It seems as though you are having a hard time making your mind up on a welding system. If your budget is beyond $1500.00, the sky is the limit. If its under that, your choices will slowly drop. As I said before, the Lincoln I own works fine for applications up to 3/8'', I just make all of the correct preperations, to ensure a solid weld. I also keep in mind what kind of stresses the "Subject" will be put through. Try and wipe "Single-Pass" out of your mind, a strong sound weld can be made easily with multiple passes, without the expence of a fcaw/gmaw that welds 1" steel. You can even make payments either thru your Financial entity, or in many cases you can get financed thru the Product Dealer. You can make small payments, on a setup that costs $2,000.00, and not feel the thump all at once. I assume there are many various welding equipment dealers within 50 miles of where you live. My advice is to take a day, and go and DEMO as many of them as you can. Demos are usally set aside in the rear of the store, and allow you to 'Try-Them-Out'. By doing this you will be able to easily make your mind up, and buy the welder that fits your application the best. HAPPY HUNTING!:)
This is a great torch. You can cut through aluminum, and steel. It is a very popular torch. If you are interested in Purchasing one please go to www.gasweldingstore.com This is a dealer of the Henrob 2000 (now called the DHC 2000). You can get everything you need there for the torch, plus the torch. Please check it out.