I've burned a few hundred lbs of wire in my two little machines. One is a Lincoln 175 on gas, the other a HF Century 150, 220v machine made in Italy (as I recall). It's loaded with flux core wire for use outside.
In my experience, it's a pain to do acceptible work with flux core wire on thin metal like newer car sheet metal. Now if you need to weld outside in the wind on less than perfect white metal, flux wire is your friend. Particulary if you can crank it up and let it run.
Also on the low end welders be sure and check duty cycle. It's no fun to work 5 minutes and wait 15.
Good Luck,
RonR
