So, I've been a Lincoln Electric guy my whole life.  I was taught on an AC/DC buzzbox unit by a friend's father who also happened to weld gas pipelines.  That was 15 years ago if it was a day (I've only been driving for 13 years).

So, at the ripe old age of 16, before I even had my first Jeep, I bought my first welder.  I learned the basics and the premise of stick, but without practice, it just wasn't something I'd be doing frequently (or well).  So, my first welder was a 110V Lincoln wire fed... the rough equivalent of the 140T.  Likely it came from Home Depot, it was good for sheet metal, and as I later found through spectacular failure, not much else without mulitple passes.  After said failure, I sold it and got the 220V equivalent (also from Home Depot).

Then I moved out to CA and had to leave my trusty welder in NJ.  My buddy Don had a 220V Lincoln so I was right at home, so to speak.  But, where I had indexed knobs, his was infinately adjustable, and where mine was flux cored, his was gas shielded.  I was in love (with the welder... not Don). 

Then I end up at a few shops welding on my junk and other's junk... with big 220V Lincolns... I got to demo the 215 and 255 for many a sleepless night over the course of a few months.  I was in heaven and loving the big machines.  No stopping to clear tips with out of position welds (as compared to the smaller boxes), big projects on one tank, and one spool of wire, and no run ins with duty cycle means a lot at 2am...

So, fast forward and I get my own place and decided I needed a big unit.  I raped every couch I saw and finally scored a Lincoln 255 with a "K" size tank and auto-dim helmet (which I still flip up and down before and after a weld).  I figured I had 3 Jeeps (MJ, XJ, and YJ) completely blown apart, a CJ-8 in the wings, a Jeepster on deck... I needed a machine I'd not have to fuss with.  Plus, I was spoiled from all that other welding.

Well, I managed to swing the big welder.  Single pass on 1/2 inch material?  Not a problem.  Weld together a complete plate steel cow-catcher front bumper?  No worries.

What have I done with it so far?  Sheet metal.  Patch an MJ floor, cut rust out of a YJ, and just yesterday weld together a muffler for the cat-back shootout (see the Magazine for which one took much pounding with a dead blow and then finally a cut-off wheel and a welder to make it "bolt in").

Yep, I've got this awesome welder, and all these huge plans for it, and  I'm stuck doing sheetmetal.