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Hi Delbert, If I had a great welder like that old Forney you've got, the only reason I'd be looking at buying another stick welder would be to get some capability the Forney doesn't have. Inverter welders are much smaller and lighter, and sometimes run on either 120 or 240 voltage. If the Forney is AC only, you might want to look for a welder with DC as well. One of the stick welders I have is a Hobart 235/160 AC/DC Stickmate. When my only stick welder was a Lincoln 225 AC buzz box, I thought I had to have the DC option. Now that I have both, I'm pretty sure I could get by with AC only (you always think you need what you don't have.) I like the fact that the duty cycle of the Hobart increases as you lower the amps. At 70% duty cycle (which I feel is about what you need to stick weld all you want, unless you never have to stop to chip slag) you can weld at 120 amps AC or 80 DC. Lincoln advertises a duty cycle of only 20% at all settings. Of course, it's common knowledge that you can safely ignore the duty cycle with the Lincoln---but still... Hobart has infinite amp adjustment; you turn a crank to dial in the exact setting you want. Lincoln has fixed settings; if you think 115 amps AC is too low and 130 amps is too high for what you're working on---too bad. No settings in between. It turns out to be pretty much of a non-problem though, as far as I'm concerned. If you really can't convince yourself that there's something important you'll be missing if you just keep on using your Forney, how about putting some money into accessories that will make it more versatile. 100' of 2/0 leads divided into 20', 30', and 50' lengths with quick connectors will give you a lot of range without having to move the welder. That kind of thing. All the best, Stan
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