[WRGibbens]

You might want to lacate your local Miller or lincoln suppler when i set up my shop we split it 40-60, 40% tig's and 60% migs and I have learned over the years that a good percentage of my students do much better with the tig process rather than mig when it comes to alloy welds, Spool guns are a lot harder to manage than a tig turch if you can braze tig is the way to go..

most of the supplers will rent the equipment at a fraction of the cost and will answer most all your qustions. If your looking to buy a machine I would look at a Miller Maxstar tig price range is around $800.00 complate it is portable and will run on 110 or 208 volts and will weld up to 1/4" aluminum with no problems we run a helium process on most of our aluminum projects including the robot frame how ever Argon works well also.. When welding just mak sure your parts are clean you have a good fit-up and clamp your parts take your time you will produce a much better weld.

Good luck