Grant Erwin wrote:
Jon, how much would you estimate it cost you to get into TIG welding?
- GWE

I have two old TIG welders, one a Miller 330 ($400, plus $400 in
repairs) and a Hobart CyberTig ($100). Both of them are fantastic TIG
welders. $195 for 249 cuft bottle, $56 for Weldcraft WP17 torch, $40
for torch kit, $35 for 5 lbs TIG rod. About $140 for electronic
helmet. Adds up to about $1200 if I use the Miller 330 as the
baseline.

I agree with Jon's comments above. For me, TIG welding is priceless.
Much more enjoyable and much easier than stick once I got past the
initial learning curve (about 2 months of week-end effort). Much
easier to weld out-of-position with TIG. The health comment is a good
one, when I was stick welding, I would blow out a glob of black stuff
from my nose at the end of each day, don't want to think about what
made it into my lungs.

I am unsure it is more expensive (at least for a hobbyist who doesn't
count his time). When I was stick welding, I was burning up 7014
electrodes at a pretty good clip and definitely felt the cost in my
wallet. A large Argon tank brought the cost of gas down to a
reasonable level ($32 for 249 cuft refill). I use .045 ER70-S3 MIG
wire (surplus from the swap-meet) for a lot of my TIG welding, which
brings the rod cost down (granted, a hassle to unwind from the spool
and straighten out).

Hope this helps.