Well after much deliberation, and looking at used "blue and red" machines, I decided to order a new DX200. I aslo ordered the water cooler and the wp20f torch.

The welder came yesterday and I already had the argon, filler rods, and consumables ready, so I went ahead with the stock torch and started welding. Its been 15 years since I picked up a tig torch and then it was only for stainless, I had never even attempted aluminum.

I made a few beads on some carbon steel I had laying around and they looked great, so I dove right in on aluminum. I started by just running beads across a piece of .070 aluminum sheet metal and after getting the settings adjusted these are my first 2 beads of aluminum welding.
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I then went to welding a fillet weld on T joint and quickly realized its not as easy as I first thought lol.

The little machine has amazed me so far, and today the cooler and new torch came in today and I fell in love all over again. I will eventually get the hang of aluminum, but the way it welds carbon and stainless is amazing to me. I ordered the steel today to build a 2ft x 4ft welding table and I think I will tig every bit of it.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling but thanks for a great forum and for an awesome machine so far, look forward to learning....

thanks JB