Welding Tips and Tricks

Recently bought my first welding machine - MillerMatic 211DV MIG welder. I am a hobby/small ranch user. I decided I needed a welder after I got into my latest project - renovating a vintage Airstream travel trailer. The Airstream looked good from the outside, but as I started into the rehab, found significant frame rot. So a worthy project deserves a worthy tool - as I told the missus - and now I have the MIG welder to repair the steel frame. There's a lot of machines out there - spent a lot time on the Internet, forums, web sales pages, etc. Asked around to those I know experienced in metal crafting. Settled on a machine from a reputable US manufacturer, and decided to start with MIG welding, and chose the Miller 211 for its dual voltage capability, and the automatic features for us noobs. I set the wire size and material thickness, and it figures out the amps/volts/wire feed rate. Pretty slick! Now my appetite is whetted for the next metal tool(s): TIG welder for the aluminum repairs (could get a Spool gun to weld AL with the MIG), plasma cutter. Anyone care to recommend a good multi-purpose machine for plasma cutting and DC/AC TIG ? Any owners of an Everlast PowerPro 256 or others who know about these?

Hey Fastforward,
I have all Everlast equipment and have had good luck with them.
I did have the 256 combo but the only problem is with the 256 the duty cycle is cut in half because of adding the Plasma to the welder even though they are the same as the 250 amp TIG with a 60% duty cycle. I sold the 256 to a shop that needed one right away their other welder went down so I sold it then just got the 250EX.
And one other point that I like is all of the knobs really because I can just reach over make a 2 second adjustment and back welding.
Also I like the idea of haveing 2 seperate units because if one goes down they all go down, I used to sell the welders for them but kind of backed out because of personal problems. But I do like my 250EX and seperate plasma , also I am gettin the 200 amp Mig welder soon for different projects that mig would save me a lot of time over TIG..
Just my 2 cents..
Gary