voltage and the highest "HF spark production rate" for lack of a better term. If sub optimal, I cannot imagine any long term hardship on the machine. If very wide, I suppose you could have some very high voltages being produced which might cause arcing over to nearby components.

I'm glad to hear about the transition to solid-state gaps, it should help solve some gap related issues. I wonder if it'll help with noise from the welder or is that pretty much all coming from the welding start arc? (I have a thermometer which crashes because of the welder, even 20' away.)