PA-300, my opinion.

lilranch2001 · May 25, 2014

muddstopper said:
Didnt notice anybody arguing. 30years, maginable welds. I hope that wasnt a reference to my welding skills. I will readily admit I am not a professional welder. While there are a few folks here that make their living with their welders, I would guess that most here dont. I dont see nothing wrong with buying the best tool you can afford, but if the personal needs dont warrant a Limousine, then you make do with a taxi. The Limo might make for a more pleasant ride, but the taxi will get you there. For the record, I wouldnt trade my Idealarc or my miller for a tombstone, but I got by with the tombstone for a lot of years before I could afford an upgrade. With the new technology getting better and cheaper, if i didnt already own what I have, I would be looking at the newer stuff to.

I have been looking for a roundtop Idealarc 250 for years and have yet to find one.
It seems like if they are out there, most people are hanging on to them

It is the machine I learned to weld on, and welded with one for most of the time I did it professionally.
I always loved the way they welded.

muddstopper · May 25, 2014

My Idealarc is a 250/250 stick/tig, its a newer model, but still several years old. I owned the machine for over a year before I even hooked it up. I kept using thet tombstone, even tho I knew the idealarc was a better machine. When I finally got around to hooking it up, it didnt take long before I was ready to finally give the tombstone up. Traded it to my BIL for a seized up SA200 that I am in the process of restoreing. Aint sure who got the better deal on that one. I still need to rewire my shop, I currently only have one 220v plug that I have to share between the Idealarc, the Miller mig, Miller plasma, and my Monarch Lathe. It gets agravating having to plug in and unplug everytime I need to use a different machine.

rankrank1 · May 25, 2014

Well I will chime in again: While I have no complaints with the Everlast PA-300 machine itself; I am finding that my welds are actually worse with it than my ole Miller Thunderbolt.

I am not saying my ole Miller is better a machine at all, as I think the Everlast likely has a better arc as everyone else seems very pleased with it. I do like the hot start feature especially with 6011.

I think the reason my welds are worse is that I have used the Miller for a few years and I have simply been "getting by" with running memorized timing patterns with mostly low skill contact rods instead of truly reading the puddle, reacting to the puddle, and manipulating the puddle.

Long story short my memorized timing patterns no longer work the same on the Everlast as the old Miller since the arc is different. Add arc force into the equation and I am still trying to find my spot spot with that. Really hard for me to gauge what is happening when I crank that up. Guess this is going to take more practice on my part.

To anyone reading this, just remember there is "no easy" button when it comes to stick welding. If you can not weld worth spit on your current 230 volt machine then you are not going to lay down beads of a pro simply by purchasing a different machine unless you understand what all is happening as you change the other human based input variables.