what's the easiest way to switch wire feeders

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how do you guys switch between say - aluminum and steel feeders or spoolgunswithout wrenches and hassle ? is there an A/B switch of sorts ? or are quick disconnectsreliable for high amperage ?  what about a dual manifold for Argon? to use either on  a Cobramatic aluminum feeder or tig machine from the same bottle ?just trying to reduce BS downtime now that my welding setup is complete.what do most shops use ?Miller S60 feederCobramatic push/pull feederMiller CP-252tsLincoln Tig250/Tig250Lincoln weldpak 100 -italianC-H 90A- italianHarris & Victor O\Afull manual & CNC machine shop
Reply:I recently bought a Miller 252.  Did not get a spoolgun (yet) but all it takes is plugging it in and have a separate bottle and which ever trigger you pull the machine goes to the last setting you had for that gun.
Reply:If you do a fair amount of aluminum set one machine up just for that, and then maybe get a dual feeder for steel and flux core.Syncrowave 180 SDMillermatic 250XSnap On MW 120 Econopac 50Victor O/A with some Smith Attachments 30 X 50 shop with a 400 Amps
Reply:i have a power supply and two feeders,  a miller s60 for steel, and a mk cobra for aluminum . different gas - 75/25 and 100% respectively  . i also use the 100% argon on my tig machine .i have two 400#  power supplies and four gas bottles - i don't need to amass any more stuff,just want to be able to switch more quickly than 15-20 minutesMiller S60 feederCobramatic push/pull feederMiller CP-252tsLincoln Tig250/Tig250Lincoln weldpak 100 -italianC-H 90A- italianHarris & Victor O\Afull manual & CNC machine shop
Reply:well you could use quality air hose style couplers on all of your hoses, then just need to purge the line when you change. and I am sure you could use dinse connectors on your cables.Syncrowave 180 SDMillermatic 250XSnap On MW 120 Econopac 50Victor O/A with some Smith Attachments 30 X 50 shop with a 400 Amps
Reply:Miller does ( or did) make a process selector switch that will allow you to quickly switch over from one feeder to a second one. Gas hook up would be just like you normally would with the feeder you are selecting. You'd just have to open the cylinder. You might or might not have to connect/disconnect the 14 pin connector to the power source.http://www.millerwelds.com/om/o817e_mil.pdfThe other way is simply to hood everything up with Tweeco or dinse quick connects. The tech school has all the XMT's set up this way. To hook up to mig, All you do is plug in the QD from the feeder to the machine, hook up the 14 pin connection and turn on the gas. If that feeder was say broken, all I'd need to do is unplug the feeder and plug in the 2nd one instead. If you need to switch gases on the same feeder, then you'd need gas quick connects as well. If you always use the same gas on that feeder, you'd simply treat it as normal.  They do sell hand tight reg nuts and nipples that will let you swap regs without wrenches. I have them on some of my stuff that I need to constantly take the regs on and off for transport. Biggest PITA is getting the old nipples off as some times they are locktited on at the factory..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan