On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 23:06:40 -0800, "Glenn"
wrote:

Well curiosity overcame better judgement and I bought one yesterday. Got to
play with it for awhile today and .. it was interestin to say the least.
It has a nice range of adjust ment from 5 amps to 130 amps but the only
control is on the box. No foot pedal or even a control on the torch. It is
scratch start but seems pretty easy to light untill you get way down on the
power for really light guage stuff. It did not come with a regulator. Fit
and finish looks really good and better than I expected. The "tungsten"
electrode that came with it is junk and balled right up. I did get to make
a few decent welds with it before the tungsten went away and being Saturday
no place to get more. I feel with a lot more practice it could well be a
nice machine for the small stuff but the jury is still out on that. I
didn't try the stick function as I have no use for a 90 amp stick machine
Mostly I need to get a good electrode and figure out how far to stick it out
of the cup to get the "flame" I want. For a lunch box sized machine it is
actually sort of impressive. Way easier to setup and get going than the big
Miller box .. no water hoses and I can pick it up with one hand
I did have trouble getting the aluminum to puddle right but I think I had
the gas turned down too much and the tungston kept misbehaving. (possibly
due to my ignorance but it just didn't act quite right)
Anyway I will have to play with it some more before I decide if it is worth
having in the shop.

It's probably set up for DCEP. AC with HF start is best for aluminum,
but DCEN will work (at lower currents) if you can reverse the
polarity. A zirconiated tungsten will hold up much better than pure
or thoriated tungsten in DCEN service.