yesterday at school, one of the instructors brought one for a little demo for us, as a 28-year veteran ironworker, he told us he was very very impressed with this little tig machine. i, personlly welded a single bead on a 12 inches long Tee joint of 3/16" alumnium plates, it worked just perfectly.

i couldn't believe how light the machine was, about 20lbs, i felt.

the best thing was the Weldcraft torch, it was amazingly easy to use air cooled unit, with built-in power control wheel. plus there is a start button, hold the tungsten in place, press the button once, the arc starts right there, no more strach start. i've never welded tig without a pedal before, but it only took me couple minutes to get used to the hand control. while the pedal is an available option, i don't think it's necessary for hobbyists.

the after flow is automatic, no more turning the argon gas on and off manually. it happened to me quite few times when i use the air cooled tig welders, either forgot to turn on the gas or more oftenly turning it off wasting gas.

i googled it after school, the reviews are commonly positive, the $1300 street price isn't much for a tig, espcially a blue machine. i guess if it can weld 3/16" aluminum, it probably will do well up to 3/8" steel.

well, i'm starting saving now.

 

i've always wondered how well these hobby machines do... the guys at the airgas local to me told me they would never work for the kinda fab work that i do though. Good to hear that you were impressed, maybe i'll have to reconsider this as a cheap home option.

 

I think you have that backwards. Takes A LOT less energy to melt aluminum than it does steel.

 

actually i asked my instructor on this question, here is the answer in depth:

even aluminum has a much lower melting point than steel, but it dissipate heat so much faster, steel retains heat much better then aluminum. compare the two at the same thickness, aluminum need more amp to get proper penetration.

these two are using different process, DC- for steel, AC HF for aluminum which has a liitle more wasted engergy involoved.