Portable TIG Welder recommendations

[Akos]

I'm looking for a small portable TIG (by small I mean briefcase size) that will do both AC and DC. Both Lincoln and Miller portable units are DC only.

What are some good options out there? Don't need much, besides AC/DC, 150A output would be good, something that can run off of 120V and 240V would be a bonus.

Thanks,

Akos

U of Toronto FSAE Alum

[Akos]

I'm looking for a small portable TIG (by small I mean briefcase size) that will do both AC and DC. Both Lincoln and Miller portable units are DC only.

What are some good options out there? Don't need much, besides AC/DC, 150A output would be good, something that can run off of 120V and 240V would be a bonus.

Thanks,

Akos

U of Toronto FSAE Alum

[bobbyc]

We've been using a Miller Dynasty for the past few years and love it.
It will do the high amp AC (if water cooled) and it rocks at welding 0.028 and stainless ( gotta love the 0.040 electrodes!)

[Jersey Tom]

+1 on Miller Dynasty. I want one for myself.

[mrdben]

Kemppi MasterTig MLS 2300 ACDC are excellent bang for buck. I personally have a Mastertig 1600 at home with memory and pulse panel and it has served me very well for around 6 years. It has done a lot of work welding aluminum intercoolers and radiators and I really can't fault it. If I was ever looking to buy another TIG I would buy the MLS2300. See if you can find a local distributor and try one for yourself.

Regards Ben.

[Hector]

Our Miller Dynasty 200 has served us well.

[Mbirt]

+3 on the Miller Dynasty. Georgia Tech's served us admirably for the rewelding twice of the chassis tube we removed thursday for 450X starter clutch replacement and friday for water pump seal replacement.

[mumbles]

I will add one more for the Miller Dynasty. I know mine got quite a bit of use last week.

[Drew Price]

We had a Dynasty at school the last year I was there that just ran the air cooled torch that it came with (hated it), but the machine was bitchin'.

I would buy myself one in a heartbeat, but they're just too expensive right now.

I decided to buy an Everlast 'PowerTig' 250EX and it should be here next week.

It's nearly identical in spec to the Dynasty 200 at about 1/3rd the cost, ships with a water-cooled compatible torch that will interchange with Weldcraft torches (allegedly), regulator, pedal, and really trick 2T/4T torch head with a push button that can be configured to run canned spot weld type stuff (tap the button to get full set current, release when done, so for tacking a tube structure there's no need to lug the pedal around.)

I bought mine from a local welding supply company rather than through the Everlast site and he is throwing in some consumable and gave me a little bit of a discount even though I hadn't bought anything from him before.

Check out the videos that Jody has made of the machine on WeldingTipsandTricks <dot> com.

Yes, they're assembled overseas, but the switch-gear is all Siemens power supplies, and they come with a 5-year full replacement warranty - I can't possibly beat that.

It's basically the same size case as a Dynasty too.

I will post up my thoughts when I actually have it in my hands, I will be starting the 0.095 wall 4130 cage in my road racer with it as soon as it comes. Electrician is hopefully coming beginning of next week to run 220 for me.

It's hard to find the full specs of the machine on the Everlast site, go to the documents page, and find the owner's/operators manual, there's a table of the full output specs of the full range of Tig machines on like the 3rd or 4th page of the PDF, and you can decide for yourself.

Best,
Drew

[RollingCamel]

Did anyone try from EWM?

In an exhibition i met someone from EWM and was enthusiastic about the project. Seeing that we outsourcing weld jobs is a pain, the good weldshops doesn't want to take the job even if we would pay and the ones doing it for free is working very slow and doesn't do what we want from them.

Our uni's future teams must do it themselves therefore i really want to get them one.