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What single phase MIG and TIG welder do you all recommend?

Spud

Diamond
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Location
Brookfield, Wisconsin
There is a guy in my welding class, at the local tech. college, who has a 220v single phase Miller Dynasty 210 TIG welder. Says he likes it. I learned TIG on the schools Dynasty 200 , but can't recall if it is single or 3 phase.

The MIG welding I am using at the tech. school is a Miller XMT304 3 phase.

What single phase 220v Miller will do TIG and MIG? Primarily for autobody, rollcage, and frame/chassis welding. So the thickest material is going to be whatever steel they used on old school body on frame cars and currently used on modern pickups.
 
an ex-employee of mine has been telling me how great the new ESAB's are- and he is a really good welder, experienced with all kinds of equipment in many different shops professionally, so I believe him.
He likes the new Rebels a lot- they are multiprocess machines- DC tig, mig, and stick. They are small, portable, and not only single phase, but will run on either 110 or 220.
They will not Tig aluminum, as they are not AC although you could mig aluminum with them.
I would certainly look at them.
ESAB, in general is pretty responsive to the welding industry, and has been bringing out a lot of new machines lately, not resting on its laurels. They are trying harder, to beat the long term reps of Miller and Lincoln.

http://www.esabna.com/us/en/products/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.product&productCode=12581EMP&tab=2
 
I believe all of the Dynasty welders will take pretty much any voltage/phase. The inverter just kind of figures it out and adjusts accordingly. I've run my Dynasty 200 on 110 and 220 single as well as 3 phase.

Teryk
 
All modern day dynasty welders are multi voltage. My 200 runs everything from 110 to 480 single and three phase

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All modern day dynasty welders are multi voltage. My 200 runs everything from 110 to 480 single and three phase

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None of the Dynasty series have a mig built in.
ONE of them, the Dynasty 280, is "multiprocess", but that means you can buy a Suitcase mig feeder, for an additional $1600 to $2500, to make it a mig welder.

Miller does make a tig/mig machine, the multimatic 215. Its roughly equivalent to the smaller Rebel, although it costs more.

Dont get me wrong- I like Miller, I have bought probably 30,000$ worth of miller machines in my day- but for a multiprocess machine that does both tig and mig, I dont think they are very committed to the market.
 
Tweco (was Thermal Arc) Fabricators have pretty good following when I was researching a machine with similar requirements a few years back. I went with the the 181i, it will do most of what you want


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an ex-employee of mine has been telling me how great the new ESAB's are- and he is a really good welder, experienced with all kinds of equipment in many different shops professionally, so I believe him.
He likes the new Rebels a lot- they are multiprocess machines- DC tig, mig, and stick. They are small, portable, and not only single phase, but will run on either 110 or 220.
They will not Tig aluminum, as they are not AC although you could mig aluminum with them.
I would certainly look at them.
ESAB, in general is pretty responsive to the welding industry, and has been bringing out a lot of new machines lately, not resting on its laurels. They are trying harder, to beat the long term reps of Miller and Lincoln.

Rebel™ EMP 235ic | Arc Welding Equipment | Products & Solutions | ESAB

My welding instructor likes the ESAB Rebels for multi-process machines as well. Their e-mail newsletter said their coming out with a new one this summer that will have AC TIG. Probably won't be as good as a Dynasty, but it's a fraction of the cost.
 
Barge/heavy fabrication shop here. We are partnered with Lincoln and use them for all of our new equipment. None of it is single phase, but they do have a good reputation.

As for miller vs. lincoln, that's basically ford vs. chevy. They'll both hold up well. In my home shop I have a Lincoln Weld Pak 100 110v mig welder and an Invertec V-100 inverter that can stick and do scratch start TIG. I bought those used because the price was right, not because they were lincolns.

Esab brought us a power supply to beta test a few years ago. It didn't last long in our heavy industrial environment. It was also a pre-production model, so hopefully they learned what failed on it and improved it.
 
an ex-employee of mine has been telling me how great the new ESAB's are- and he is a really good welder, experienced with all kinds of equipment in many different shops professionally, so I believe him.
He likes the new Rebels a lot- they are multiprocess machines- DC tig, mig, and stick. They are small, portable, and not only single phase, but will run on either 110 or 220.
They will not Tig aluminum, as they are not AC although you could mig aluminum with them.
I would certainly look at them.
ESAB, in general is pretty responsive to the welding industry, and has been bringing out a lot of new machines lately, not resting on its laurels. They are trying harder, to beat the long term reps of Miller and Lincoln.

Rebel™ EMP 235ic | Arc Welding Equipment | Products & Solutions | ESAB

I still have my multi-process Fronius Transpuls Synergy 4000, but it only accepts 220-240v 3 phase or 480 3 phase. No idea when I am going to get a shop/barn setup to run my 3 phase machines. So in the mean time I was thinking I should look for a single phase machine.

