I've often thought that a lot of folks buy machines that exceed the user's capabilities...IOW, a fancy machine with all the dials and do-dads is wasted on a less-than-talented user (like me) so the OP needs to match his skill with the machine.
Yeah, skills can improve over time but, again, takes lots of practice and many users (like me) just don't weld that much.
I tend to make purchases of things (guns, tools, machinery, etc.) that are capable of doing better than maybe I can. I'd rather have a machine that I can grow into and learn with, than one I grow out of a month after I buy it. All those knobs, bells and whistles are there for a reason. And the name brand stuff will be easy to get parts and service for way into the future. Unlike the offshore crap.
