Hello John, we have 4 of the 181i 3in1's in our shop. I really like the arc and the inductance control for the GMAW portion of these machines, can't say that I am as impressed with the SMAW part though. They flat don't like cellulosic electrodes, E6011 or E6010, E7018 does run well on them, I have not had an opportunity to run the GTAW, yet, although I am not too worried about that so much as TA has always had a decent DC GTAW machine and I am pretty sure that these will perform similarly. It is my understanding that the 211i and the 252i machines have addressed the cellulosic rod issues and do perform well with those electrodes. Just my $.02 for what it's worth. Good luck John and enjoy whichever machine you end up getting. Best regards, Allan

I watched a guy weld an 8" flange on the roof of a building in Atlanta with one of those Maxstar 150's. It was midnight in June and me and the other guy with me went out on the roof and took a nap after the first hour of waiting. The maxstar was new to me back then and asked him why he did not use a 1/8" 7018. He said it won't hardly run a 1/8" and the duty cycle was awful. Think it took him two hours to weld that flange or longer. Can't say he was the best welder in the world so that probably had a bit to do with the long ciesta we had on the roof. It was nice though, how many people get to take a nap on the roof of a 24 story building in downtown Atlanta!

Don't know anything about the Thermal Arc but will keep watching this thread.