Question: What kind of difference will I see if I use 110v single phase instead of 220v single phase? Does a machine heat up a lot faster on 110v?

As far as performance and arc quality goes, how does single phase compare to 3 phase? I am wondering if a single phase machine can crank out perfectly fine welds for automotive applications (assuming the user is a decent welder)

What are the detractions of a single phase machine over a 3 phase one? Is the limiting factor of 110v and single phase over 3 phase, the thickness of material you can weld?
 
Question: What kind of difference will I see if I use 110v single phase instead of 220v single phase? Does a machine heat up a lot faster on 110v?

You'll see a fairly significant drop in Volts/Amps allowable. The tech datasheet and manual have charts and graphs comparing 110V and 220V operation.
 
I have my old trusty Lincoln SP175 220v MIG and my TIG is an HTP Invertig 211 which I'd say is about the best you can buy. Made in Italy with much more options than a diversion and much cheaper than the Lincoln inverter machine but way better than the Everlast or other china TIGS. Check it out on youtube there are tons of videos about them
 
As far as performance and arc quality goes, how does single phase compare to 3 phase? I am wondering if a single phase machine can crank out perfectly fine welds for automotive applications (assuming the user is a decent welder)

What are the detractions of a single phase machine over a 3 phase one? Is the limiting factor of 110v and single phase over 3 phase, the thickness of material you can weld?

Not so much what you can weld thickness wise, but certainly deposition rate and how much preheat you need, north of about 150amps in steel thickness wise you can weld anything you want its just speed and deposition rate with tig, in aluminum, a typical single phase machine will really want some preheat in the work piece on anything much over 3/16" thick in my experience. Most single phase machines top out at about 200 amps from a 220V 32 amp supply.

Skill wise by far its generally way more down to operator than it is plant most the time. I use a British badged Chinese machine, R-Tech, Ac/DC TIG for what i do its no limitation, but i do have a very nice CK flex lock torch, yeah the torch is like 1/3rd what i paid for the welder, but i love that torch and it gets places for others can. Don't skimp on a shield either, no need to spend a fortune, but variable shade is a must for low current TIG, i have the bottom of the range speed glass was circa £100 on offer over here when they came out and its lovely and light, but im nearly all bench work, so small screen size is not such a issue, with car - truck work, try and get one of the bigger windowed screens, makes out of position so much easier to see!
 
I would rather have separate machines for mig / tig. All in one machine leaves you with NO welder if you have an issue. That said I have been using Miller inverter welders every day, 210, 280 and dynasty 350 as well as 2 little 110v Miller mig welders. They work so well I am just amazed every time I use one
 
My old 330 AB-P Miller is still a better welder than I am. It'll still be running long after I'm in the ground. Same for my Millermatic 200 MIG.

Where are the new Esabs being built? I've seen Italy, Spain, and Poland on their machines.
 
None of the Dynasty series have a mig built in.
ONE of them, the Dynasty 280, is "multiprocess", but that means you can buy a Suitcase mig feeder, for an additional $1600 to $2500, to make it a mig welder.

Miller does make a tig/mig machine, the multimatic 215. Its roughly equivalent to the smaller Rebel, although it costs more.

Dont get me wrong- I like Miller, I have bought probably 30,000$ worth of miller machines in my day- but for a multiprocess machine that does both tig and mig, I dont think they are very committed to the market.
Oops, I did read that, multi tasking playing with kids....

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You might want to have a look at the Miller Multimatic 200.

Multimatic(R) 2 Multiprocess Welder - MillerWelds

I haven't used it but for work I did carry around a Maxstar that worked well for me. I suspect the 'guts' of both machines are pretty much the same only that they added the gear for the MIG function to the Maxstar to make the Multimatic.

Maxstar(R) 161 STL TIG Welder - MillerWelds

The Airgas location in Sheboygan had a Multimatic in their welding test area for a while that could be test run. I think they ended up selling it off at a discount.
 
So, I'm sure that the Miller Dynasty 210 TIG is a single-phase welding machine. And TIG single phase. But I'm not as sure as you are. I didn't train to be a welder, so I might be confused. I think you can ask someone who recently graduated from College. They should have fresh knowledge, and they should know everything about it. I'll ask my brother in turn. He recently graduated from Santa Monica College 2020 Welding School Cost: Average Tuition & Fees. He needs to remember. It's not for nothing that he studied for so many years.
 
So, I'm sure that the Miller Dynasty 210 TIG is a single-phase welding machine. And TIG single phase. But I'm not as sure as you are. I didn't train to be a welder, so I might be confused. I think you can ask someone who recently graduated from College. They should have fresh knowledge, and they should know everything about it. I'll ask my brother in turn. He recently graduated from Santa Monica College . He needs to remember. It's not for nothing that he studied for so many years.


Spam is running thick today, a real artic blast form the north.....
 








 
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