Harris Industrial Gases - Welding Equipment & Supplies

Why Buy Two Wire Feeders When You May Only Need One?

If you are like many of my customers, you use bench-style feeders in your shop and portable, suitcase-style feeders for your field work. Do you also believe that a voltage sensing portable feeder is used mainly just for flux-cored welding and wouldn’t provide the quality weld that a bench-style feeder can? Then, I challenge you to take another look at portable feeders – it might be a great fit for both your field work and your in-shop production welds.

2-drive system portable wire feeders have a constant wire feed speed when used in CV mode on a CV power source that is very similar to that of a bench-style feeder. Some portable feeders are designed to provide the power and quality you need for production applications. And, these portable feeders also provide additional advantages…mainly portability. Are you ever in a situation where you need to use your wire feed system somewhere other than where it is normally located – perhaps some field work, or perhaps just somewhere else in the shop? Now consider the monumental task of moving that bench-style feeder…you’ll need to remove the 14-pin, the weld cable, remove the spool of wire and probably the gun, etc. Long story short, it could take awhile and it would be pretty inconvenient.

Now imagine using a voltage sensing suitcase-style portable feeder in CV mode for your production welds…it  provides high quality welds and you can move it quickly and easily to wherever you need to. You don’t need two different feeders to cover your different welding applications. One customer explained that their work varies and they may spend time welding in the shop in the morning and get called out for a field job in the afternoon. Instead of purchasing two feeders, they just use one suitcase-style portable feeder for both applications. In less than 30 seconds they can disconnect the power and the feeder cable, pack up and go.

In addition to the advantage of extreme portability, convenience, and weld quality a suitcase-style portable feeder will also protect your welding wire because it is sealed. And, some 2-drive portable wire feed systems can also provide a meter display as a standard feature – some bench-style feeders may offer this as an option. The next time you’re shopping for wire feeders, take a look at your applications and see if a portable feeder might just save you money and time. Let me know what you think…vote on the poll question and post your comments.