2 Tig Inverters - a Comparison

Straight DC Tig Inverters have gotten really small.

These 2 Tig Inverters...the Miller Maxstar 150stl and the Everlast powerarc 140st are both the size of a kids lunchbox.

Both of these welders will run off of 115volt or 230v. And on 230volt, will burn a 1/8" 7018 rod just fine.

For this weekly video, I used 3/32" Lincoln Excalibur 7018 rods with the amps set to 93. 

The Miller was a bit hotter than the Everlast and would have welded a bit better at about 5 amps less, but I left them both at 93 amps.

The parts I welded today were some mounts made by SWAG off road that adapt an Air/Hydraulic ram to several different models of tubing benders.  ( you can see the SWAG video at the bottom of this page).

Both of these tig inverters are called "lift arc" machines. "Lift arc" means you have to actually touch the tungsten to the work piece in order to start the arc. Lift arc beats scratch start , but I definitely prefer high frequency start so that I dont have to touch the tungsten to the metal at all....ever.

Starting the arc using lift arc is ok in a lot of situations.

Both of these machines light up pretty gently and dont really mess the tungsten tip up.

Stopping... coming out of a hot puddle is where the problem is.

The Miller has a foot pedal option that controls amperage and allows stopping the arc while maintaining gas shielding.

The Everlast model does not have this feature but my placing a piece of copper near where the weld ends, it is possible to stop the weld without losing much gas coverage and without leaving a crater hole.

Crater holes turn into crater cracks so leaving any type of crater hole is bad.

At 120 amps , both of these tig inverters welded the high strength A572 steel without any issues. Neither machine overheated or timed out while I welded.

Conclusion.

while this comparison was kinda apples and oranges, both machines delivered.

The Everlast actually started rods easier when stick welding.

The Miller lit up at lower amps on tig.

If I were doing food service stainless piping , the Miller would be better because of the foot pedal option.

In case you missed it, here is last weeks video where I tig welded one of these mounts all the way out...

or ...you can click here to go to that tig welding tubing bender video

see more tig welding videos

swagoffroad.com video below