That's right, the welding machine does not make the weldor.
Teach people to weld aluminum on balanced AC welding with pure tungsten and full time HF, you would see nicer welds than what we see with many of these machines that give too many choices.
One thing you notice these days with these new machines, is people playing with the settings a lot, with conditions that do not exist with the older tech. Settings designed to address things that are not present with most every day aluminum alloys. I use pure tungsten in a Miller Dynasty but I have it set to emulate straight AC and you cannot tell the difference in the welds.
After using an inverter machine for a number of years now, the only benefit to me welding aluminum is that it's more portable and makes more efficient use of electricity. Outside of that, the other settings just sit there inside the machine. My welds cannot get any better, faster, or cost effective outside what I am doing, welding anodized, cast and other typical alloys. In some ways, I even have to do more work to adapt the new tech for every day work. Including, extra inventory of consumables, a tungsten sharpening operation added in, where I wasn't even having to use a copper plate to ball my pure before, along with the loss of the lasting flashlight of the balled tungsten after you let off the puddle.
We've been thru it. We had a new guy weld with us for a couple years that praised all the benefits of the new tech ( this is how we ended up with the Dynasty) and he was always messing with the settings for every different op. One preset for overhead, one for anodized, one for mill finish and when you went to use the machine, he would say, don't change #2 or #3, I have those set for something. Mine, all you had to do is move the amperage setting, sometimes.
Funnier yet is when you hear other weldors claim that "my" machine is the best one in the shop, as if it has been blessed by some freak stroke of good luck where all the stars must have been aligned at the factory the day it was born. Truth is, it was the bastard machine that the new guy got stuck with. All I did was clean/adjust the HF points and adjust the AC balance. What makes my machine so good is, you can't mess it up. It predictably welds aluminum each and every time, regardless of the alloy, the position, or how you hold your mouth. It also does a really nice job of typical Stainless as well.
Miller ABP 330, Syncrowave 250, Dynasty 300 DX.
Honorary member of the Fraternity of Faded Tee Shirts.
How silly but a easy mistake that could have turned me off tig welding all together.
). I think it's more annoying not to get feedback when it's in person. On the internet, there's so many places to ask for help and sometimes I think people get more help than they can handle - so I can understand the occasional lack of feedback a bit easier in that case.