I took several welding class's at the local Votech back in the late 80's, and after I learned stick, the instructor put me in a booth with a tig and a stack of aluminum plates. When I got tired of that, I asked him about learning the Mig, and he told me to get my but back in the booth with the tig. I will always remember his next comment... "I can teach a monkey to run a mig but tig is where the money is at." I never did learn to run a mig correctly, though I have had one in my hand a couple of times. We had an aluminum push/pull machine that ran off single phase that we would take to jobsites when needed, (or to the house for a project) but in reality, most of my welding is done via stick. I do have a rather large (for a home shop) Miller AC/DC power source that also has high frequency for Tig, so welding 5/8" aluminum at the house is possible. (had some projects that I had to weld up using 5/8", so I know it will do it) Only thing I don't like about running tig that high is paying the electric bill, lol.
David from jax
(fixing to be 56)