Dynasty 300DX vs Aerowave

[calplus]

I am in the process of choosing a new TIG welder for my shop. We do steel , Ti , SS and aluminum fabrication for marine and motorsports industry. Has anyone had experience with the Dynasty 300DX and the Aerowave machines that can give me a good comparison of their relative capabilities? Cost not withstanding, if they are close in capability I would rather spend the extra $$$ that the Aerowave will cost on upgrading my MIG equipment to an inverter/pulser with XR control for aluminum.

[wooly]

you need 3 phase power supply for that aerowave.why do you need equipment that big

[calplus]

3 phase is not a problem. We have it for running our CNC mills etc. I am more interested in the flexibility to handle the more difficult jobs where full penetration and cosmetics are equally important. I realize the the Aeroware is the most flexible in terms of arc shaping characteristics, but is it that much more of an advantage to justify 2X the cost?

[dseman]

Calpus,
Go to http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/forum_search.pl
and do a search for "aerowave dynasty" by lawrence. Mode='match any keyword', and search 'all boards'. He teaches weldors for the airline industry and uses both machines. He is both candid and competent in his responses.

-dseman

[calplus]

Thanks for the info - Looks to me like the usual - Some like it some don't - I know that the early inverter units had reliability problems - regardless of MFG - But we don't weld 24/7 -- We do make $$$ on quality that our competitors can't or won't offer. I am still on the fence on the Dynasty - Aerowave issue - Let me know if you get good comparison data!

[BugEyedValiant]

The aerowave will operate on single phase. It also isnt really that big. The dynasty tops out at 300 and the Aerowave goes to 375 which is the same as my Syncrowave 300 in my garage. If I had the money I would definately go for the Aerowave, but it is about twice the price. My next upgrade will be to the Dynasty though, just because of the price. I think that for 90% of the people, the Aerowave is overkill. The majority of the special features on the Aerowave are just in the AC mode, and unless you are doing A LOT of mag/aluminum work, it is money that could have been spent elsewhere. Dont be afraid to correct me if I am wrong on anything guys.

[HAWK]

I have a Dynasty 200DX and have not found anything is does not do well within its output range. If you can operate within the 250 amps at 40% duty cycle of the Dynasty 300DX, I think that is the way to go. If you look through Andy's posts, you'll find a lot of the race teams use the Dynasty series. I don't recall anything mentioned about the Aerowave. I'll have to go with BugEyedValiant on these machines. The Aerowave seems like a lot of money for the extra arc shaping characteristics that only a handful of people will ever use.
The independent current control of the DCRP and DCSP of the AC cycle and the max of 400HZ frequency adjustment seem to be the major differences. The Dynasty will do 250HZ and that is a "tight" arc.

Good Luck

[dseman]

I've been told by Andy that independant amperage control of the DCEP and DCEN pulses is not needed for 99% of the work out there. The same effect, that is control of the amount of heat into the weldment, can be achieved by correctly setting the base amperage, peak amperage, frequency, and balance settings---all features that the dynasty has. Now the aerowave will go to 375amps, while the current dynasty 300 is, well, 300amps. Mind you the aerowave was designed specifically for an aerospace customer and has some useage throughout that market. It was not even originally intended for sale as a general purpose commercial power supply. So far, calplus has not been specific enough with the type of work he will be doing to determine if the aerowave is warranted. My guess is that if he was doing aerospace work, he would already be familiar with the advantages this type of supply offers for that type of niche work. Most autoshops would be using the dynasty 300 or the synchrowave 350 if they really needed the additional amperage for thick AL and they didn't want to explore DCEN welding with He. Oh, the idea of 400hz for AC? Well, the posts I've read from guys who own aerowaves say that anything above 250 is un-necessary anyways.

-dseman