Why would a...

Let's re-evaluate an old question.

Why would person that can create nice welds with O/A really need to step up to tig? If you have aluminum and stainless down pat, mildsteel-never an issue, why? You don't have to worry about power, just put a bigger tip on it. Sure you have to use flux for many material but then again you are doing basically the same thing with backpurges. You can backpurge stainless with O/A too(I have argon but solar flux is fine for me). Is cleanup really the only issue (and is it really that big of a deal if you have the right tools on hand)?

Is this just another case of, gotta have the latest and 'greatest'? Is it an issue of just not taking the time to master the tools? Obviously there are stick guys out there that can do amazing work.

So should I really spend money on a tool that just makes Al a little bit easier (I can now do the sodacans back to back with al and 4043 tig rods) A taller bead appearance for Al is all I wish for(that is partly due to my persistence to achieve a perfect bead on 1.5x1 inch .025 and .035 coupons). Technically, all I really want on my O/A is the equivalent of a foot pedal. Well, ultrasonics to help wet the puddle might even be nice too. :)

I made the change for several reasons:

You can push heat in a lot faster with tig, giving you better penetration with smaller heat affected zones on thick metal. On thin metal, you have a smaller hot zone, so you have less warpage than O/A.

Not having six inches to a foot of flame around the work area reduces the likelihood of fires or damage to nearby parts in close quarters welding.

Around the time I started TIG welding instead of O/A, I had the overpressure plug blow out of the valve on an acetylene cylinder that was sitting in the shop at work. An amazing amount of flame came out of that little thermos sized cylinder, with no abuse or provocation. Thinking about the 40cubic foot cylinder I had at home in my wood frame garage attached to my house convinced me that the conversion to TIG only would be a "good thing". Twelve years later, I miss the cutting torch once in a while, but a plasma cutter does most of what I would use the flame wrench for. If I had to do some thick plate that a bandsaw or my plasma cutter would not handle, I would rent cylinders for the job.

There are certainly people that do stuff that O/A works great for, as you say without power problems that a big electric welder brings. A cutting torch is a great maintenance tool. Most of what I do these days is more like fabrication. Whatever works for you!

Good Luck, Bob