aluminium spool gun...burnback?

[smashweld]

Expense: For inverter welders the AC function takes a lot of electronics, so prices of half reasonable machines start at £1000.

that's from a guide page on here...I'm guessing the plasma/ac tig I saw for £800 new isn't up to much!

 

[Hood]

I paid £840 inc VAT for the Parweld.

How good/bad the one you saw is I don't really know, likely it is a generic Chinese machine which may or may not be bad. The Parweld is also Chinese but there should be decent quality control on their production and also has a 3 year no quibble guarantee.
Actually thought it had packed up today Turned out it was a load of Alu grinding stoor was shorting out the PCB terminals in the torch switch, that was a relief and will teach me to hang it over my shoulder when I am grinding Alu overhead

 

[smashweld]

ha, something similar happened to an oil filled radiator in the workshop earlier this week, i've blown the control/thermostat out with the airline and it hasn't tripped the breaker since anyway!