Looks like I found more for my money than I expected because this week I should be getting home a used Kemppi Minarc 300 TIG for 200 less than my budgets limit. It's an older (1990s era) industrial model with 300A capacity, way more than I am likely to need, but it has HF start and lift-arc as well. I suppose it's good to have a machine that is overkill, it means I will likely never stress this machine or run it very hard.
Anyway it has the usual functions, such as HF/lift, slope functions and ability to take a separate pulse-module. Also comes with a separate hand held remote which I think is meant more for stick welding. But it also had this strange mode called a MiniLog. Basically what it does is that you set a welding current, then a "standby" current, and by pressing the torch trigger you switch betwee the two, hold the trigger down longer and it slopes out. So basically you can swap between two pre-set currents when welding.
Never heard of anything like that before and I don't suppose it is very common in US machines because it seems a pedal will do what you need anyway. Pedals are more rare in europe though, I guess perhaps this could have some application when you are welding in positions where a pedal would not be suitable. It's all totally academic to me, I need to be padding beads for a while instead. But I thought I should share.
