a good friend of mine has the econotig. it is 3 years old and welded lots of cages. very nice machine for the money. absolutely no problems with it yet.
there are a couple things you need to remember when using it. it is an air cooled torch, and low duty cycle machine(30% i think) so you have to be patient when doing a lot of welding. let the machine keep itself cool. it is also only 180 amps, plenty for tube, but if you start trying to do heavier aluminum you will need to preheat it.
i've used this machine on many occasions and it welds very nice compared to what you get in an old "dinosaur" machine for the same money.
i am in the process of doing lots of tig welding on my new Pro-2. i couldn't justify taking the money out of the truck budget for a new welder, so i'm borrowing a dinosaur, not the econotig, because i have LOTS of welding to do.
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