Hey guys, I've been using a crappy flux core welder just to tack things together, and then having another guy tig and mig all my stuff. Its really beginning to be a pain in the ****, let alone the money spent. I figure I could have bought my own welder by now. So anyways, I'm looking into buying two machines for both mig/tig, and want to know what you guys think about the units, and if theres a better choice in the price range.

I'm looking at getting a Thermal Arc 185 for tig welding my manifolds (both my turbo manifolds and my g/f's headers) , intercooler piping, and some small chassis work. I won't be doing this for anyone else, so its just a hobby of sorts for me. It looks like lots of people have bought this machine and been very happy with it, as well as it looks like it has the capacity to do what I need. Only thing I wonder is if you guys think it would be suitable to build a roll cage with down the road.

And as for the mig I was looking at the Lincoln Pro Mig 180. I don't really do alot of mig work for my stuff, but I need something better then the fluxcore I have now, and I thought this might be a decent machine to get the job done. Like I said I won't be using this alot, and not on anything over 1/8 think plate, so if you guys have a better, less costly solution, please chime in.

As for my welding skills, I have used both tig and mig welders, and can lay decent beads, with penatration, althought I haven't tried aluminum yet. I figure I'll just get alot of scrap from work and play with it till I get comfortable with it.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer, even though I'm out of the honda game these days, I always come back to this board, as your guys always seem to have helpful information to everyones questions.