PA160 STH unboxing!

   / PA160 STH unboxing! #1  

joshuabardwell

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I'm super excited! My PA160 STH arrived today. I haven't had a chance to weld with it, because it's raining outside, but as soon as I do, I'll post up some pictures and experiences. In the mean time, here are some unboxing photos.

2013-03-29 15.54.15.jpg 2013-03-29 15.54.40.jpg

The welder comes in a plastic briefcase. There's enough room for the welder, the three leads (ground, stinger, and TIG), and a few other small items. The pedal and regulator were separate. The briefcase is not the most sturdy, but it's probably not going to be used very often or for very long, so that's hardly a deal-breaker. The welder is only 35 lbs, so you could just as easily throw it over your shoulder, with the leads in a small bag or something.

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Here's everything that came with it: welder, stinger, ground clamp, TIG torch, gas hose, argon regulator/flowmeter, pedal, and 120/240v pigtail.

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The pedal is nice and sturdy, but I don't have any others to compare it to, so take that with a grain of salt. It has a dial on the front of it that I can't find documentation for. As I understand it, when the pedal is plugged in, the output dial on the front of the unit is pre-empted and the pedal gives full-range control over the unit's output. Perhaps the dial on the pedal is to allow limiting the upper range of the pedal's output, as would normally be done using the front-panel dial on a pedal-controlled TIG machine. I dunno.

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I was pleasantly surprised that the unit came with a 120/240v pigtail. I wasn't sure whether it would need to be rewired to be used with 120, or whether the customer would be expected to buy his or her own pigtail. The unit came pre-wired for 240v with a standard 6-50 plug.

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The TIG torch has a finger switch that, if my reading of the manual is correct, can be used to start the arc with HF. I knew that the unit supported lift-start and pedal start, but I didn't realize that it also had a finger switch. I had heard about some of these welders shipping with a non-functioning finger switch, but the TIG lead has the wiring and plug, so my hunch is that it'll work.

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The stinger is your standard 300v stinger. I'm glad to have gotten a clamp-style stinger instead of the screw-down type that is shown on Everlast's web site.

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The ground clamp is much nicer than the stamped steel one that came with my previous welder.
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing! #2  
Josh,
boy am I glad you got one of these too...
and I don't remember getting that pigtail, time to check the little bags or whatever.
So congrats! I have always appreciated your helpful advice and after you start welding,
I'll just copy everything you do, right? :dance1:
Drew
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing!
  • Thread Starter
#3  
and I don't remember getting that pigtail, time to check the little bags or whatever.
I'll just copy everything you do, right?

I sure hope not! I am about as much of a rookie as they come. There are way smarter folks here who you should be paying attention to. But then again, as far as I can tell, I'm a few months ahead of you in experience at welding, so maybe I have one or two things to say.

EDIT: Oh, and PS, this is not Shield Arc's style of humility, where he claims to not be that good, and maybe compared to somebody working on a nuclear reactor, he's not, but compared to you and me, he's a god. This is actual, "I just started welding six months ago at most," humility. :laughing:

The pigtail was in the suitcase with the welder. Pretty hard to miss if it was included, I think. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe they started including them after you bought yours.
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing!
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Have you done any TIG with yours yet? Do you know what the dial on the pedal does? Do you know whether the finger switch on the torch works? With regard to the finger switch, I wonder whether the welder has any pre-programmed upslope and downslope, or whether it's just full-on and full-off. Even if the latter, that's still really nice, because it means you can break your arc without having to remove the gas coverage.
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing! #5  
Josh, you're asking the wrong guy. I'm still waiting on the electrician to wire the new receptacle.
I'm sure Mark or others can answer the question. I'm still a virgin. sigh.
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing!
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Josh, you're asking the wrong guy. I'm still waiting on the electrician to wire the new receptacle.
I'm sure Mark or others can answer the question. I'm still a virgin. sigh.

Ohhh... the suspense must be killing you!
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing!
  • Thread Starter
#8  
I realized that I could do a little testing of my questions about the pedal and the torch switch, even if I can't weld yet. I hooked the pedal up to the unit and the readout showed the output as set by the pedal. The dial on the pedal does seem to limit the upper end of the pedal's output. At one extreme, the pedal went from 0 to 9 amps. At the other extreme, it went from 0 to 125 amps. This was a nice surprise, because I remember reading that the 160 STH pedal was always full range, with no way of dialing down the top end.

This testing was with the unit in stick mode, by the way, to avoid the HF start buzzing at me. (It startled the heck out of me the first time I touched the pedal with the unit in TIG mode.) As expected, with the pedal plugged in, the dial on the front of the unit did nothing.

I also hooked up the torch and put the unit in TIG mode to see if the switch on the torch would cause the HF to fire. It didn't. Possibly, the switch is intended only for lift-start, where it's used to break the arc and to disable the torch for safety. I'll need to actually get some tungsten and argon before testing that.
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing!
  • Thread Starter
#9  
What, are you made of sugar?:D

Well, if you must know, yes.


Actually, I just don't have any shelter near my 220v outlet, so it would mean literally standing in the rain to weld. I know you structural weldors don't mind that, but me, I wouldn't want to get any rust spots on my nice clean welding table! :eek:
 
   / PA160 STH unboxing! #10  
I know you structural weldors don't mind that
Well I wouldn't say we don't mind. In reality it is a PITA! Can't see, and what you do see is 3 or 4 arcs at the same time. Rain running down the back of your neck all day. But, no work in the rain really cuts into the paycheck.;)
 
 
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