mig or tig?

A TIG/Stick welder and a Readywelder spoolgun to MIG weld from it.

My recomendation for an economy system is the Miller Maxstar 150.

The best deal on the market for an AC/DC TIG is the Thermal Arc Prowave

Ernie, How would a Readywelder spoolgun run from the 180SD (previous version) compare to a Millermatic 175 or 210? Ciao, David Todtman

Wonderfully.

Definitely the stick/tig. MIG is great sometimes, but in my experience it's a lot easier to live without it than without a stick welder.

Don't hesitate to buy something a little bigger than you expect to need- with a bigger machine you will gain not only amperage but also duty cycle at any particular amperage. Waiting for a too-small machine to cool down is a total waste of time.

John

I would imagine the Readywelder would work well w/ a 1996 econotig as well??

It's funny, I asked this question at a pretty large supplier, and they said, No way! Gotta get dedicated mig.

Curious as to what compromises one makes w/ a welder/readywelder vs, say, a dedicated millermatic?

It does seem, tho, at least by way of reality TV/garage shows, that stick welding has gone the way of dinosaurs. It seems *evrybody* is zapping away w/ mig, as if it were stick!! Even teenage girls! I went to my crappy li'l muffler shop, and millermatics were all over the place! I feel like RipVanWinkle, just waking up! My friend's shop has a machine dedicated to migging alum! Spool in the handle.

---------------------------- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll

Yeah. Rip van Winkle, eh? Are you old enough to remember the bowling alley craze in the 50s early 60s? I wonder if soon we should begin to see a lot of these hardly-used mig machines advertised for sale in the local classifieds. Ciao, David Todtman