Jobsite equipment advice

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I was hoping that I could get some equipment advice. I need to purchase some equipment for onsite fab. and repair of structural steel and equipment. Most of the steel is 1/2" or less. The equipment I am looking at purchasing would be a Miller Trailblazer 302, Miller Suitcase VS Extreme, Miller 3050 plasma. One of the problems I have is what compressor would be good for jobsite use? I could certainly utilize the compressor for air tools in addition to usage for the plasma cutter. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Reply:Sorry That was supposed to be a Miller 2050.
Reply:I'll start feeding this, and maybe you can get this truck rigged....  (1) chain vice pipe stand.(2)steady rest for the pipe stand..(3) C-clamps/reach overs(4) And a Big hammer, cause some time, things need some Help....
Reply:Thanks...Advice is GREATLY appreciated. I need considerable guidance in this area.
Reply:One more Thing, if you are by your self..... you need a way to put a fire out in a Hurry. A good fire extinguisher is money well spent........
Reply:The trailblazer is a great jobsite welder, as long as you dont need a million amps for really heavy stuff. I might consider getting an XR instead of the suitcase- it is a push pull system, which means you can easily weld aluminum, as well as mild steel or stainless. The gun is on a 30 foot lead, which means that rather than lugging the suitcase welder around, you leave the push pull on the truck most of the time, and just uncoil the gun. It is a little bit bulkier than a standard mig gun, but we use it a lot for field work, and find the flexibility is worth it, especially as being able to mig weld aluminum in the field is a rare ability.We also tend to do a lot of tig welding on site- it means no sparks, no spatter- much safer inside buildings, or near stuff like plate glass windows, which could be ruined by spatter at big cost. Scratch start tig will run off the trailblazer, very cheap- just a 150 bucks or so for an aircooled torch, plus a tank and regulator. I actually have a portable high freq and water cooler, but we do a lot of fancy stainless work on jobsites, so its worth it for me.One thing I would put on my job truck is a small bandsaw- if you have the room, I would bolt down a 4x6 import bandsaw, minus the legs. It only costs a couple of hundred bucks, and the amount of stuff it can cut, easily and fast, makes it very handy.But everybodies needs and wants are different- we tend to do very fancy stuff, and tig welding and precise cutting are important to us. If all you are doing is structural on rough sites, it might not be worth it to you.
Reply:Thank-you for your input Ries. It looks like I should do a little more research re: which welder to purchase. I do have a need to perform some welding at heights of approx. 80' - 100'. My thought was that the Suitcase would be easy to hoist up in the air. But clearly the XR has more versatility. I currently have a Milwaukee Deep cut bandsaw mounted to the Milwaukee tripod stand. This has generally been o.k. for us but your suggestion of a bench mount unit makes more sense. Robin Hood, thanks for the tooling suggestions, I have added them to my purchase list. Great contirbutions!
Reply:If you are repairing you might need a porta-power and some chain com-a-longs.  I wonder why you would bother with  plasma if you are doing structural.  Running a hand torch up stairs or the side of a building is easier than a plasma unit and air supply.  If you are repairing sometimes you need a source of heat to straighten.
Reply:Howdy!  I can't help but enphasize job-site security for all your new tools!  We recently had an entire jobbox stolen, with demolition hammer, sawzall"s"  hole hawg"s"  lots of breakers, (for electrical panels)  and misc expensive goodies.  It must have taken 5 guys to lift this thing!.  I would recomend a huge job-box, maybee some cement in the bottom lol and then a specialty chain / massive cable that can't be cut with consumer/average joe/average thief tools.  I found the Kryptonite brand (after this last incident)  makes a chain called the "new-yorker"  and also about a 1 1/4" braided cable that may be a logical choice.  Incidently, we were not the only crew hit on this site. Every trade got their job boxes stolen with everything inside too.  As far as compressors,  I myself have a Dewalt 8 gallon 5 hp 180 lb twin tank honda powered emglo cast iron headed jobsight compressor... THis thing is awesome!!!  And you can run tons of tools off of it at the same time, really pumps out the air.  I got mine on an overstock-misshipped sale, for about 459$.  Regular price is around 800$ I think.  I would be sure to get an additional air regulator (in my case an inline oiler as well)  and a moisture seperator too.  It'll make your tools last alot longer.  I have two air-out feeds from my setup. one before the oiler,  (for paint guns and the like) and one after the oiler ( for nail guns and pneumatic tools).  I am in the electrical trade, so my advice / experiences are roughly related to that and various new construction trades.  Happy welding!  Brian Lee  Sparkeee24
Reply:Site theft as well as industrial building theft is common.  Every local welding supply and tool outfit has big pipe stanchions embedded in concrete outside the front to prevent vehicle backing in to the the building, loading up and clearing out before anyone arrives.   This routine has been applied to cash machines.  Time from when the alarm went off to the police arriving was less than five minutes yet they broke down  a wall, tore the machine out of the floor and took off with it before anyone saw them.There seems to be no complete solution.  Take everything home each night if you can and secure your truck, van, or trailer.  The less people know about what you have stored the better.  It doesn't pay to advertise what a nice set of tools you have.  Reminds me of two enterprising individuals who opened a small tool box.  The explosion killed one of them.  There was a murder charge laid and a trial but the crown prosecutor could not absolutely connect the tool box to the location of suspected body shop or the box's original owner.