The ESAB Rebel is available for about $1300. Like others have said, look around on Craigslist,FleaBay and local machinery dealers for good used machines. There's still a lot of good old Millers,Lincolns,Air Products and Lindes out there. I have an old Air Products Vis-Arc, which is a rebranded Miller 330 A B/P. Its an industrial grade AC/DC with hi frequency start and welds great! They take up more room than a newer welder but I have only 500 bucks into mine.

Yeah, there are plenty of cheap off-brands. If I went that route, wanted to stay with at least a known good supplier, and some place to get consumables for them. Eastwood is available from Jegs or Eastwood under $700. Hobart is available from Northern Tool for around $1,200. Then you got stands, tanks, supplies.

All my welders are Millers, stick/Tig is a Syncrowave 250DX with a Miller torch cooler. My mig is a Millermatic 210 with a Miller spool gun, whichever gun I pick is hot and I keep argon and 75/25 hooked to it at all times.

I don't like multi purpose machines (mig/stick/tig) as they seem to do none of them well. Also would not have a tig welder without AC.

Check with Cyberweld they usually have great prices. When I bought my 210 they beat my local dealer by $800 to my door.

Rollcage fabrication? So these are welds your life could depend on?

I would not (never, nyet, nein) buy Chinese, and/or cheapo equipment. I've used the Miller Diversion. Runs OK. Maybe a little light for chassis work. The intended use needs to be considered. Sheet metal, .083, .134. 3/16 or 1/4 thick suspension brackets, rear axle housing work, etc. If you have to run the machine with it's tongue out, it's too small.

In this economy, there are lots of deals on used, good condition, quality, name brand equipment. Local auctions, Craigslist, local welding suppliers, word of mouth. Some of it is beat to death though. Just need to be careful. I would buy a nice used Lincoln or Miller before a new 2nd class machine all day long.

I lied, the new Lincoln AC TIG is Square Wave 200 and it's $1400. It's a simple machine, but superior to the Miller offering in the same range, their Diversion.

http://www.weldingsuppliesfromioc.com/lincoln-square-wave-tig-200-welder-k5126-1

Another issue is how much power do you need and what electrical service do you have? My Syncro 250 is good for output (310amps) but eats electricity (105 amp 230v input at full bore) You won't need high output except for aluminum IME, but if you only have say 40 amp service, you need an inverter. And transformer machine are bloody huge and heavy, which is why I have the Everlast 160STH, that's something I can lug about, and it's dual voltage. And it's cheap, so when some moron at work falls on it or something stupid, they can buy me another and I don't have to find someplace to hide their body. S/F.....Ken M

Keep looking on e-bay, Craig's list. I bought a 1973 330 Miller gold star with cooling tank, cables, pedal, a ton of rods, and cart for $550. I drove 275 miles to pick it up. Weights over 1000 pounds and has all the bells and whistles. Miller man keeps wanting me to trade it in on a new syncrowave but I won't( he has a buyer). My first one was made up with a 250 amp ac-dc Miller and a add on Linde high frequency box, only down side was starting the arc and amp adjustment. Like I said look around and stay away from the new stuff, even though they're nice, but the older rigs will still get the job done. Don't just buy the welder, the little things will add up big time, find one with most or all of the goodies, cheaper in the long run.

Ordered the new Lincoln a while back. They are on back-order and lots of customers waiting for one. On paper that thing blows the Miller Diversion 180 away, so I can't wait to try it.

I did try the Miller 180 and really liked it but glad I saw the new SquareWave: if it lives up to it's specs all those off-shore brands and Miller are going to lose a pile of sales.

I hope to see it in the next couple of weeks.

I highly recommend Baker Gas, they are awesome to deal with. I ordered a new Miller 211 and Miller plasma cutter from them too.

As an experienced welder, I find the machine capabilities and prices a little too good to be true............hopefully I'm wrong.

Generally, if the machine is not sold as tig specific, it will have no "start" circuit. You have to scratch start the arc. One of my welders is one of the first inverter style power sources. 200 amps, never blows a breaker, it is setup as my wire welder now, but in the old days it was my scratch start tig machine. No a/c capabilities.

It might just be that I never used a Tig welder before. Might need to find someone local to give me some hands on. Still would like the capability of welding aluminum.

What kind of welding experience do you have?

Arc, Mig, gas. Pretty good at fitting tubing. My 'Cuda was my first build long ago. Have done plenty of roll bars, back halves, lots of fabrication work. No pro by any means, but I can get the job done, without people going "OMG! Who welded THAT???".

Well, if you got the hang of oxy/acetylene then you'll pick up TIG, no problem.

The one thing with alum.. you start heating it
then when you see it turn shiny its ready for
the bead.. the hardest part is jumping the gap
on the start of the bead.. once you do that then
the temp jumps across the area easy and the bead
will form easy... dab, dab, dab... and so on..
when you get near the end the temp will climb so
you start backing off the pedal... practice
EDIT
I also ball the electrode so the power will run
in circles to heat better(just on alum)

HTP and Esab have good units too. I picked up my Lincoln 225 through trading, I bought my Lincoln sp250 wire feed for 800, it is a full digital machine that is old but still runs good. I like the ability to do what I want with all of my welders. I started with a Hobart buzz box that has a tig torch and a Montgomery Wards High frequency box. 75% of the people who say they need liquid cooling really don't run enough amps to actually need it. I have a cooler that I have never even used yet. Get the best machine you can afford or wait until the right deal comes along. I waited 5 years for my tig. Tim

33? replies and this is the only with real world experience reply with a cheap tig?. I got a Miller Syncrowave 500, so no further comment.

I have a cheap chinese TIG WELDER. was a gift. It can also be a plasma cutter and stick welder.
It takes all of the standard consumables- which is nice. its a giant tech brand- they don;t have fantastic reviews but mine does everything i need it to. has a large dent in the top from an earthquake about 1 year ago- still works great.

I would hate to have spent the miller $$$$ to buy my own and use it for what I do. this is a perfect machine for a hobbyist.

I guess I misunderstood what he meant by cheap...I thought my Diversion 180 was on the low end.

There isnt a reason he has to buy cheap.. as I said
in one post.. get a quality rebuilt for the price
he is willing to spend

Another vote for Miller Diversion line. Great product at a decent price

I have fairly extensive experience with an Everlast 160STH, which is DC, HF start. He said he wanted an AC/DC unit. I own a Syncro 250 at one job, and use an Everlast 325 EXT at another, where we weld heads, blocks and other things that racers blow up. It's a nice machine, but outside the OP's budget, as are the HTP machines(awesome welder) as well as the higher end Miller/Lincoln units. The smaller Everlast machines seem OK, based on what I've seen, their customer support is generally replace the unit, which is a problem for guy's using a welder for income. That's what you're paying for with Miller/Lincoln, a dealer support network where you can get a loaner while your junk is being fixed.

The other thing that the OP needs to address is what I brought up earlier; if you want to weld aluminum and you're looking at used transformer stuff, you better have at least a 60 amp circuit to use, with more being better. 60 amps/230v will get you to about 180-200 amp output on a transformer TIG machine, which is baseline minimum (IMO) to do decent aluminum work on anything other than sheet metal. Unless you want to buy some helium mix, but now we're getting into semi-exotic territory. S/F.....Ken M