I used to be "true blue" all the way and even made the pilgrimage to the holyland (Appleton WI.) one year. I really love the old transformer machines for steel TIG work, specially the Miller 250. I used to drive one WOT for several hours a day in the 90's

When my work went primarily to aluminum I started demanding more from the machines and started noticing problems. Many failures on early solid state machines from both red and blue. My supplier brought a small Thermal Dynamics inverter. The DC arc is a little "fuzzy" looking to me compared to the Miller which was always superior to the Lincoln IMHO(though Lincoln RULES for DC stick) but I really don't find that offensive, just different. The TD machine has touchy controls that are very small and difficult to use but the handling and durability have been outstanding. The older unit is actually a bit easier to tune and I use a miller PC-300 pulse attachment with no issues.

So I love the the TD inverter and many years go by, an aerosol can gets damaged and blows vaporized MEK into the vent of the welder WHILE I am welding and the machine ignites. 20" from my head it's blowing flames everywhere. I put out the fire, clean the machine and it works fine. I have since purchased another, a more current "multi tap" machine that works on any type of power. The only weird thing is it has only tweco type connectors (twist off) rather than threaded lugs and the switch is on the back (harder to reach when it's shooting flames)

If you are in New England you are welcome to stop by and give mine a whirl.