Will these welders work?
 

Gentlemen,

Last year, I bought a Harborfreight welder with the 1 year extended warranty thing that lets you exchange up for something better for the price difference. The one I have now is strictly a 110V 90A flux core welder, so I haven't been confident with welding anything that will permanently go onto my car with it. Which is a damn shame, since I've wanted to start doing some serious welding to go with some ambitious projects I have planned for the future. So, I'd like to switch welders before the warranty is up.

It seems my options (within my current budget anyhow) are:
-240V 170A DC MIG/FCAW Welder
-240V 165A DC TIG/Stick Welder (and yes, I'm aware that both need additional equipment to be able to run the MIG or TIG functionality)

I'd like to learn and be able to weld aluminum, but what I'd use it for is escaping me at the moment. Maybe V-mount ducting? But that's a long time in the future.

Though, I know that I want to do the following for certain:
-Roll hoop/rear chassis bracing structure
-Triangulated front strut brace (as well as welding a reinforcing plate on the firewall)
-Sunroof delete
-Patching rust on the sheet metal of the body
-Chassis stitch welding
-Stainless steel exhaust piping (and flanges and such)
-Removing the spare tire cavity

Is it reasonable to expect the Chicago Electrics to handle the sort of projects I'm planning? Thoughts?

To weld aluminum properly you need tig machine set up to use AC frequency, you listed the tig as DC which can't do aluminum.

Getting an AC tig machine is a lot more money.

There are other ways to weld aluminum but they are usually more difficult or produce worse results than tig.

I got a lincoln mig welder with a spool gun to weld aluminum, and it's 110v. I think I might have paid around 600-800 for both. I also have the same harbor freight welder, I would use that to learn how to weld and then upgrade to a better welder

thermalarc 186ac/dc

Eastwood has some pretty affordable welders on sale now. Not sure how they perform but the reviews look decent.

You should be able to get a decent weld worthy of your car (on mild steel under 1/8" thick) with the flux core welder that you have, but probably not on super thin sheetmetal. When I had my old Hobart Handler 140 I used it for a lot of small things setup both as MIG and fluxcore. It was the lack of good (and thin) stainless and aluminum capabilities that pushed me to TIG.

First off, the tasks that you want to complete really scream TIG welder to me. Stainless steel MIG welding generally requires special welding gas (tri-max) and its hard to get good control with a MIG for welding thin sheetmetal (sunroof delete and rust repair). No idea of the quality of the HF TIG welder, but just remember it is DC only, so it won't do aluminum. Also for TIG you will need a torch, bottle of argon, regulator, etc.

If I were wanting a DC only TIG unit for doing stainless and thin sheetmetal, this is the one I would go with.

http://www.usaweld.com/ProductDetail...Code=70131DCHF

The Thermal Arc 186 is the machine that I have been using for the past 2 years and think it is pretty damn hard to beat for the money (I got mine from Cyberweld). The machine I would have got if I had the money (and my father-in-law did just that this winter) is the HTP Invertig 221. It costs a good deal more, but I think it is worth it.

I've been able to put down some pretty decent stainless welds with the 186 though.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7311/...15d86064_z.jpg

http://photos.motoiq.com/MotoIQ/Proj...DSC_0154-L.jpg

I'm still learning to do aluminum...my skill is getting better but definitely lacking experience.

http://photos.motoiq.com/MotoIQ/Proj...DSC_1061-L.jpg

For convenience and ease of use a MIG welder is great. But if you're looking for versatility, TIG is the way to go.

In the long run, getting the cheapest welder, like Chicago Electric, is a handicap. There are much better Chinese made welders that are not terribly expensive.

I'd suggest going to the weld.com forum and also to weldingtipsandtricks.com and checking out the instructional videos and equipment reviews. I'm sure they both have informative reviews on these types of welders.

As I recall the Chicago electric unit was short on some features that maybe aren't "necessary" but you'd want to have.

+1 here! Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's good. Conversely, one can also obtain an expensive piece of crap as well. I've heard nothing but great things about Thermal Arc welders, and I've had great results from my cheap $90 HF arc welder on basic steel. When I have the money to get a new welder, it'll probably be an AC Tig so I can finally do some aluminum fabbing.