Ended up picking this up yesterday as a little late christmas gift.
The Machine
Lincoln Electric 175 weld pack 230v
Got it for 350$ on craigslist. not a scratch on the machine in fact its never even been used, the plastic was still on it when I got it
Bunch of messing around
Back side
These were the first 2 welds I made with the shielding gas and solid wire. I was pretty happy with them seeing as I've never touched a welder in my life.
I know this looks like buger snot but I'm proud of it because I tried to weld 2 tubes together last night with flux core and unless they were literally touching I couldent build up and material to make up the gap between the 2 tubes where they dont fit perfectly. There was actually a 1/4" gap between the material at this point and I actually was able to move the puddle around and do a zig zag/ upside down u motion to build up material between the tubes and bridge the gap. Not the prettiest but remember I was welding over the crappy flux snot bubbles from last night. This made me very happy. I could actually use a weld like this for exhaust work.Although its a bit ugly.
The 10/3 extension cord I made running from the dyrer room. Looks great
THe solid core wire is a shit load nicer no smoke and less spatter but as you can see still a bit.
EDIT: Started welding fluxcore first, and then when I switched to solidcore and sheilding gas I forgot to change the polarity which is why I was still getting spatter and not the penetration I wanted. Now that its correct and I've gotten closer to the material the welds have more penetration and are flatter/wider. Much much better welds to come. I think I'm starting to figure it out a bit.