Thermal Arc welders

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Dos anyone have any experiance with thermal arc welders?  the one im interested is a tig/stick unit thermal arc 161.  Im a hobby welder will this be a good welder for small projects?
Reply:Thermal arc makes excellent welders, I would say just as good as anything you can find in blue, red or yellow.  The 161 should be great, as long as you don't plan on welding aluminum, since it's DC only.  I have a similar machine, its the 400 amp version and probably about 10 years old or so.  Bought it from a guy in Texas, and cleaned like a cubic foot of sand out of it.  Still runs like new, so these must be durable machines.
Reply:i've had my thermal arc 185tsw ac/dc tig welder for a little over 5yrs it might be 6 yrs.. its a nice  quality machine...the drawback is, if you need to have to have repair work done to the machine you'll have to ship it back to thermaldyne for repair work, i dont think your lws will do repair work on it, that means downtime.... i've never had any problems with mine, but if i do the down time isnt too much of an issue with me as i'm not making a living with it.....  if i were depending on the machine for a living i would probably have to buy lincoln or miller.. after thinking about it i'll add this in.....  after owning mine for over 5 yrs, its proven itself to me as a high quality unit...enough i would probably  buy another one and i feel confident enough in the tig welder i have that i could depend on it to make a living with it..Last edited by brucer; 07-17-2011 at 10:08 PM.tackleexperts.comwww.necessityjigs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/mach...dingequipment/
Reply:Originally Posted by bruceri've had my thermal arc 185tsw ac/dc tig welder for a little over 5yrs it might be 6 yrs.. its a nice  quality machine........  if i were depending on the machine for a living i would probably have to buy lincoln or miller..
Reply:I've got a Thermal Arc 200 AC/DC TIG that I bought new about 2 1/2 years ago.  It's been a real work horse.  The build quality is excellent and cost was significantly lower than the Miller or Lincoln units of the same power.
Reply:X2.  Great units.  Best money I've spent on a welder.[QUOTE=eaw99517;534001]I've got a Thermal Arc 200 AC/DC TIG that I bought new about 2 1/2 years ago.  It's been a real work horse.  The build quality is excellent and cost was significantly lower than the Miller or Lincoln units of the same power.[/QUOTE]
Reply:From what I have seen/ read, Thermal Arc seem to be well made machines.     ESAB would be another brand to look at.  I would agree with Weldbead in that having a backup machine if you make your living with it is probably a good idea.   Look  at the sig's of some of the pro here you can see they can duplicate functions if one machine went down.Tiger Sales:  AHP Distributor    www.tigersalesco.comAHP200x; AHP 160ST; MM350P,  Spoolmatic 30A; Everlast PowerTig 185; Thermal Dynamics 60i plasma.  For Sale:  Cobra Mig 250 w/ Push-pull gun.  Lincoln Wirematic 250