Two separate welders for AC and DC?

[Alx]

I'm getting a little fed up with my setup and need an advice.

I currently use a HandyTIG Lorch machine, something I bought on a promo a couple of years ago. It's a good little welder but has a few quirks, one of which I believe might be a pedal that doesn't strike an arc every time. Annoying but not a deal breaker.

The panel is another annoyance. Getting to the aluminium balance and frequency is always a minute long journey due to the functions being hidden deep inside the labyrinth of menus. Again, not great but for the money it's a great little welder and paid for itself now a few times over.

Lastly and why I created this post is something that I'm getting a bit tired off on a regular basis. Switching between AC and DC means I have to change my torches that are preloaded with the right cup and tungsten. Now that is a waste of time that I cannot justify. Coupled with the intricate HandyTIG menu I could tell you it's the biggest issue I have with this welder.

Anyway, rather than selling it for an (arguably) better machine where all dials and buttons are exposed and easy to reach (like the Dynasty DX or good ole' Lincoln 205), I thought of adding a little quality TIG for steel only. I mostly weld thin gauge steel so rarely need over 70-80A.

Has anyone been through this and what is your setup/advice? Basically, it's not that I'm unhappy with the HandyTIG Lorch - it's that switching over from Al to steel is a little too complicated. I'm in the position to either sell it on and get a bigger brother with an easy to configure display (that still doesn't solve the torch swap over situation) or continue with it but add a small DC machine (which one?).

Thanks guys.

 

[zzr1200]

Why change tungstens just use a multi-strike flavour of tungsten, that way you just stock the sizes.

I have the T220 pro and its easy to swap from AC to DC just push the bottom.

 

[Alx]

I use gold 2.4mm for everything as I've got a life long supply of them. Works well for both stainless and ali, no problem here.

For stainless I use a 9- and lately 17-type torch with flex head, size 12 cup and a button cap. For ali it's almost always size 5 cup, long cap in a chunky 26-type torch.

So pretty much different torches for different applications. Which will make swapping torch parts over even longer.

 

[KemppiFrog]

If I was happy with the machine, my mind would turn to a 'splitter' box, where I could leave both torches connected. Power is easy, gas would need a couple of valves. Presumably your machine does not have pre-set programes you can switch between?

 

[Richard.]

I’ll be honest I’ve played with that HandyTIG a few times now and it’s a fantastic tool the hidden menu really isn’t anything like a 1 minute job.
Hold two buttons for 2 seconds then select and adjust. It’s probably a 5 second longer operation than it would be if the settings were not hidden. Really nothing to get hung up on at all.
Ref two torches for two processes yes I agree this is a real pain but rather than buying another welder why not buy a water cooler.
You would then just have 1 small torch wp20 size more than capable of covering everything. If you really want the best of all worlds regarding speed swapping for different processes look at an I head torch. That way you can have as many set ups as you like and just swap out the heads.
It’s just a nice luxury mind. Most people can swap out a tungsten and a cup and not really worry too much about the 20 seconds it takes.
Personally I think a cooler and wp20 would answer the bulk of your problems which is having two different sized gas cooled torches for AC and DC and this I can understand is a pita.