Names Tom, and Im a retired tradesman looking to get into welding as a sideline. Its my intention to wet my feet by starting out with MIG, but would like to keep my options open to eventually get to doing some mobile stick, to service heavy equipment repairs for local farmers. It goes without saying that I wouldn't dream of selling my services until such time that I could be at the very least competent, and do safe welds. The ultimate goal of all this would be able to do some hobbyist TIG for the purpose of building my own motorcycle drag race chassis, and components. The question I have for this forum is that I would very much like to buy once and cry once, by purchasing and growing into a multi process machine like the MTS 225 or the MTS 275. Would such a machine be suggested for my intended purposes, or would I be buying into a "jack of all trades, master of none" scenario? Or should I start with process specific machines? Ive also learned that should I purchase the MTS 275, that a water cooler would be required to run the included water cooled TIG torch. In an effort to ease into the cost of all of this, could I, when the time comes, purchase an air cooled TIG torch and just run that at lower power levels, without burning stuff up?