can any one offer advice about which welder to go for around the 200£ price

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270024699184&fromMakeTrack=true

above TIG on ebay - any good???

look forward to any replies

Scratch start is to be avoided, you damage the tungstun before you start !

Lift start is okay though, the holy grail is HF so follow CaLviNx.

NB price is not always a good sign of quality, my mate paid 1000 + for a butters and it keeps going wrong...

Regards Mark

Butters, Fimer and Mitech all look like they are made in the same factory in China and are sold for various prices under different pretexts. Shop river ebay seller sells them direct from China for about £500inc when he is on there but the duty might be a killer for the deal.

I agree with peteff but there are one or 2 slight subtle differences between the appearance of the mitec and butters in terms of the front panel LED display, don't know about the fimer.

I was eyeing up the Mitec one off shop river as his prices are good and i even contacted about 5 uk buyers who had bought the model i fancy, as i recall only one had been stung for duty the others took a chance and got away with it.

Now perhaps someone can advise me, I contacted shop river and asked how much to deliver to Hong Kong (I'm stopping over for a couple of nights on route to and from Australia at chistmas) and he said £78. My thinking is that if i open the box and dirty it a little it's classed as second hand and exempt from duty (so i've been told) the question is, "is this complete Bollox ?" If so, are there any dodges to avoid duty if carrying it in personally?

Also as an aside shop river list a mitac machine that does AC/DC Tig and plasma cutting in one machine, any good?