Finally took the plunge...

Damn man, Thats tight, I am good with my lil craftsman gas welder lol Good shit man

I can't afford to get married. Lol. I'd have to sell my welder just to put a down payment on a ring.

I already have a plasma cutter, so the next logical step was a precise welder. I'm pretty excited to get it.

The next big purchases will be an industrial band saw, and a press. I just need to figure out where I could put them first. After that, a mill, and figure out where to put my lathe.

Congrats on buyin the new welder. I think your gonna need a bigger garage before too long.

I needed a bigger garage a year ago. Lol. Now I just need to get rid of some stuff. I haven't actually figure out where to put this thing yet.

That is the one toy I have that I will never part with! Definately worth the $ if you do a lot of fab work.

Seth - congrats on the TIG!!!! Now for the stupid question.... What is the tungsten used for in the welding process. I have never TIG welded or been around the process. I do know tungsten is a real pain to fab (cutting, tapping, etc)

i know how to do both mig and tig, and i'm currently in school right now and do all of my body work there but need to start my suspension soon, what would you recomend on buying cause i get a pretty decent dicount since i'm in college, either lincoln electric or miller and what size mig or tig for suspension work?
i haven't really looked into it much just yet but will here soon.

For mild suspension work, I would go with a new Miller 180 at the smallest, or a Lincoln equivalent. Also check out HTP, they put out just as nice of a MIG welder. If you can afford it, it wouldn't hurt to go bigger. The new Miller 212s are awesome. And you can now order them with a Bernard gun, which even Miller will tell you is the way to go.

As for TIG, I would try to stay around 200 amps. Especially if you ever want to do aluminum. Aluminum requires a lot more power. The Lincoln Precision 225 and the Miller Syncrowave 200 are very similar. In the end I chose the Lincoln because it had different options that I felt matched my needs better, the internals looked to be built with a little higher standards and quality, and overall it requires less power out of the wall to displace more current at the tip. I would also look into Inverter TIG welders. Lincoln has the Invertec 201, Miller has the Dynasty series, and HTP has the Invertig 201. They are nice and compact, and pull less power, but come with a higher price tag.

cool welder man

Thanks for the TIG lesson! Was figuring it had to do with the arc source. But for some reason I was typing tungsten (which was correct) but thinking Titanium.

Brain fade I guess.

Thats an easy mistake.

You can get tungsten in blocks like you can titanium. It throw blue sparks. But its easy to overheat and glaze over.