Powering a Maxstar, Ernie, how do you do it?

Ernie and/or anyone else who may have some input,

In light of the problems we are having with the new Maxstar, I wanted to seek your advice before we have any more problems.

I was perusing your site yesterday

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and came across your set up for your Maxstar 200 DX,
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The welder _and_ the set up that is. I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind.

How do you get your argon tank in and out? We, a very interested fellow employee and myself, can not see any way other than straight out of the top unless the bars in the back are removable. Also, do you consider the bottle to be safe being free standing like that?

You mention that you have 3 power cords at 25' each. The literature on this 150 says the max length for a #10 wire is 47'. I plan on purchasing

50' of 10/3 cable, use 40' for the extension cord itself and cut up the remaining for use as "pig tails", sound OK? I like the way you used what we call a "dryer plug" (the gray one), I may copy that if your patent will allow. :) Due to the inexperience electrically of some of my fellow workers, I will probably only make connectors to fit in 115V outlets. We have an odd 20A/230V/3 Phase connector in the shop that I would like to be able to power the Maxstar from while in house. IF I can make this connection idiot-proof enough for general use I will, otherwise we will only use it on 115V.

My coworker wants to build a "case" for the Maxstar itself that will attach to our hand truck and only expose the power and gas outlet in the rear and the lead plug in and controls in front. This will be mostly an anti theft measure, but I'm thinking that if we utilize a tool tub like you did we could fit all the welder and all of its parts and pieces into it. I personally don't care for the case it came in, having to cram all of the leads into that hole is a real PITA and what the hell is up with them sending a regulator out with it? I see a flow meter purchase in our near future.

Well, this has gotten to be alot longer than I had planned, and I probably haven't asked half of the questions I need to.

Thanks in advance to anyone brave enough to reply. If we come up with anything that seems useful I will try to get some pics for the dropbox.

Regards, Jim C Roberts

Reply to
Jim C Roberts
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It is a small bottle. I have no trouble lifting it straight out the top.

As long as at least the tool box is on the cart it is quite stable.

Sounds fine. I was able to just buy my extension cords at Home Depot. They are Yellow Jacket brand 4 pin twist locks (14L20) intended for use with small generators.

I currently have 7 adapters for my Maxstar 200DX but then mine can use everything from 110v to 460v 3 ph. Your is 110 v to 240 v.

As long as you only plug it into 110v or 220-240 v then it will be fine.

Make sure the case has good ventilation or the Maxstar will overheat.

That is a pressure style flow guage. They are cheap and work ok, kind of, sort of maybe.

I like the compact Victor ball and tube flow gauges.

My Maxstar 140 lived on a hand truck with a small Argon tank on the bottom, a shelf above for the welder and a rack on the back for all the cables.

It worked great and was extremely portable.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

I have been looking at some of the "lean back" style handtrucks used for appliances. I figure after a few modifications, Monster Garage style, we can carry all of the neccesary equipment on it, prop it up when we get to where we are going and be ready to weld shortly there after.

I was not able to find them online so I went with a piece of 10/3 cable, had to get something made up quickly just in case.

Don't think we will need 7, I can see 3 or 4 though.

Noted.

I believe that is what we are using on our dry rigs, hhhmmmmm................ :)

That is the plan for this welder, portability.

Thank you for your reply Ernie, it will be very helpful in our quest to find the best set up for our needs.

Regards, Jim

Reply to
Jim C Roberts

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