I will agree with not getting a cheap one if you are going to put it to alot of use (think cutting) I killed two ebay cheapies before I bit the bullet and bought a hypertherm powermax 45, now I can cut 1" with out a problem, and it is alot quicker/cheaper the oxy-acetylene.
I agree with hypertherm. They are the only welding/cutting machine that would persuade me not to buy lincoln electric.Others like hobart and miller make great stuff but I am familiar with
lincoln and their support avenues,training ,and accessory avaiiablity.I am certain that what I bought 5 years ago will be worth fixing
It is very aggravating to buy any machine ,even at a major discount,then discover that:
1 it simply does not meet the advertised specs. A certain country seems to manufacture a lot of stuff with very bogus "electrical units"
2It functions like a piece of marginal crap.
3 you discover that you want to add accessories (in this case maybe specialised hoses) only to discover that the supplier is long gone.
4 it breaks 3-5 years after you bought it and you cannot find parts any longer, anywhere.
5 You like useing the machine so much that you decide to upgrade to a better machine. You think OH i'll just sell the one I have to soften the purchase a little
, only to discover that NO one is interested in giving you what you think its worth.....because it really was a piece of crap to begin with.
The ebay cheapies you bought...whatever happened to them? Did you repair?
(personally , i would like to gather all the import junk i have purchased,put it on a truck and drop it off on the lawn of the embassy of the country from which it came.) Maybe that would get the attention
of our lawmakers to put an end to this flood of junk into the country.
They could start with a simple law like "ALL manufactured products must have a 5 year pro-rated warranty to be sold in this country with an established security bond to cover the warranty."
Think of the landfill space we would save.