I have been practicing on aluminum with my tig welder. I needed a bracket made to hold my 2 stage manual boost controller. I built a pretty sturdy bracket that is light weight.

 

how do you like the eastwood 200? have you ever used anything other then that for aluminum? im curious because I would to get one also.

 

This is my first welder - I actually have never welded anything before I got this (as a gift).

It's really addicting - looking at photos from "toxic fab" really motivate me. Aluminum is so tricky compared to steel - I can really control the puddle much better with steel. Aluminum is funny because there is an oxide layer that you need to clean off with a rush of quick heat, but then you need to back off because the piece gets hot quick. Aluminum is AC. Steel is DC. I use a foot-pedal. I can really lay a nice bead on a single piece of aluminum and make it look like a "stack of dimes" but I have a problem with T-joints. I have a hard time getting the heat to propagate between the 2 pieces deep in the corner. I learned basically everything by watching tig-welding youtube videos, practicing what I saw, making mistakes, and going through that cycle time and time again.

The nice thing about the tig-200 is it has high frequency start which makes starting an arc almost effortless. I think the eastwood stuff is good quality for the price. Being that I am a complete n00b this works OK for me. When I get good enough that this becomes "just a toy" I will probably upgrade to a much more powerful tig-welder. This was a gift from someone who wanted me to learn.

 

nice man , I like tig welding I took an 8 week course on it. im looking for a welder I learned on a Lincoln , I was just curious how the eastwood compared. I have a millermatic mig at home and we have an eastwood mig at work for welding exhausts . I like it but wasn't sure about the eastwood tig. I would love to buy one when I get my evo squared away