advice on used machines

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hi everyone, obviously i'm new here and fairly new to welding in general. i strated welding with mig and tig about a year ago and was tought by a welder my dad works with. i am now looking to get my own tig machine and hoping to get some advice on what will fit my needs and budget. a majority of my welding is going to be on race car cages using 1.5x .120 dom steel. i found a Miller Syncrowave 180 SD listed locally on craigslist for around $1000. it sounds like a good deal and i think it will meet all my needs and then some but dont know for sure. what do you guys think? if this wont meet my needs what should i be looking for? thanks in advance.
Reply:The Syncrowave 180 is a very nice starter tig. You have both AC and DC capacity so you can do steel, stainless or alum. It's a solid light industrial tig that's been used in many shops for years. That price is pretty good. Usually $1000-1300 used is typical depending on condition and what comes with it. If you go to Millers website you can download the manual for that machine. In the manual is the sequence to bring up the arc strikes and run time for that machine. Arc strikes would tell you how many times the user struck an arc with it, and run time would tell you how long the machine was used. You can use this to verify the sellers story as to how much it was used if you want. If it was a home machine, like is very common, I seriously doubt it was used much at all and is probably almost "new" as far as what sort of life you can get out of these machines.I wouldn't wait to long before making your decision. These usually go pretty fast at those prices..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:SAW, is that only a Miller feature? That's great to know thanks for the tip!
Reply:so how many hours is too many for this price? how long should i expect a machine to last? when things start to fail are they repairable?