Ebay is THE place to find a reasonably priced TIG. On turbo hot parts, you'll have to purge the inside of the tube with gas or the welds will crack.

 

yeah i might just do that...
get a good MIG and have someone whos a pro finish it off.

I have never done any welding except for exhaust (header and back) so I guess I should start small first anyways.

Thanks guys. Im still gonna look on ebay for a tig just in case.. never know, might find a good deal!

 

Hey stone,
I have the square wave 175 and I am going to purchase a precision 185 because the precision 185 has more options. The 175 has an automatic post flow of about 9 second that can't be changed. It is a waste of gas. But for little aluminum jobs it is fine (welds great).
The 185 has a adjustible post flow for the gas, it has a pulser for pulsed welding and it has a ac balance adjustment for penatration. The 185 is a much better unit than the 175 because of thoughs adjustments. If you are going to use the welder for alot of aluminum I would suggest getting a water cold torch for the unit.
Anyhoo, you can look at spending 1800 to 3000 for that unit depending on what you get with it. Argon tank seperate. I would not go anything less because it is going to be junk. What I mean by junk is that it isn't going to weld good at all. Unless you can pic up a used one.
Or if you would like, you could send it to me and I could weld it for you. Hope this helps!

 

Make sure you look into your input power.

I was gonna get the precision 185, but it draws 64amps at 185 output on 230, which is more than we have in our garage (underpowerd I know).

So I have to spend an extra >$1000 on the invertec 205, but damn, that things badass. Only draws like 20 amps at 205 output..100% duty cycle at 160amps...can run on 115 up to 150 amps. Not to mention 33lbs!